More Layoffs Ahead as San Francisco’s Budget Woes Persist

Maria-Elena Healy knew layoffs could be coming, but the vague warnings and whispers she had heard leading up to Monday didn’t prepare her for the shock that morning when she and three other nurses at Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center found out they were losing their jobs.

“It was hard to hear. It just felt like we had leadership who were not transparent and didn’t value the expertise of clinicians that actually work at the bedside,” said Healy, a registered nurse who grew up in San Francisco and has worked at Laguna Honda for 10 years. “Staff members are reaching out to us across all disciplines, saying, ‘What’s going to happen to your work?’ It just doesn’t make sense.”

The ax is expected to fall on hundreds of city workers like Healy as San Francisco looks to narrow its $643 million budget deficit over the next two years.

This week, Mayor Daniel Lurie’s administration sent 127 layoff notices to city employees across 18 different departments, part of a total of around 500 positions that the mayor intends to cut. Additional layoffs are expected to be announced later this spring, and the mayor has said he also intends to freeze about 2,000 open positions.

“We have a choice: take action now or be forced to do twice as much in the coming years,” Lurie said in a statement. “The steps we’re taking today are a painful but necessary continuation of the work we’ve been doing since last year to manage taxpayer dollars responsibly and deliver the best possible services for San Franciscans.”

Departments impacted by the 127 layoffs so far include the Department of Public Health, the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, the City Administrator’s Office, the Human Services Agency and the Police Department. A spokesperson for Lurie’s office did not specify which departments have seen the most layoffs so far.

The layoffs were expected even as the city’s projected budget deficit improved from $936 million to $643 million in a recent City Controller’s report. President Donald Trump’s federal spending cuts have drastically deepened the city’s budget shortfall, and in December, Lurie directed departments to find ways to cut a total of $400 million ahead of his budget proposal coming next month.

But city workers and advocates for the services they provide say the city is ignoring alternatives that could save jobs and minimize impacts to residents.

“The city has funds. They just need to dip into their reserves,” Healy said. “There’s no reason to diminish the care that we provide to the residents of San Francisco. This is a safety net hospital.”

She and others are also calling for the passage of Proposition D, the Overpaid CEO Act, which would levy taxes on large corporations where the chief executive earns more than 100 times their median employee.

“In one of the richest cities in the world, cuts like this are a choice, not a necessity,” Mark Leach, Teamsters 856 representative and San Francisco resident, said in a statement. “Large corporations are cashing in on Trump’s tax breaks, but we can make them pay their fair share in San Francisco by passing Prop D in June.”

Supporters of the proposition say it could generate up to $300 million in funding to backfill money the city has lost in economic fallout surrounding the pandemic and since cuts by the Trump Administration.

Lurie’s goal to shave off $400 million in annual spending includes about $100 million from personnel savings, which his administration has estimated will translate to about 500 positions eliminated.

Some workers who received pink slips this week got a 30-day notice, and others may have 60 days, depending on their position and tenure. Some civil service employees whose jobs are being eliminated will be able to request a different position.

Healy said she received a 60-day notice for her termination, but any details on her employment options with the city have been opaque.

“They actually could not answer some of the questions that we had,” Healy said. “It’s very difficult to make decisions about our lives and our livelihoods when the city failed to even give us the information that we needed to make those decisions.”

Healy said she and her three colleagues, who were also laid off, are clinical nurse specialists with expertise in certain areas, like cardiovascular health and diabetes care.

She’s seen Laguna Honda, one of the country’s oldest and largest public skilled nursing homes, weather a storm of regulatory challenges in recent years, including when state and federal regulators pulled its Medicaid and Medicare certification and nearly shut the hospital down several years ago amid a series of safety violations. The facility has since made safety improvements and regained certification.

“Part of our role as clinical nurse specialists has actually been to help support the facility through being recertified. We are trained to look at system issues and develop programs to support the needs of patients,” Healy said. “It just felt like the organization doesn’t understand how we helped use our skills to bring us back to certification.”

San Francisco has about 30,000 employees overall and a nearly $16 billion budget.

The cuts this year come after the city managed to stave off many of the layoffs proposed during last year’s budget cycle. Last cycle, Lurie sought to eliminate 100 filled positions, but after negotiations with city leaders, unions and stakeholders, 40 jobs were cut. The final plan cut about 1,400 mostly vacant positions.

“My job as mayor is to set up our city for success, not just today but for years to come,” Lurie said in response to the recent controller’s report, which projected a lower budget deficit overall. “We will deliver a fiscally sound budget that prioritizes core services, delivers results for San Franciscans and ensures a broad and durable economic recovery.”

Lurie must present his upcoming budget proposal by June 1.