Leaders outline police budget changes

BY ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

Santa Barbara city leaders took the opportunity during a budget work session Wednesday evening to emphasize that public safety positions — in the police department especially — are fully staffed and will go largely unaffected by adjustments to the city’s projected budget.
Police Chief Cam Sanchez specifically addressed rumblings in the community that the department is being cut, patrol staffing is down, crime is up and the city is soft on criminals.

“If we’re not being criticized, we’re not doing our jobs,” he said. “…The truth of the matter is it’s completely incorrect.”
Deputy Chief Richard Glaus backed up those comments with concrete figures, telling the City Council that while 140 officer positions are fully funded, the department actually had 143 patrol officers working in recent months and six new officers are set to graduate from the academy in June.
Crime figures are also down, Glaus said, pointing out the lowest crime rate for major offenses such as murder, rape, assault and burglary since 1998 and likely beyond, as his graph only spanned 10 years.
Misdemeanor crimes are also trending down, he said, and even the traditional spike attributed to Fiesta festivities has been evening out in recent years.
As a result, more efforts are being directed toward education, prevention and intervention strategies.
“We’re getting back to doing more outreach and community-oriented policing,” Glaus said.
Nonetheless, with lower-than-expected revenues due to a lagging economy and other factors, the department is preparing to lower its projected budget figures for fiscal year 2009 by approximately $767,000.
A major factor, alongside lower sales tax revenues, is a projected drop in the amount of money from fines and forfeitures — largely parking citations.
Despite recently raising parking violation fees and seeing an increase in the number of citations handed out, Glaus said the department likely won’t meet projected revenue levels by approximately $120,000 for fines alone.
The solution is to trim back the previously projected increase in the department’s budget, which city Finance Director Bob Peirson and Councilmember Helene Schneider both took pains to note is still up more than half a million dollars compared to this year’s budget.
The most contentious line-item issue is a proposal to keep a police captain position vacant for six months, which would save the department $150,000.
“This is the one thing that makes me squeamish,” Schneider said.
Glaus responded that holding the position open is “very doable” without putting much stress on the department or negatively impacting service.
“It’s not preferable,” he said, “but we’re able to cinch up the belt and deal with it for a short period of time.”
Councilmember Iya Falcone returned to that issue later in the meeting and emphasized the importance of examining other options in lieu of holding such an important position open for half a year.
“When you were saying you’ll make it work, you always do,” she said. “Doesn’t make it right.”
One possible solution she offered up that has been previously kicked around by city leaders is using money from the city’s over-funded risk management coffers solely to bolster the police department’s budget.
Due to a dramatic drop-off in workers’ compensation costs, the city has a significant surplus of risk management funds, Peirson explained. A portion of that surplus is slated to be distributed as a rebate of sorts back to the city’s various departments on a pro rata basis.
Falcone suggested dumping that entire rebate, or a larger portion than planned, into the General Fund instead to keep police staffing levels as high as possible.
“When it comes to leaving positions open … I think we need to dig deep and do something about it,” she said.
City Administrator Jim Armstrong said he plans to look into potential legal issues and the feasibility of taking such an action.
Other proposed adjustments to the police department’s budget include bumping up fees for alarm permits and false alarm calls, in addition to special event permits. Glaus said those revenues still won’t cover the associated staff costs.
The department also plans to defer a portion of its vehicle replacement funds — money stocked away to purchase future vehicles — for one year, saving approximately $174,400. Glaus said the patrol fleet is in good shape and can handle that adjustment.
Another position in the records department, a civilian job, will also be held vacant for one year, resulting in a savings of $59,000. Glaus characterized other adjustments as overall efforts to streamline the department as much as possible.
“It’s very lean, but we think we can manage it,” he said.
He also addressed concerns raised by Councilmember Das Williams about an apparent jump in the projected response time to top-priority calls, explaining that a new formula based on response time data from prior years is being used to make that figure more precise rather than using largely subjective guesswork.
A presentation from the fire department officials on projected adjustments to their budget drew less discussion from the Council as many of the items appeared to be of the low-hanging fruit variety.
Pete Ramsdell, the department’s administrative services director, said daily staffing is adequate and won’t be affected. Sales tax revenues and conservative mutual aid recovery figures largely resulted in the need to lower the projected budget by approximately $295,650.
Mutual aid revenues — funds paid to the department when city firefighters assist other jurisdictions — are expected to be higher than figures outlined in the budget. Other adjustments include extending ladder truck replacement.
“The ladder truck is in great shape and we don’t see a problem in extending its life by one year,” Ramsdell said.
Fire Chief Ron Prince took the opportunity to describe positive improvements made by the fire department in the past year, such as maintaining an average response time of 3:12, well below its benchmark of four minutes.
“This last year has been very active,” he said. “…We’re well on our way to accomplishing 80 percent of our planned objectives for the year.”
The entire city budget returns to the Council on June 3 for a 6 p.m. session during which leaders will give final direction to staff. Adoption of the budget is scheduled for June 24.