With San Jose facing its first budget surplus in a decade — thanks largely to slashing salaries and cutting thousands of jobs — Mayor Chuck Reed on Friday proposed opening newly built libraries and a community center that have sat empty for lack of staffing and nearly doubling spending on gang prevention.

The City Council is expected to discuss Reed’s recommendations Tuesday and vote to approve or modify them March 20. The mayor’s budget recommendations guide the city manager in preparing a draft budget due in May for the fiscal year that starts in July.

City Manager Debra Figone said last week that the city has a $10 million projected surplus in its $800 million operating budget for basic services, a stark reversal from what had been expected to be a $25 million deficit late last year. Deficits are expected in the following two years as employee retirement costs continue to ramp up.

But Reed, fresh from winning a council vote this week to put his pension reform measure before voters in June, was optimistic the city is on a path toward fiscal stability.

“Because of a willingness to make some very difficult decisions,” Reed said, “our city’s fiscal situation has begun to improve.”

The mayor’s proposed budget doesn’t assume savings from the ballot measure, and he notes that while revenues appear to be ticking up again, many uncertainties lie ahead, including future retirement costs.

Reed’s recommendations include:

Opening four branch libraries either newly built or nearing completion — Bascom, Calabazas, Seven Trees and Educational Park — as well as the new Bascom Community Center. All were built from proceeds of bond measures voters approved about a decade ago but have yet to open because the city couldn’t afford to staff them. Opening the branch libraries at the current four-day weekly schedule would cost about $2.8 million a year.

Nearly doubling spending on gang prevention programs. Budget shortfalls have forced the city to cut gang prevention spending in half, from $5 million in 2009 to $2.5 million today. Reed recommends an additional $2 million for gang-prevention funding for the coming year, which would restore total funding to 2010 levels of $4.5 million.

About $2 million to fully fund street maintenance and repair within a 400-mile priority network of San Jose’s most heavily used roads. City transportation officials said they were $2 million short of funds needed to fully cover preventive maintenance.

Completing the $5 million Autumn Parkway project, which would create a connection across the Union Pacific railroad tracks to link the HP Pavilion area — and perhaps a future baseball park — with Coleman Avenue. The council earlier this year approved funding for design work. The city’s state permit for completing the railroad crossing expires in 2013.

Maintaining funding for school crossing guards and the Children’s Health Initiative, which provides health insurance for children whose parents are ineligible for state aid and otherwise couldn’t afford it.