The State - News from June 26, 1988

An unprecedented 400 city employees are being laid off as part of San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos’ effort to trim a projected $179-million deficit. Deputy Mayor Claude Everhart said the layoffs, which included accountants, Juvenile Court counselors and paramedics, were the largest in the city’s history. The Civil Service Commission had mailed the layoff notices last month, but there had been talk of extending the actual layoffs beyond the end of June “pending the crystallization of the budget situation,” said Al Walker, the commission’s secretary. Agnos’ office decided to move ahead with the first wave of layoffs after the Board of Supervisors’ finance committee last week cut just $5.1 million from the general fund budget.