They never lay off any of the anonymous “city officials”. It’s always a threat to lay off Police and Fire personnel. I suppose that is so as to hold the taxpaying citizenry hostage to their demands.
They lay them off because they are the problem! I just looked at our county salaries ( Contra Costa Co, CA). The highest paid people ( excepting the doctors in the county hospital whose last names you can’t pronounce) are the county firefighters. The average firefighter makes more than the county administrator, the DA, and most of their deputies, and the sheriff’s dept., is right behind! Try $250,000 per year on a base salary of about $100k. And most of them have other businesses they run when they are not on duty. These guys work the OT/Sickleave game to the max. Firefighters make so much money that they have moved into the affluent communities and have run successfully for the local fire boards. So now, just like everywhere else, they control both sides of the negotiating table. And they have no shame about what they are doing! Our local fire chief retired recently at 51. his last year’s salary was $188k, his first year’s pension was $286k. If he lives to 80, you do the math on what we will shell out. And that does not include his medical benes for him and his spouse until both of them die!