At the Jan. 15 meeting, Mayor Ron Gonzalez said the current fiscal crisis "is the deepest recession the city has seen."

He added that although the market economy is improving gradually, local government will not see an upturn for another 12 to 18 months.

"We've run to the end of our rope cashing in [staff] vacancies and selling property," City Manager Del Borgsdorf said.

With the San Jose city budget down to the bone, the city manager's budget office director Larry Lisenbee outlined seven areas of proposed cuts.

These areas include a 10 percent cut in public safety, police and fire services. It would also require a 20.4 percent cut in areas such as neighborhood development, environmental and utility services, recreation, transportation and council appointees. Public safety makes up 34 percent of the city's $940 million operating budget, according to city staff reports. And the proposed 10 percent cut would reduce the police and fire department budgets by $35 million for the 2004­05 year.

Newly appointed San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis said the department's core services are responding to 911 calls and apprehending violent criminals. To meet the 10 percent cut, administrative positions, crime prevention, investigation in fraud, and special patrols like gang units would be significantly pared down. A 10 percent cut would also mean the elimination of 100 civilian and 200 police-officer positions.

He added that if the city decided to only cut 5 percent of public safety services, the police department would still lose 60 police officers and 100 civilians.

San Jose Fire Department Acting Chief Dale Foster said previous budget cuts had already whittled away administrative support, firefighter training and community programs. He said to meet the budget target, the fire department would lose six companies, totaling 87 personnel. He did not say where the stations would close or whether it would be on a rotating basis. He added that with a reduction of six engine companies, 18 percent of the calls would have their response time increased by one minute.

If public safety was not reduced by 10 percent, Lisenbee said all the other departments would require a 36 percent cut.

The combined revenue of sales tax, property tax and utility tax does not even cover the total public safety budget, Lisenbee added.

He suggested the council consider 911, emergency medical and false alarm fees like Santa Cruz and San Francisco, which would add $30 million to the city's annual revenue.

Director of Recreation and Cultural Services Jane Light said a 10 percent cut or $19 million would mean that 1,300 librarian and parks-services-employee positions would be eliminated. Regional parks would be closed on certain low-use days, libraries would be open fewer hours, the bookmobile would go out of commission, park restrooms would be locked and graffiti would be repainted two to three days later.

District 6 Councilman Ken Yeager suggested rather than make such drastic cuts, the council could look at adding new city fees for various services.

But District 8 Councilman David Cortese and District 5 Councilwoman Nora Campos disagreed with Yeager's suggestion and said that citizens are already paying for many city services through taxes.

Part of local government's difficulties come from the state taking money from cities, Lisenbee said. Since 1990, the state government has appropriated $270 million of San Jose's revenue for the state budget.

Gonzalez expressed concerns that if Gov. Schwarzenegger's $15 billion bond initiative does not pass in the March election, the state would dip deeper into cities' pockets.