Planning feels furlough pain

The first real impacts of the city's budget problems will be felt soon in the city Planning Department, where nearly all of the staff will be forced to take off two days a month as part of the effort to close a $530 million shortfall.Daily News.

Planning Director Gail Goldberg said 244 of the 300 people in the department will be forced to take the time off -- with no pay -- because their union failed to come to an agreement on an early retirement program.

"We have been working to look at reducing our workload to manage the department, but this is the equivalent of a 10 percent cut in our staff, and we are already understaffed," Goldberg told the city Planning Commission.