Vallejo to cut 54 staff positions to balance $337M spending plan

VALLEJO – Vallejo’s City Council approved a plan to cut 10 jobs and 44 vacant employee positions, including 30 in the Vallejo Police Department, to help balance the coming year’s budget.

The City Council voted 6-1 Tuesday with Mayor Andrea Sorce opposed to approve the city’s $337.5 million spending budget for 2026-27. 

City staff said the position reductions and other adjustments increased the city’s total revenue by $10.2 million. Assistant City Manager Nalungo Conley said they were able to balance the budget by relying more heavily on funds from Measure P, a seven-eighth-cent sales tax passed by voters in 2022.

General fund expenditures from Measure P will be $11.4 million for 2026-27. The Measure P fund will have a remaining balance of $7.25 million on July 1, but Conley estimated that with tax revenue and expenditures it should reach $14.2 million by June 30, 2027. 

The council on June 9 had asked staff to find an additional 10 filled positions to cut by mid-fiscal year, on top of the 44 vacant positions, to save about $4.8 million. The city did add one job, a position for the Police Oversight and Accountability Commission. 

The most vacant positions being cut are in the police department, with a captain, seven police corporals, 21 officers, including 15 unbudgeted sworn positions. The cuts also included several positions in the City Manager’s Office, public works and finance departments. 

The police department has struggled to recruit and retain officers in recent years, and has been operating with a staff of approximately 80 sworn positions, well below the 114 budgeted in the current fiscal year.

Other changes included removing the recommended $302,500 to fund license plate readers provided by Flock Safety for further discussion.

A contract with the Solano County Sheriff’s Office for additional policing services had lower than anticipated staffing levels, leading to savings of about $3.6 million. Of that, $1.9 million will go back to the general fund and the rest will return to the Measure P fund.

The council added $500,000 for participatory budgeting, which has a list of projects waiting, and $350,000 for adding an asset manager and broker under the Measure P fund. 

Councilmember Tonia Lediju questioned the additional spending on participatory budgeting as it brought the current fund to $1 million. But Councilmember Peter Bregenzer said the money could be used for multiple projects that have been waiting for funding, and any unused funds will go back to the Measure P fund.

In public comment, Visit Vallejo CEO Kirk Smith said that local lodging businesses are concerned about the end of the contract with the Sheriff’s Office and opposed the new budget’s elimination of multiple sworn officer positions. 

Smith said concerns about public safety have led to cancellations of stays at local hotels by large companies. For example, he said a group of spectators at the Sonoma Raceway moved a 10-day stay from Vallejo to Petaluma. That meant the local hotel lost 194 room nights and $21,000 in revenue and the city missed out on transient occupancy tax revenue, he said.

“Public safety is economic development,” Smith said. “Visitors do not invest, and families do not come to communities where they do not feel safe. It would be unfortunate to take one step forward and then three steps back. We need to continue the continuity of where we’re heading in generating consumer confidence in Vallejo.”

The council also voted unanimously with Councilmember Alexander Matias absent to approve a five-year capital improvement plan through 2031 for street improvements and other public works projects.

Newly-hired Public Works Director Leonard Job said the plan includes a total of 55 public works projects. Job said he hopes the city can be seen as having “most improved” street conditions by next year, given how poor its road conditions have been for years. He pointed to improvements still underway such as a $6.6 million Hiddenbrooke Overpass improvement project, and other work on Sonoma Boulevard.

Job said the city is looking to spend about $13.5 million on street repairs in 2026-27, including $4.8 million in gas tax funds and about $1 million in Measure P funds. Staff must spend $100,000 on ADA transition plan improvements in order to be able to compete for federal funding, he said, and needs $900,000 from the capital outlay fund to make repairs to various public buildings, including the fire station.

Councilmember Helen-Marie Gordon said she was “very upset” to see few improvement projects proposed in her South Vallejo district besides improvements to Springs Road. 

Councilmember Diosdado Matulac said North and South Vallejo are known for being the least-resourced and most in need of improvements, which the city needs to be aware of when it prioritizes which projects are tackled first. He suggested improving lighting in areas with known gaps such as in the Country Club Crest neighborhood and by Kings Market on Fairgrounds Drive. 

“I hope equity comes in this question in identifying specifically the most disadvantaged areas,” Matulac said. 

Lediju said the plan shows how much maintenance is becoming deferred, saying the city needs to think about how to properly finance all of the work that must be done. 

“We need a bond for the money to do that work,” Lediju said. “It is not just about District 6, it is about the entire city of Vallejo. We have the worst streets and we know it. But the question is, can we take a portion of our Measure P dollars and bond it ... to move our streets along?”

The city has been exploring bonds for both street repairs and a new police headquarters, but is unlikely to be able to finance both.