PLEASANTON — In front of a heated and dissatisfied crowd, the Pleasanton City Council this week began to narrow down a list of cuts to essential city services to close a severe budget deficit.

The council on Tuesday deliberated for nearly seven hours — a meeting that lasted until midnight — about how to make $10 to $12 million in cuts to its general fund over the next two years. And the board was scheduled to be back at it Thursday evening.

The budget forecast for the next eight years doesn’t look good: officials expect an annual deficit of $13 million but it could get as bad as $22 million a year in a recession. In November, voters rejected a half-cent sales tax ballot measure that officials hoped would largely save the city from making cuts.

So far, the most significant cuts proposed were $2.83 million to internal services and operational support, and $2.05 million to the Library and Recreation Services department. As a result, the city library may not be open as often and could lose about half of its collections budget.

But the council decided — for now — not to close the Dolores Bengston Aquatic Center or Fire Station 1. The council was split on cuts to campus police officers, reducing the police department’s budget and more.

“These are all terrible ideas that will harm Pleasanton, harm the community and harm the public safety of this community,” resident David Ellis said. “We moved here because we’re looking for a place to raise our kids. But after looking at this budget, it makes me doubt the future of Pleasanton, it makes me doubt the competence of the city manager, frankly.”

Ellis said he and his wife take their daughter downtown to use the library often, and suggested the city could cut elsewhere instead.

“Maybe you should cut the city manager’s office instead. Maybe you should stop giving him raises instead. Maybe you should realize that there are other ways to balance the budget, and not do it off the back of librarians and crossing guards and firefighters,” Ellis said.

City Manager Gerry Beaudin, at the request of council, clarified that neither he nor the rest of his office’s executive management team got a raise last year.

But the public poking and prodding of city officials did not stop there. Dozens of residents expressed frustration and pleaded with the council to find ways around cutting their beloved library and pool.

Several local swim coaches and parents offered to spend over $40,000 of their own money to buy pool covers for the facility, which they say will save the city over $100,000 annually in maintenance costs.

But Beaudin pushed back, saying “there is a lot more work to be done.”

“Every little bit helps, but we have some bigger fish to fry when it comes to the public pool,” Beaudin said. “The situation that we have right now is we have a $30 million fire station, we have a $6 million recreation field synthetic turf project, and we have about a $5 to $6 million pool program, and we have about zero dollars to take care of those needs … and they’re all fairly pressing.”

Another resident suggested that all city employees take a monthly mandatory unpaid furlough day to help spread the pain more equitably from the cuts. Councilwoman Julie Testa said, “I think it’s a great idea if we were able to implement that,” and added “I would love to see that happen.”

But Beaudin said there are barriers, such as negotiating that with the city’s labor union, that could prohibit the idea from being a quick fix.

“It’s not as straightforward as it seems, when you’re dealing with a relatively lean staffing model, especially in our public safety and public works groups,” Beaudin said. “You’re essentially reducing pay, compensation, for folks at a time when we’re at a competitive labor market and the community may feel that through service reductions.”

Pleasanton Police Chief Tracy Avelar also appeared to argue against cuts to the city’s officers.

“When you reduce the budget to the bare minimum, which it is right now, you may not have enough for what you need in order to do the work that is necessary,” Avelar said. She also mentioned the city recently made a substantial amount of new hires to the force, which now totals 79 officers. “We can’t do anything with our training budget. Everything is accounted for.”

Council continued its discussion to Thursday evening, asking the city manager’s office to bring back revised recommendations.