A new agreement was reached this week with the city of Santa Cruz and the Service Employees International Union. The agreement, which includes a 1.3 million dollars in savings, is awaiting final approval to close a projected 2 million dollar deficit. Service employees were asked by city officials to forgo a scheduled 5% cost-of-living increase next year and take a 2nd year of 10% pay cuts through furloughs. The union, whose contract is up in November, was hoping for at least part of it’s scheduled pay hike, but had already agreed to the furloughs. A final vote is slated for July 13th.