Atlanta to cut 222 jobs, close 22 rec centers

The city of Atlanta will cut another 222 filled positions and permanently close about two-thirds of its recreation centers to weather an expected revenue shortfall of at least $50 million, Mayor Shirley Franklin announced Tuesday.

Although the mayor said city spending is down by 2 percent since July 1, revenues are down nearly 13 percent. Franklin blamed the drop in revenue on the deepening economic slump.

The mayor said the latest cuts will begin during the middle of this month. None of the job cuts will affect police and fire departments.

“We are now cutting into what we believe is the bone,” Franklin told reporters.

This month’s layoffs will be the third round of job cuts this year.

Nearly half of this round of job cuts will be in the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs department, city officials said. The city will keep 11 centers open.

About a dozen centers slated for shutdown are already closed for renovations or other reasons. Among currently open centers being closed under the new announcement are the Central, Dunbar, English Park, City of Refuge, Lang Carson, Oakland and Thomasville rec centers.

The rec centers will still be available for special events, the city said. The city will reevaluate their status before adopting the next budget in June 2009.

The department’s commissioner, Dianne Harnell Cohen, left the mayor’s news conference to talk to her staff about the cuts and how they’ll affect services.

“It is a very, very sad day for us,” Cohen said.

In a later phone interview, she said recreation officials looked at “geographic equity” in deciding which centers to close. No part of the Atlanta, she said, would be left without a recreation center.

Officials didn’t want to close any centers, she said, “but we have no control over what the national economy is.”

In other cost-cutting measures, the mayor said the city will reduce recycling pickups from once a week to once every other week. Franklin will also cut one-fifth of the city’s permitting staff, citing a decline in permitting activity.

City Hall and City Hall East, the current police and fire department headquarters, will be closed to the public on Fridays, starting Dec. 12. Residents who want to pay their water bills at City Hall will still be able to do so.

Tuesday’s cuts, to take effect over the next month, will save the city nearly $14 million, according to documents from Franklin’s staff. The mayor plans to cover the rest of the expected shortfall by cutting the weekly hours and pay of most city workers by 10 percent and taking $12 million from the city’s reserves. Those moves were announced previously. The furloughs will begin later this month for most city agencies.

The mayor reiterated her request for revenue-sharing with the state, which she said could bring the city at least $70 million a year. She noted it’s done in other states, such as Massachusetts.

Franklin and the City Council last month gave state lawmakers a list of legislation the city believes will generate about $12 million a year for Atlanta if approved by the state.

Here is a breakdown of the city’s latest planned cutbacks, by department and amount: