The warnings have been sounding in Somerville for months now that a tough budget year would require some cuts.
Last week, they arrived.
Somerville’s mayor on Friday announced the city is laying off more than a dozen employees, and cutting even more positions it had posted but yet to be filled, as part of an effort to fill a multimillion dollar hole in the city’s budget for the fiscal year that starts in July.
In all, 13 people were put on paid administrative leave through the end of June, and sixteen vacant roles have been cut. Five other people are being transferred to other roles in city government.
“Layoffs are always a last resort. But like many communities across the Commonwealth and country, we have found ourselves facing a difficult budget season,” Somerville mayor Jake Wilson said in an announcement just before Memorial Day Weekend.
The cuts are part of an effort underway since Wilson took office in January to find some $5.4 million the city could slash from its budget.
Wilson has tried to manage expectations about the budget this year, pointing to the challenges posed by inflation and ballooning costs for health insurance, among other sources of financial strain.
“To close the gap, we worked first to raise revenues, pay down debt with reserves, and make strategic cuts to non-personnel costs citywide,” Wilson said in the statement. “While those measures made some headway, we were still left with needing to further reduce spending.”
Earlier this year, Wilson took the unusual step of hiring a onetime labor leader, the former Massachusetts AFL-CIO head Steve Tolman, to be a key advisor as several contract negotiations get underway. Five contracts with unionized city workers were expired as of last week. Four are set to expire in June. Seven are under active negotiations.
It was not immediately clear how many of the laid off employees, or the positions no longer being filled, were union jobs.
The mayor is set to submit a new budget for the upcoming fiscal year to the City Council next week.
The news has not landed well with with non-union staff, according to a newly formed group that represents their interests, called the Somerville Workers Union, which has been working this year to organize more than 200 city professional staff.
“We are severely disappointed by the layoffs that occurred this week,” the group said in a post on Instagram. “Eliminating positions without consulting or negotiating with workers is precisely why we are organizing. Expect more from us soon.”
The group has said it plans to ask Wilson soon to voluntarily recognize and begin negotiating with their union. City Councilors will consider a resolution in support of that effort, which is co-sponsored by City Council President Lance Davis, on Thursday.
The group also started a fundraiser for laid off workers that as of Wednesday had raised about $3,400.
The city has not said what the people who were laid off did for the city, but the fundraiser claimed they included “people working to advance racial justice, support Somerville youth, and finance professionals who ensure we spend taxpayer dollars responsibly.”
Spencer Buell can be reached at spencer.buell@globe.com. Follow him @SpencerBuell.