Cuts to Austin Public Safety - Voice your opinion to the City Council (Dallas: sales, vehicle registration)

[gb0610]

Police, fire chiefs list budget cuts for next year

By Tony Plohetski | Monday, June 1, 2009, 12:07 PM
Austin Police

Chief Art Acevedo has suggested nixing an already-postponed cadet academy next year as part of continued budget cuts facing the department, according to a list obtained Monday.
The list also includes cutting several positions, including operators who answer non-emergency phone calls and jobs in the department’s community liaison office, which works to foster relationships between officers and residents.


The amount of cuts reaches nearly $9 million, about 4 percent of the department’s $233 million budget.


Acevedo submitted the list to City Manager Marc Ott last month as part of a request from Ott that each city department find ways to cut about 2 percent to 3 percent of its 2009 budget for next year.


City officials have declined to make the lists public but have said they will hold public hearings to seek community input on what should be cut.
Fire Chief Rhoda Mae Kerr also has recommended eliminating several positions in the Austin Fire Department, as well as getting rid of special pay firefighters receive for bilingual skills and for having college degrees, according to a memo to her staff.


To cut $1.2 million alone, Kerr also has suggested decreasing the number of fire engines at a couple of stations throughout the city.“We worked very hard to put together proposals that would not result in reduction of staffing on units, layoffs or base pay cuts,” Kerr wrote.
The list of cuts has renewed a debate about the extent to which the city’s public safety agencies should shoulder budget cuts as the city seeks to slash about $30 million from next year’s budget amid lagging sales taxes.


Cpl. Mike Bowen, vice president of the Austin Police Association, said he is particularly concerned about the department cutting a cadet class that was scheduled to begin in September and would have resulted in the hiring of about 100 new officers.


Bowen said the agency loses about 36 officers each year on average through retirements and resignations and that about 206 officers will become eligible to retire in October.


The department had 25 vacancies as of Monday.


“Public safety is as lean we we can be right now without jeopardizing safety and service,” Bowen said.


If losing the number of cops that patrol the streets and losing an engine at each fire house bothers you, please voice your opinion to the City Council as they hold their meetings over the next two weeks.


Thanks!

[atxcio]

I kind of expect this is meant to set up an increase in the city's property tax rate later on in the year... or, it could be a natural defense mechanism for these particular departments when the city asks them to cut budget - they'll threaten to take cops and firefighters off the street, rather than say putting off an order for some new cruisers or a new helicopter.

[txgolfer130]

Doesn't bother me one bit. APD could go w/out 1 cadet class. Lord knows there are enough officers making a killing in overtime already, that they would probably welcome it.

I think this time APD loses out.

[cobolt]

This is how the get away with raising your taxes. Cry doom and gloom. Threaten to cut services people most care about: police, fire fighters, prisons, people freak out, the politicians say "well we cant afford these services unless we raise taxes" and there you go. Instead of cutting something that's actually a waste (and I am sure there is plenty of this) they always threaten to cut essential services. Crooks.

[HappyTexan]

Cut the service..don't raise the taxes. Recessions bring hard choices.

[gb0610]

I'm as conservative as the next guy, even more so than most, believe me. But I think some of you guys have your facts wrong on this one...

The Academy class has already been canceled once. It was supposed to happen in October of 2007. They postponed it until March of this year, then postponed it again until September of this year. So if they push it off again, until October of 2010, as is proposed, that would be two years of delays. So APD has already bent and given in this case.

In regards to OT......ya its being spent. Why? Because there are minimum staffing levels that the police must meet (ratio of cops to citizens). So when you have a shortfall of cops, you will have a need to put others on overtime.

At this point, as the article states, the PD is down 25 officers. On average, 10 Officers leave a month due to normal attrition. Even if the academy starts in September, when the cadets graduate and get off of Field training (12 months total! - 8 months academy, 4 months training) we will still be down Officers. If they postpone it, we will be down at least 200 officers when the cadets get out of training in October of 2011 (that is because if the academy does not go off in September, they are postponing it until October 2010).

These are facts most in the public don't know...

I do not believe in raseing taxes here at all. Just cutting the NON-ESSENTIAL SERVICES!

[Torontonian]

Dallas County looks to traffic ticket revenue for budget shortfall

The February issue of Car and Driver includes a story describing how many jurisdictions are giving more traffic tickets as a revenue booster during tough financial times.

In Texas, to my mind, we've already taken this strategy about as far as it can go, to the point that, right now, more than 10% of Texas adults have outstanding arrest warrants - mostly for traffic tickets.

Dallas County represents perhaps the most extreme example of this trend in Texas. According to the Dallas Morning News ("Dallas county to vote on withholding vehicle registrations for those who owe fines," Feb. 9), "Unlike most counties, Dallas County gets slightly more than half of its annual revenue from fines and fees. Other counties rely more heavily on property-tax revenue."

Now Dallas plans to step up the pressure on even more on folks who can't or don't pay traffic fines, denying vehicle registration to drivers with outstanding traffic tickets.

Dallas County looks to traffic ticket revenue for budget shortfall | pegasusnews.com | Dallas / Fort Worth

When we compared Austin, same story: 11% of Austin has outstanding arrest warrants.

From the Senator's Desk . . . | Senator Eliot Shapleigh - Texas Senator District 29

[car957]

gb0610 - Your attrition value is completely wrong. APD does not lose 10 officer/month. Retirements or officers leaving are currently at a rate of about 3 officers per month. And APD's academy does not last 8 months.

California trolls have little understanding of how the public safety system in Austin is staffed and operated.

[gb0610]

Originally Posted by car957

gb0610 - Your attrition value is completely wrong. APD does not lose 10 officer/month. Retirements or officers leaving are currently at a rate of about 3 officers per month. And APD's academy does not last 8 months.

California trolls have little understanding of how the public safety system in Austin is staffed and operated.

You sir, are completely wrong. The APD academy is 32 weeks long.

Here is the link, read it for yourself, champ.

City of Austin - Austin Police Department Recruiting: Training Academy

Here is the quote:

"The training academy generally operates under the hours of 7am to 4pm daily. There are some schedule changes when it comes to night time training and ride out periods. Austin Police Academy is not a live-in facility you are required to live close enough that you can commute to and from and make it on time to classes.
The academy is 32 weeks long. The academic structure of the class is made up 1282 hours of instruction 618 of which are TCLEOSE required training hours listed below:"




OR


City of Austin - Austin Police Department Recruiting: Career Paths


"All cadets are assigned to attend the Austin Police Department Training Academy. The academy will last 32 weeks and each cadet will receive 1280 hours of instruction. Upon graduation, all newly commissioned officers will be assigned to the Field Training Officer program lasting 12 to 16 weeks."


You can call people names all you want. It doesn't make you look intelligent, especially when you can be proven wrong in one short google search.

The 10 Officers leaving a month is directly from the Police recruiting office. In this fiscal year, there will be more than 200 officers eligible for retirement.

[mimimomx3]

20% across the board budget cuts. Let's start with that.