The City of Weslaco is searching for the right balance of public safety for its budget.
In a budget workshop Tuesday, they took public comment and feedback from city employees about how the city should prioritize the budget.
Already 43 city employees have signed up for the voluntary separation plan, which means they chose to leave their position and accept a severance package, but the cuts don't end there.
The city has had to deal with a lot of flack because they've proposed cutting personnel from public safety.
Under the current proposed budget, there are plans to cut 37 city employees, 20 of them from public safety.
City manager Leo Olivares said this is the most difficult budget he's had to work with because it's dealing with the livelihood of people.
"We ran the numbers. We saw that Weslaco is overstaffed not just in public safety, but also in libraries, in parks and all throughout the city. And so it was pretty clear that that's where we had to have some discipline and either reorganize, eliminate jobs, reduce salaries, or a combination of those options, and that's where the staff has been focusing its efforts," said Olivares.
Olivares said staff is continuously looking at the numbers and will come up with a final decision Thursday when they take a final look over the proposed budget and vote on it.
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