Leaders of the city's public labor unions are planning to lock themselves, figuratively and perhaps literally, in a room later this week to hammer out their proposal for cutting the city's rapidly escalating pension costs, according to Democratic strategist Nathan Ballard, who has participated in the negotiations (originally hosted by Bay Citizen chairman Warren Hellman) since their inception.

The unions had promised Hellman before November's election that they would come up with their own, consensus proposal to cut these costs. The process has proved to be quite drawn out. Jeff Adachi, the city public defender whose Proposition B last November sparked the intense public debate about city-employee costs, has put forth several possible proposals of his own in recent weeks.

Christine Falvey, a spokeswoman for San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee, said on Friday that the city's proposal will be released in a week or two. Falvey said that the mayor is still committed to cobbling together a single pension-reform initiative for the November ballot.

A union leader who asked to not be named said that the union proposals could equate to a 12 percent to 15 percent reduction in the value of employee benefits. 

A breakdown of Adachi's three proposals was the subject of a Bay Citizen story last week.