City Manager Jim Jakel and Councilman Brian Kalinowski discuss the budget crisis.

By Dave Roberts

There will be more fiscal bloodletting at Antioch City Hall in the coming months, including the likelihood of cutting police officers for the first time, to deal with a $3.6 million deficit. City officials are feeling an urgency to plug the budget hole in the wake of the 52-48 defeat of Measure P, the half-cent sales tax hike that was projected to bring in an extra $4 million per year.

“We really need to move on this thing sooner rather than later,” City Manager Jim Jakel told the City Council Tuesday night. “The burn rate right now is $300,000 a month. So we are spending $300,000 a month more than we have got. It will cost people their jobs literally if we don’t make changes. Ultimately, that may be the changes that are made. The way I look at it, $300,000 a month is $10,000 a day. I can do it by hour if you’d like. That’s what keeps me up at night now. We need to move post-haste.”

A special council meeting will be held at City Hall on Tuesday, Nov. 30 to deal with the deficit in a city budget that has already reduced spending by $13 million in recent years. Overall city staff has been cut 31 percent from 400 employees in 2007 to the current 275 – the staff funded through the General Fund has decreased 47.5 percent.

(more…)