In a budget workshop Tuesday, the City Council tentatively agreed to eliminate free Saturday parking in the city. What's more, residents may bid adieu to free parking after 6 p.m. as the council opted to add enforcement at meters and elsewhere until 10 p.m.

The parking changes are expected to generate $300,000 a year - enough to make up the bulk of the money to maintain Fire Station No. 5, which Mayor Ralph Becker had recommended converting to a training center to cut costs. East-side residents have flooded the council with concerns about closing the fire station, prompting the budget shake-up.

None of the decisions will be final until the council votes on the 2008-09 spreadsheet later this month.

The council stopped short of boosting parking meter fines as well as eliminating free parking on holidays. But members slashed a series of jobs and made other moves to make money. They include:

* A $100 hike in cemetery plot fees.

* The elimination of three firefighters.

* Cutting a vacant victim advocate police position.

* Erasing an office manager at the Sorenson Unity Center.

Spared were the city's youth programs director and project manager, whose jobs briefly faced the chopping block. Youth City also survived funding cuts, though it will be shifted into a different department. For the second time in three weeks, advocates for Youth City lined up to praise the popular after-school program.

"I'd prefer not to mess with this," Councilman Soren Simonsen said.

Talk about raising property tax - $16 on an average $400,000 home to generate a $1 million cushion for the city's immunity fund - was squelched after a brief debate.

"We have a lot of working families in the city who are paying more for gasoline and food and other things . . .And we've got huge fee increases in this budget," Councilman Carlton Christensen said. "Adding another million to it for me seems an insult to folks who are struggling."

The three newest council members - Simonsen, J.T. Martin and Luke Garrott - supported the hike but were thwarted by one vote.

The council also appears ready to support Becker's 30 percent spike in the amount employees pay to drive home their city-owned vehicles. Police union president Tom Gallegos labels the plan "underhanded" and "unfathomable," but Becker says it is necessary to recoup the pinch at the gas pump.

Overall, the moves still leave the city $600,000 shy of balancing the budget, the bulk of the expense coming from increased fuel costs.

djensen@sltrib.com