At a City Council budget study session last week, Planning Director Hassan Haghani said that under a full 5% reduction, his department would only have “bodies to cut at this point.”
But police and fire officials enter the final week of study sessions under the shimmer of past statements from the majority of council members who, to varying degrees, have pledged to insulate public safety from any significant cuts.
Mayor Frank Quintero and Councilman Ara Najarian, both endorsed by the police and fire unions for their April 7 re-election campaigns, were among the most adamant on the forum circuit that public safety funding would be preserved in the face of coming budget cuts.
But that was when the budget shortfall for fiscal year 2009-10 was projected at roughly $7 million. It has since been revised up to $9.7 million, increasing the cost-cutting burden on all city departments, including police and fire.
“My basic bias is still toward preserving police and fire, but that doesn’t mean we can’t go through and try to reduce some administrative costs and inefficiencies in staffing,” Najarian said.
The Police Department sustained heavy and unpopular cuts last year to many of its community-based policing programs, losing seven sworn officer positions, including a complete withdrawal from the city’s middle schools.
And the Fire Department was forced to cut staffing at Fire Station 29, from a four- to three-man engine company.
Assistant Police Chief Ron DePompa on Friday said much of the potential impact this time around will depend largely on where the City Council wants to cut, and by how much.
