Public sector hit by job cuts

<p>Ed Buonaccorsi's contributions to the City of Santa Rosa were never in question.</p><p>The city's former general services administrator was always knee-deep in his work as liaison to community groups and neighborhood organizations, regularly putting in 60-plus hour weeks, said his former boss Marc Richardson, director of Recreation, Parks and Community Services.</p><p>But when the choice last month came down to keeping his position or closing pools or the senior center, even Buonaccorsi, 58, said it was hard to argue against letting him go.</p><p>“Now one wants to be at this end of a cut,” he said. “But I understand it. Government has to make business decisions now.”</p><p>It's not a scenario a well-regarded public worker would have envisioned just a few years ago. But such layoffs are part of the the sizable and ongoing reduction to Sonoma County's public workforce, which has lost 3,800 jobs in just three years.</p><p>Government employment, including education, was whittled down by 16 percent, from 24,100 in 2007 to 20,300 in 2010, according to the state's most recent annual figures. The number of private jobs dropped 11 percent in the same period.</p><p>While more recent data hints at a rebound for the private sector in Sonoma County, government jobs have continued to sputter.</p><p>The number of private jobs increased 2percent in May from the same month in 2010, but public jobs in Sonoma County fell 3 percent, and may still fall further as data from the summer months gets computed.</p><p>Santa Rosa Junior College scrapped its older-adult program, laying off numerous part-time instructors this summer. Last week, the Petaluma City Council approved laying off five employees. And after threatening as many as 63 layoffs, Sonoma County let 20 employees go this month.</p><p>The change mirrors a national trend of government employment lagging the private sector. In June, the private sector added 57,000 jobs across the country, while 39,000 jobs were lost in the public sector.</p><p>The cuts may not elicit much sympathy from people frustrated with the benefits enjoyed by many public workers, including pensions that dwarf the 401(k)s that many private workers receive.</p><p>But pain to the public sector translates to pain in the private sector, said Eduardo Martinez, senior economist at Moody's Economy.com, who tracks local business trends.</p><p>Salaries paid to teachers, sheriff's deputies and road workers get turned back into the local economy. As that stream slows, businesses feel the effect, he said.</p><p>Sonoma County was even more exposed than most because public jobs made up a larger than normal proportion of the county's economy. In 2009, government jobs made up roughly 13.5 percent of total employment in the county, a number that is now down to roughly 12 percent, on par with the rest of the state, Martinez said.</p><p>Such reductions have ripple effects. A recent study by the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan think tank, of the 100 largest metro areas in the country, found that the local economies that suffered least in the recession had increases in government employment. The ones that suffered the most lost the most government jobs. </p><p>“When teachers and police get laid off, fewer people get haircuts, fewer people eat at restaurants, fewer people buy gasoline, fewer people buy groceries,” said Howard Wial, a Brookings' fellow and co-author of the report. He said staff cuts are often counterproductive in a recovery.</p><p>But others see the public belt-tightening as a necessary part of the process. Companies and businesses got hit first, making their cuts immediately. Public employers felt the hit later, as tax revenues dropped, and are still responding.</p><p>“It's part of the wave,” said Ben Stone, executive director of the Sonoma County Economic Development Board. “The private economy has adjusted and now the public sector is going through that as well.”</p><p>Martinez said California's local governments may still suffer if the state revises its budget this year, taking back money available to local agencies.</p><p>Otherwise he said local governments will recover as businesses do.</p><p>In that regard, Sonoma County's fortunes may be turning. Moody's recently forecast Sonoma County will add 3,000 jobs this year, with similar growth in 2012 and 2013.</p><p>Accordingly, local government officials suggest that the worst may be behind them. Sonoma County government, for example, laid off 20 people in June, bringing its payroll to approximately 3,800 positions, down from 4,280 in 2008.</p><p>But a county spokesman said county leaders don't expect further reductions.</p><p>Buonaccorsi, for one, may benefit from some signs of life in public hiring. He interviewed last week for a new position with the Santa Rosa Fire Department as an emergency preparedness coordinator, a position that once reported to him.</p><p>Getting laid off, he said, is hard for someone used to constant activity. His wife put off retirement because of his layoff, but he wants to put his off for many years to come.</p><p>But even off the payroll, Buonaccorsi continues to work on city projects like the 2011 Youth Summit, which aims to get young people involved in the community. He's too invested to just let it go, he said.</p><p>Later this week, he's headed to the Midwest for the “Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa,” a bicycle ride across the state that attracts tens of thousands of riders — an idea he thinks Santa Rosa could help bring to California. </p><p>A lifelong Sonoma County resident, he's confident something will come through. </p><p>“Everything happens for a reason,” he said. “Anything dramatic that has happened in my life, it has improved it after I looked back.”</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Sam Scott at 521-5431 or at sam.scott@pressdemocrat.com.</p>