Because salaries for city workers are the biggest item in Evanston’s budget, staff cuts are necessary to pare down the city’s projected $3.5 million deficit, according to City Manager Roger Crum.

Crum said his proposed budget tries to cut staff as painlessly as possible by eliminating vacant positions or allowing attrition to take its toll by not replacing workers who leave.

While his proposal would eliminate 22 full-time positions, Crum said only about four of those positions are currently occupied. According to Crum, this move is the result of careful planning by city staff in anticipation of a 2002-03 budget crunch.

“Long-range thinking makes the budget,” Crum said. “The last thing we’d want to do is hire someone one month then fire them the next.”

Some occupied positions will be eliminated through attrition. When Evanston City Council approves the budget, it will decide on a date when employees not eliminated through attrition will be laid off. Crum said this deadline usually coincides with the beginning of the next fiscal year.

While vacancies sometimes make reductions less painful, Crum said they were not the primary criterion when proposing staff cuts.

“That’s not fair if you happen to take advantage of a department where people retired honorably,” he said. “That’s not how you do budgets.”

The library, which had no vacancies this year, will eliminate a number of part-time positions under the proposal. The positions are not explicitly cut, but would be eliminated if the city closes the South Branch Library.

At the Jan. 11 budget meeting Library Director Neal Ney said his department would lose five employees under the plan. The proposed alternative to closing the library, a reduction in main library hours, would cut even more part-time positions.

Ney said the restricted hours would “have an impact on virtually every public service employee at the library.”

The finance department is slated to lose two positions that are currently vacant. Finance Director Bill Stafford said the cuts would not stop his office from serving citizens, but they would slow the department down. He said eliminating vacant positions “doesn’t make it any easier in terms of the workload, but it’s a lot less in human suffering.”

The community development department also will face the elimination of two vacant positions. James Wolinski, the department director, said although no one is being laid off, landlords could take advantage of less-frequent inspections.

“It’s possible people will see we’re not inspecting buildings as often,” Wolinski said. “If buildings are not inspected, there are certain landlords out there who won’t maintain.”

Wolinski said when he and the department made their budget recommendations, they also tried to preserve all the services they offer the community.

“We’ve all got to pitch in to share the issues and the grief,” Wolinski said. “I’ve tried to maintain the service, but we may not be able to do it as quickly as we did in the past.”