No good options to fund police budget, board chair says
'We’re patching up, putting Band-Aids on and kicking the can down the road'
There are no good options to plug a $2.4 million hole in the police budget for 2019, the board's chair said Wednesday.
Police staff put forward its proposed plan at a budget committee meeting, but members would not approve it Wednesday afternoon.
Instead they sent staff back to look for more ideas by Monday.
"I'm worried that all of the things that we're considering are not great options," said Coun. Diane Deans, the newly appointed chair of the board.
"There's no clear answer on how best to do this."
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Police are looking for the extra money after a surprise announcement by Mayor Jim Watson that the service would only get half the cash injection it expected from city reserves.
That leaves police with a $2.4 million dollar problem and few solutions.
'Shell game'
The recommended plan to fix the problem involves some belt tightening on training and travel, a lucky break on the price of fuel and pushing some spending to 2020.
It also calls for police to save on overtime costs — which they've overspent on for the last several years — and higher profits from selling collision reports than they've been able to make in the past.
"I think what we have here is a bit of a shell game," said Coun. Keith Egli, who was disappointed with the new draft budget.
If the plan goes ahead, he expects the city will have to bail the police out of deficit for the fourth year in a row.
Egli said the service failed to find realistic budget cuts, despite $13.7 million in efficiencies since 2010.
But Coun. Riley Brockington said the real problem is that police are "chronically underfunded."
Other solutions
The board will turn to more drastic options next week, which police staff have already said they do not recommend.
One is to put a halt to a $42 million effort to modernize police technology.
Another is to charge more for paid duty officers at events, but police staff worry that could burden community groups who rely on those officers.
The board will also look at putting a new police facility in the city's south end on hold, which could lead to contract cancellation fees.
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Board members said "stopgap" budgets like this one won't be sustainable forever.
"We're patching up, putting Band-Aids on and kicking the can down the road," said board member Sandy Smallwood.
The board will vote on the 2019 draft budget next week.