Four new City Council members sworn into office Monday, Dec. 8, have landed in the middle of a back-and-forth budget battle between the council and the mayor’s office as they try to close an estimated $43 million midyear shortfall. The Council put off decisions to name a new council president and assign committee members until later in the week in light of the tragic jet plane crash in University City Monday morning. On Tuesday, the council voted 6-2 to name District 8 Councilman Ben Hueso. Last month, the City Council made the decision to keep fire stations fully operating as well as to keep libraries and recreation centers open until June 2009 despite calls for deep cuts by the mayor. The decisions remain intact after City Council members unanimously overrode a mayoral budget veto during a Friday, Dec. 5, council meeting. “[City council] is solving the problem for a few months, but it’s putting us in a deeper hole for the next fiscal year,” said mayoral spokesperson Rachel Laing. The mayor recently vetoed the City Council’s decisions to keep city community service centers open and restore three painter positions, which would have violated procedures laid out in the city charter, Laing said. The community centers in Point Loma, Clairemont and Scripps Ranch will stay open until the end of January. Painter positions will be reinstated at the end of January as well, she said. The community service centers act as city information centers and provide general city services such as accepting bill payments. The City Council closed some of the gap by agreeing to a majority of the mayor’s proposed midyear budget cuts, District 2 Councilman Kevin Faulconer said. The council was able to keep the fire stations fully operating, and libraries and recreation centers open by dipping into infrastructure funds, library system improvement funds and hotel-room rental tax revenue. However, that still adds to an estimated $54 million budget gap moving into fiscal year 2010, Laing said. City staff starts the next budget process early next year, she said. Faulconer said council committees should start analyzing the city’s budget in January. Public safety, police and fire departments are a priority, he said. He said he’s met with residents regarding potential library closures and said he would consider volunteers to augment city library staff. “We’ve had a lot of creative ideas … specifically in Ocean Beach,” Faulconer said. Before vetoing the council’s budget decisions, the mayor’s office awaited a legal opinion from the city attorney’s office to determine the legality of the council’s decision but heard nothing, according to Laing. The mayor had 10 days starting Nov. 24 to issue a veto, she said. In addition to a massive pension debt contributing to the city’s financial mess, the city faces massive budget cuts in part because of a receding national economy, which has resulted in less tax revenue coming into city coffers, Laing said. City departments have been asked to shave another 10 to 15 percent from their collective budgets and present potential cost savings to the city’s administration next year, according to Laing.