Citing a $25 million budget shortfall and stung by the ongoing effects of the coronavirus, Dallas will furlough 472 city employees starting May 13 until the end of July, according to a letter City Manager T.C. Broadnax sent Friday.
The Park and Recreation and library departments took the biggest hits, but the city’s Office of Arts and Culture also will lose more than half its workforce. The city hopes to save $4 million with the furloughs.
The cuts come about eight weeks after the city closed recreation centers, libraries and cultural facilities on March 14 because of the pandemic.
“As I shared with you last week,” Broadnax wrote, “since the declaration of our state of emergency and shelter-in-place #SaferAtHome orders in March, we have worked as hard as possible to minimize the impact on our residents and colleagues.”
And yet, he added, “Today, I had to make a very difficult but necessary decision. ... Approximately 500 of our colleagues will be furloughed from May 13 through July 31, 2020.”
The number cut from the city’s Park and Recreation Department totaled 235 out of about 900 budgeted full-time employees, and 187 out of roughly 400 library employees. Those furloughs alone were 422 of the 472.
John Jenkins, director of Park and Recreation, and Jo Giudice, director of the Dallas Public Library, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Friday.
Council member Tennell Atkins, who represents part of southern Dallas, said he was especially concerned about the cuts to Park and Recreation and libraries, as southern Dallas residents heavily rely on those services during the coronavirus crisis. That includes use of free internet or computers at the libraries and child care services provided by Park and Recreation.
"Especially south of I-30, we need our rec centers. We need our libraries,” Atkins said. “It’s a part of everyday life.”
Employees affected by the furloughs can seek unemployment compensation through the Texas Workforce Commission but will continue to receive the same level of medical insurance coverage. The city employs about 13,000 people.
The City Council was briefed Wednesday on the $25 million budget shortfall anticipated in the current fiscal year. In his letter, Broadnax said that was expected to balloon to “between $73 million and $134 million in the upcoming fiscal year.” He also addressed the possibility of furloughs morphing into layoffs, should economic conditions worsen.
Friday’s decision reverberated throughout the city, with nine departments being affected.
Another department hit hard was the Office of Arts and Culture, which had 33 employees furloughed from a workforce that numbers barely more than 60. Employees who worked for various cultural centers, as well as Moody Performance Hall and the Majestic Theatre, were among those furloughed.
“This furloughs people who have been not working while on paid mandatory leave with full benefits, since March 25, and also those people that are in part-time, temporary or intern positions not performing essential functions,” said Catherine Cuellar, a city spokeswoman. “It does not impact essential positions or core services.”
City employees considered nonessential were sent home with paid leave in late March. Some nonessential employees had been moved to other departments.
Cuellar called the decision “difficult but necessary to absorb the estimated $25 million budget shortfall in the current fiscal year.”
Mayor Eric Johnson followed up the city manager’s letter by issuing his own statement on Friday afternoon, citing budget shortfalls that he said, bluntly, were “caused by COVID-19.”
“Although I knew such measures were likely, my heart continues to break at the news of more economic pain for people in our city,” the mayor said in a statement. “Further difficulties may still be ahead as we face historic budget shortfalls caused by COVID-19.”
Council member Jaime Resendez, who represents southeast Dallas, said residents in some areas could see a greater impact from the city’s budget cuts. He said he prays that “jobs will be restored soon.”
“It seems like certain communities in Dallas, particularly in the south, are taking the brunt,” Resendez said. “It’s just something to keep an eye out, make sure that we are handling things in an equitable manner and still addressing the needs of those that are the most vulnerable.”
Council member Cara Mendelsohn, who is the vice chair for the Government Performance and Financial Management Committee, said many of the employees from the Park and Recreation Department were after-school program staff.
“My heart sank with the news of the furlough and the lives it will affect,” Mendelsohn said in a written statement Friday. “I urge residents to share ideas on where to cut so we can close the gap in the budget. The next fiscal year will be even more challenging.”
Council member Chad West, who represents north Oak Cliff, said the city manager will have to make difficult decisions to ensure that Dallas can sustain its core services.
“I think every department in some ways could be considered essential,” West said. “We’ve got to be responsible, even more so because we have fiduciary duties to the taxpayer.”
Council member Jennifer Staubach Gates, who heads the Government Performance and Financial Management Committee, said she doesn’t know whether the furloughs will be enough to soften the blow of the pandemic on the city. Gates said the budget could continue to suffer if residents are still afraid to frequent businesses, even if the state allows them to reopen.
“It’s so challenging to be able to predict all of the impact and the ripple effects,” Gates said. “We’re going to have to look at the impact a little bit longer over time and also continue to monitor the prevalence of this virus in our city.”
Council member Omar Narvaez, who represents West Dallas, said in a statement Friday that these hard decisions must be made for the city to continue to deliver essential services.
“We are committed to assisting these hard-working folks through this difficult time,” Narvaez said.
Lily Cabatu Weiss, executive director of the Dallas Arts District, which oversees 12 performing arts organizations, reacted with shock and sadness Friday to the latest chapter in an ongoing story whose end point is nowhere in sight.
“My emotional reaction is that my logical mind understands why the cuts are necessary,” Weiss said. “But my heart is saddened because the furloughs affect people who have been a big part of our neighborhood and our arts family.
"And what it also means is that the workload is now going to be spread among a skeletal crew. My gut feeling is that we all need to be more patient, and we need to offer to help when needed.”
Weiss echoed the mayor’s comments in noting that the ongoing effects of COVID-19 have dramatically reduced arts-related revenue.
“And it is," she said, "revenue from all aspects. I know for certain that the cultural institutions in our neighborhood alone were — pre-COVID — an economic engine for Dallas.”
Five years ago, Weiss said, the economic impact of the arts organizations in the Arts District alone “was nearly $400 million. And we had tripled the figure from five years before that. So, if you estimated only a moderate increase, we would have been over $1 billion — pre-COVID.”
Now, she said, 10 of the 12 Arts District companies have lost a collective $20 million, a figure she expects to rise soon, once new figures are calculated.
Broadnax said in his letter that the city is doing “all we can to safely reopen in due time and establish new norms. Next week, we will roll out our Return to Work Plan.”
