San Francisco AIDS Foundation to Lay Off Employees, Reduce Salaries
Facing a $2.5 million budget deficit, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation Tuesday announced plans to lay off 28 employees and impose a 10% pay reduction for managers as part of a "belt-tightening" effort, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The foundation's annual budget will decrease to $20.7 million from $24 million in fiscal year 2002-2003. After the layoffs, the foundation plans to freeze the salaries of the group's 82 employees and reduce the $185,000 salary of Executive Director Pat Christen by 12%. Christen said that the planned budget reductions will not affect most of the foundation's "core services" -- such as housing assistance, benefits counseling, client advocacy, needle exchange and treatment information -- although clients may have to wait longer for services (Heredia, San Francisco Chronicle, 6/19). "Our priority has been protecting essential client services and restructuring the agency so as to make the most leveraged use of our community-level and public policy efforts," Christen said, adding, "We want to assure that our ability to serve those that rely on our programs is protected for the long run" (San Francisco AIDS Foundation release, 6/18).
Christen said that a decrease in donations after Sept. 11 and the "costly launch" of AIDS/LifeCycle, a new AIDS charity ride that the foundation launched with the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, forced the group to impose the reductions, which will take effect on June 30. In October, the two groups ended their "longtime" association with Pallotta TeamsWorks, the organizer of the California AIDS Ride, and launched their own charity ride. The move led to a "protracted and costly legal battle" over allegations of breach of contract (San Francisco Chronicle, 6/19).
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