Public Safety News: Axe is falling in San Bernardino

SB police, firefighters may not be shielded from budget axe

SAN BERNARDINO - The city may fire dozens of police officers and firefighters as officials struggle to balance the budget of an increasingly cash-starved city.

Mayor Pat Morris said cuts to Police, Fire and other city departments will hurt San Bernardino, but he also said those cuts are unavoidable as the city's tax revenues plummet.

"Across the city, it's going to have a substantial negative impact," Morris said.

"This is beyond sobering. This meltdown is an international disaster ... it hit most terribly on Main Street," he said later.

Police and Fire are the sacred cows of local politics. Public safety is generally placed above such other city responsibilities as road repairs and parks and recreation in the minds of civic leaders. In San Bernardino and other cities, cops and firefighters have organized themselves into politically-potent unions that provide coveted endorsements.

But 2009 is shaping up to be more than just another election year for San Bernardino. It is a time when falling real estate values and a shrinking retail tax base are making it practically impossible for city officials to maintain essential services.

City data shows that officials expect to take in about $25.6 million in sales tax revenue during the current fiscal year. That's about $5 million less than what was anticipated in the city's budget.

San Bernardino administrators are working under the assumption that a $9 million general fund shortfall will develop by the time the fiscal year ends June 30 and are preparing deep budget cuts for most city departments.

The proposed cuts could eliminate 130 jobs from San Bernardino's budget, and interim City Manager Mark Weinberg says the situation is so grim that sworn police officers and firefighters cannot be excluded from potential layoffs.

"Front-line public safety response service must still remain our top priority. But given that Police and Fire operations now comprise 70 percent of the General Fund budget, it is inevitable that these departments must contribute toward reducing the deficit," Weinberg wrote in a memo to the City Council.

Weinberg has submitted a twin proposal for layoffs, and the council voted 5-1 Monday to prepare for the firings.

Under Weinberg's preferred proposal, police would lose more than $5.4 million in funding. That's the largest cut for any city department and would result in the letting go of 29 officers, a figure that includes four sergeants and five detectives.

It would also bump seven sergeants and 15 detectives down a rank, dropping their pay along with them.

On the civilian side, the department could lose five community service officers, a records technician and a senior office assistant.

The Police Department is also slated to lose funding for helicopter patrols, the Police Activities League, monies that go to the Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy and overtime for corridor patrols.

Billdt, who insisted the department would maintain its current 28-beat policing model, would not directly comment on how a reduction in officers may impact crime.

"We're going to focus to make sure we keep the same amount of personnel on the streets and work toward making sure we don't degrade our response times in terms of service," he said.

But police officers argue that laying off a significant number of cops puts the city's improving crime rate in peril, and could potentially sway sworn personnel from ever coming to work in San Bernardino.

"This city has notoriously been known as a city with an out of control crime problem and our officers have worked tirelessly in an effort to curb the crime," said police union president Rich Lawhead. "Now that we have our foot on the throat of crime, we're going to let it come back and flourish?"

The mayor and police chief have touted dropping crime rates over the last year, a feat seemingly made possible by an increase in officers patrolling the streets and more police presence in high crime neighborhoods.

The city has also teamed up with local and federal agencies to heighten the law enforcement presence in San Bernardino.

Fire faces a similar situation. Under Weinberg's preferred proposal, the Fire Department could lose 10 firefighters and an administrative assistant.

But those cuts are only part of one proposal.

Weinberg has also released a Plan B that entails even deeper cuts if the unions representing San Bernardino's police and firefighters reject a 10 percent pay cut.

Police officers, whose contract does not expire until December, have no legal obligation to agree to the loss of wages.

"The Police Officers Association is willing to help the city but the city has to help itself out, too," Lawhead said. "It appears the city has chosen the easy way out, and that is to balance the budget on the backs of city employees."

Other city staffers - who typically receive less pay and benefits than cops are firefighters - are set to lose a commensurate amount of pay if Weinberg's plan to close City Hall on Fridays goes through.

If the unions refuse to sacrifice pay, Weinberg proposes to fire a police captain as well as an additional three sergeants, two detectives and 14 police officers. The cuts would also lead to layoffs for a transcriber, two forensic technicians, and additional two community service officers, two records technicians and a property and evidence technician.

Fire could be cut by an additional 12 firefighters and a battalion chief.

Weinberg's tactic of forcing safety employees to choose between pay cuts and layoffs is a more hard-nosed approach than what previous city manager Fred Wilson tried to do in 2008.

Wilson unsuccessfully attempted to wring millions in concessions from unions to close 2008's budget gap, but unlike Weinberg, he did not publicly threaten layoffs if concessions were rejected.

Police union officials expressed concern that the city's tactics could keep qualified cops from applying to work in San Bernardino in the future.

Union vice president Travis Walker said he is "purely astonished" at the city's mismanagement of funds and questioned why the Police Department continued to recruit new officers knowing the budget crisis they faced.

At least one officer served a pink slip this week was hired as recently as December, Walker said. That officer transferred from another agency that now has a hiring freeze, leaving him with bleak employment options.

"The city went out and recruited these people and now they're going to be laid off? Who's going to want to come work here after this?" Walker asked.

The City Council's next scheduled chance to approve or reject the proposed layoffs comes at the body's Feb. 17 meeting.

In the meantime, the Measure Z oversight committee is set to meet Tuesday and the council's Ways and Means committee is scheduled to meet Thursday, although the latter meeting is set to be held in secret.

Both meetings would provide a chance to to discuss alternatives to the proposed budget cuts, although Weinberg wrote in an email that he doesn't anticipate major alterations.

"I do not anticipate that our discussions will result in changes to my budget recommendations to the Mayor and Common Council, however I will not rule it out," he wrote. "The plan is not set in concrete and we are continuously exploring how we can refine and improve it."

Seventh Ward Councilwoman Wendy McCammack, who was until recently a member of the council's Ways and Means Committee, was the only council member who cast "no" vote at the body's Feb. 2 meeting when her colleagues voted to prepare for layoffs.

McCammack said in an interview that she is not convinced sales tax revenues will be as low as projected. She also proposed that the city borrow from other accounts to bolster its general fund before laying off key employees.

"When you're living paycheck to paycheck, sometimes you have to live off the credit card, don't you?," she asked.

Fifth Ward Councilman Chas Kelley is the chairman of Ways and Means Committee. He said there may be some opportunity to save employees' jobs, but the financial situation is so bleak that the city needs to cut costs ASAP and rehire laid off employees if budget conditions improve.

There's not enough time to look for revenue enhancements, he said.

"We can't get anything or implement it fast enough before June," Kelley said.

The Measure Z committee can advise city officials on how to spend sales tax revenue that San Bernardino collects from a 2006 tax hike that voters approved to enhance public safety.

The likelihood of police officer layoffs undercuts the oft-stated goal of using Measure Z funds to increase the Police Department's strength by 40 officers above 2006 levels. However, Morris said Measure Z is still a boon for the city.

"That $6.5 million is helping us keep public safety as well staffed as we can," he said.

"What Measure Z does is help us minimize the layoffs," he added.

Measure Z committee members said the body has not gathered for several months.

Chairman Phillip Savage III said he has wanted to reconvene the committee since at least four months ago but doesn't blame busy city administrators for not having had time to schedule a meeting.

A lack of meetings suggests a lack of oversight. Committee member Bob Evans, a former San Bernardino police officer said the Measure Z committee has become irrelevant and that he's concerned the city leaders will not live up to their own promises.

"My thoughts are that if they cut police, that runs totally counter to Measure Z and the way it was sold to the community," he said.

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