November 17, 2006

City Hall News

Police department looking for $309-plus million budget over next five years

By Carol Rosen
Staff Writer

San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis went before a City Council study session on Nov. 28 seeking increased manpower at a cost of more than $309 million over the next five years.

The five-year staffing plan calls for 597.5 additional personnel, including 332 frontline beat patrol officers, 149 sworn staff in “specialized, investigative, administrative and preventative capacities,” and 119.5 non-sworn staff for technical, operational and administrative support roles.

San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis

According to Davis, San Jose is at the bottom of police staffing based on population. For example, San Francisco, with a smaller area than San Jose and fewer residents at 744,000, has a force of 1,908 officers. Dallas has a population of 1.18 million with a force of 2,970. By contrast, San Jose has 953,000 residents and a force of 1,349.

The budget study session started out with the information that the city already is $1 or $2 billion short, Mayor-elect Chuck Reed said, adding that it’s a tough situation for both unmet and new needs.

The council “views public safety as a core service and one of the most important items in the budget. Everyone in the room would probably like to see us hire more police officers, the difficulty is finding where to get the money” to fund their salaries, he said.

Obviously, Reed said, the city needs to be able to grow its economy and jobs and get revenues back to where they were when the boom went bust.

Echoing those sentiments, District 10 Councilwoman Nancy Pyle said, “I don’t know how we will do it, not yet anyway, but we do need to increase [staffing on] our police force. Besides keeping our streets, homes and children safe, the size of the force “affects our economy in the long run. People do come here to open businesses because it’s a safe city. And, people are likely to spend more money when they feel safe. We can’t afford not to do it.”

District 8 Councilman Dave Cortese agreed. “We need to start addressing it now, because it takes time to get people trained,” he said. He’s hopeful that somehow the council will figure out how to meet Davis’ entire budget request.

“At some point we have to figure out how to do it. Over the last six years we’ve had to freeze positions; luckily we didn’t have to cut them like Fremont. But the city has grown. Even with the smaller force, they managed to do a wonderful job of solving recent burglaries in Evergreen, but with more people they could educate citizens to prevent crimes,” he said.

At this point, Reed doesn’t think the city will be able to afford Davis’ recommendation for 500 officers over the next five years.

However, Davis said he thinks that this is just the opening discussion. The council asked for a five-year budget last June, he said, and this is the result.

“It’s actually a 13-year staffing plan because we haven’t added new officers since 1998. The numbers are clearly big numbers, but of the 23 cities with populations of 500,000 to one million, we are at the bottom of staffing,” Davis said.

“It’s just going to get worse,” he added. With plans to begin building in Coyote Valley, and annexation of county areas, which county sheriffs currently patrol, plus additional infrastructure to the city will stretch the force even thinner and make it more difficult for officers to respond in a timely manner.

According to the plan Davis recommended to the City Council, the department would hire 149.5 officers and personnel in Fiscal Year 2007-08 at a cost of just over $20 million.

Davis’ five-year staffing plan recommends adding 143 sworn officers and civilians in 2008-09 at a cost of $37.9 million; 115 in 2009-10 at $53.3 million; 96 in 20010-11at $76.7 million and 94 in 2011-12 at $121.14 million. Besides beat patrol officers, the department would also hire personnel for special operations and investigations, recruitment and training, communications, direct support to patrol and other civilian strategic support.

According to a survey conducted by the department, the number of sworn officers planning to retire increases sharply each year through 2011. For example, in the survey, which was completed by all but two percent of the department, 55 sworn officers plan to retire by Jan. 31. That number jumps to 99 sworn officers by Jan. 31, 2008; 166 sworn officers by Jan. 31, 2009; 205 by Jan. 31, 2010 and 260 by Jan. 31, 2011.

Adding to that attrition rate are studies projecting more difficulty in recruiting and hiring over the next several years due to military, security agencies such as the FBI and CIA as well as the Border Patrol and Homeland Security recruitments that will eat into the able pool of officers. And, there have been some problems with police in other law enforcement agencies not being able to follow the codes and standards as well as being unable to pass background checks.

Davis told Council members that in order for the department to continue its success, it needs to continue to follow its three-pronged approach of communication with residents and officials toward its proactive approach to prevent crime, intervene with criminals to pull them out of a criminal lifestyle and enforce the law on those who commit crimes.
City Manager presents initial five-year general fund forecast

San Jose City manager Les White presented his preliminary five-year budget forecast to the City Council on Nov. 28 at a study session.

The estimated general fund deficit for 2007-08 is $19.8 million, down from the projected $41.7 million based on increased revenues from sales tax, property tax, money and property, overhead, jail booking fees, card room and 2006-07 beginning fund balance revenue categories. In addition, there was an expenditure savings of $1.3 million that reflected the change of employee’s maximum contribution for medical benefits and a lower growth rate in the employer contribution rate for the lowest-priced medical insurance.

The budget report indicates continued modest economic growth over the five-year period although a slower housing market will likely impact that growth. Because of the housing market, the preliminary budget indicates slower growth the first couple of years, picking up after that when housing begins to improve.

The report assumes there will be shortfalls throughout the five years ranging from $9.5 million in 2011-12 to a high of $38.6 million in 2009-10, with about $20.6 million in 2009-10 resulting from the end of the Emergency Communication System Support Fee. At the same time, “expenditure growth will continue to outpace increases in revenue.”

The general fund five-year forecast is scheduled for release in February. It will include the revenue and expenditure projections.