Berkeley's City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt a $917 million two-year budget that closes most of a $30 million structural deficit through service cuts and layoffs — while handing voters a November ballot measure that will determine how much deeper the city must cut.

The budget, approved June 24, eliminates 20 filled positions and more than 100 vacant roles, shutters Berkeley's winter homeless shelter, and shuts down the crisis unit that handles mental health emergencies. Firefighters avoided the deepest proposed cuts after Mayor Adena Ishii engineered a last-minute deal to fund nine at-risk fire department positions through increased ambulance trip fees — but labor representing other city workers called the plan an austerity budget that spares vacancies over people.

The plan approved June 24 eliminates 20 filled positions and more than 100 vacant roles. City Manager Paul Buddenhagen has said officials were working to see whether some of the workers facing layoffs could transfer to other open positions within city hall, but no such transfers had been confirmed at the time of adoption.

The human toll is concentrated among the city's most vulnerable residents. Berkeley will discontinue its winter homeless shelter and shut down the crisis response unit that handles mental health emergencies. Grants to local arts organizations will be trimmed by 10 percent.

"These are not easy decisions," Mayor Adena Ishii said shortly before the unanimous vote. "None of us got elected so we could cut positions — it's incredibly painful."

A union divided: firefighters win, SEIU workers don't

The session's sharpest tension surfaced over nine vacant fire department positions — five firefighters, three paramedics and a fire inspector — that had been on the chopping block since the city instituted a hiring freeze last year. The Berkeley Fire Fighters Association mounted a weeks-long campaign arguing the cuts would worsen staffing shortages and force excessive overtime reliance.

Stephen Gilman, vice president of the International Association of Fire Fighters district that covers Berkeley, reminded the council that local voters had recently approved ballot measures specifically to fund the fire department. "They trusted that this council would match their commitment with action," he told council members Tuesday night.

After a lengthy recess, Ishii put forward a compromise: fund the nine positions using nearly $1 million in projected new revenue from increased ambulance trip fees, an approach the city had already begun pursuing after taking billing in-house from a third party. A further rate increase is set to go before the council on July 7.

The Berkeley Fire Fighters Association declared the deal a win, saying it "significantly reduces the impact of the proposed cuts," and pledged to "actively support" the November sales tax measure as part of the funding agreement.

Workers represented by a unit of Service Employees International Union Local 1021 weren't spared the same consideration. Six members of the SEIU unit — including Thomas Gregory, an Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator — are losing their jobs. Gregory told the council the city should have tapped its reserve fund to protect those positions for another year, or cut more vacancies instead.

"Unlike staff, vacancies cannot achieve any positive outcomes for constituents," Gregory said. "And unlike staff, vacancies don't have mortgages to pay or family expenses to cover."

Ishii acknowledged the fire department compromise would leave other workers behind. "I recognize that we've had conversations with some of the other unions and folks who will be upset by this decision, and I really want to say that I'm sorry," she said.

November vote will set the floor

The adopted budget is not the final word. The two-year spending plan assumes Berkeley voters will approve a 0.5 percent sales tax increase on the November ballot, generating $9 million per year in new revenue. City leaders have been explicit about what happens if it fails: Fire Station 4 on Marin Avenue could close, police and fire departments could face additional job cuts, and popular summer and after-school programs could be eliminated.

The Council also voted narrowly Tuesday to direct $1.3 million — drawn from a settlement with UC Berkeley — to a program that helps local land trusts buy apartment buildings and convert them into permanently affordable housing.

The budget vote comes as Bay Area cities confront a regional pattern of structural deficits, deferral tactics, and voter fatigue over tax measures. Berkeley's situation is notable for the degree to which it has front-loaded the pain: unlike some cities that have relied on one-time fixes, Berkeley's council acknowledged Tuesday that the cuts approved represent a real reckoning — even if an incomplete one — with years of patching over a growing gap.

Whether Berkeley residents will accept a higher sales tax to keep the floor from dropping again is now the city's defining political question for the fall.