The business closure day is not in observance of Columbus Day but is unpaid time off taken by city employees as part of union-negotiated employee concessions to help balance the city's $58 million budget deficit, according to city officials.
Police, fire and emergency services will not be affected, as those personnel do not participate in the business closure days. Of those personnel who do participate, employees agreed to contribute 9 percent of their compensation to reduce the deficit's impact on vital city services.
On Monday, all four city senior centers will be closed, and park gates and restrooms will be closed and parks will be unstaffed -- although visitors will still have access to parks.
No street sweeping will occur, but parking enforcement will. The animal shelter will be closed on Monday and will reopen Tuesday at 4 p.m. Anyone who finds an animal on Monday but cannot hold it until the shelter reopens should call (510) 777-3333 to reach a shelter representative.
Because branch libraries are already closed on Mondays, those libraries will be closed today. The Main Library will be open today but closed on Monday.
For the remainder of the fiscal year, there are nine scheduled business closure days: Nov. 10, Nov. 28, Dec. 27, Jan. 13, Feb. 10, March 30 and April 13.
In addition to the closure days, city employees also agreed to take additional unpaid days off to achieve the 9 percent reduction in compensation target. Those additional unpaid days will not result in citywide closures, according to city officials.
