The Santa Rosa City Council moved to protect public safety departments from the budget ax Thursday, advising the city manager not to move forward with a $700,000 cut to the Police Department and to find the savings from city departments other than the Fire Department.
The guidance sent a strong message to City Manager Kathy Millison that the council, led by former police lieutenant Mayor Ernesto Olivares, believes voters see public safety as a top priority they twice voted to preserve.
"We have an obligation to try as much as we can to maintain and to enhance those services that I believe they felt they voted for when they voted for Measure O and Measure P," Councilman John Sawyer said.
In 2004, voters passed Measure O, a 20-year sales tax to support public safety and gang prevention services. Last fall, they passed Measure P, an eight-year sales tax to support an array of city services, including public safety, parks and roads.
But Councilman Gary Wysocky questioned the shift, saying Measure O was passed during different economic times and voters have other priorities, too.
"I don't see how this is sustainable," Wysocky said. "It's a continued cannibalization of other departments, especially parks and recreation."
Millison originally proposed a 2011-12 budget that increased the city's general fund - the pot of money over which the council has the most control - from $109 million to $116 million.
Despite the increase, made possible largely by the $6 million expected to be raised by Measure P, her budget called for the elimination of 22 general-fund positions, including 4.5 layoffs. Rising retirement, health care and energy costs all made cuts necessary despite the 6 percent budget increase, she said.
Eight of those positions - five officers and three evidence technicians - were from the Police Department. The budget also called for the closure of Fire Station 10 in the city's southwest area, and the elimination of nine fire positions.
But Millison's proposal immediately came under fire from Olivares and Sawyer, both of whom said they were uncomfortable allowing police service levels to drop below the baseline established in 2004 by Measure O. The measure required six members of the council to sign off on any budget that let the public safety and gang prevention budgets fall below 2004 levels, adjusted for inflation.
So Millison presented the council with revisions Thursday; instead of eliminating $700,000 from the Police Department's $40.1 million budget, she restored $750,000 next year.
The additional funds would preserve a total of five vacant positions, two downtown officer positions, two school resource officer positions and one administrative analyst. In addition, Millison said she would look for ways to restore another $1 million to the department the following year to support the creation of a new community policing team and reinstatement of a crime analyst.
The additions mirrored what Police Chief Tom Schwedhelm told the council earlier in the week he would do if given a $1.9 million budget boost.
After the meeting, Schwedhelm said he felt the move was "consistent with the intent of the voters" when they passed Measure O.
In addition to the police funding, Millison said she believes she had found a way to avoid closing Station 10. She also believes the city's senior center and the Ridgway Swim Center could stay open, and a street maintenance worker position could be saved, noting the city's pothole problem.
She said she hopes to preserve those services by cutting other city departments and by winning employee concessions.
She cautioned, however, that her proposal had been put together in just two days, that details of how the city would pay for the changes were "not yet perfected."
Her budget continues to include a plan to charge drivers up to $5 per day to park at Howarth Park, expected to raise about $520,000.
She is also proposing to trim an additional $700,000 from other city budgets, including $300,000 from recreation, parks and community services.
"It was a very tough challenge," said Marc Richardson, director of parks and recreation, noting that it will cost people their jobs.
Other proposed cuts include $180,000 from administration, $144,000 from public works and $52,000 from community development.
It might be possible to put on a $50,000 fundraiser for the parks department to make up the difference, she said.
She also proposed restoring $100,000 in gang prevention services, but acknowledged she didn't yet know how to accomplish it.
Susan Gorin said the community deserved details about exactly how other city services would be reduced to boost public safety.
"Before I sign off on this, I want to know what we're giving up precisely in return," Gorin said.
Freshman council members Jake Ours and Scott Bartley, who campaigned last fall on their ability to have "good faith dialogue" with public safety unions over rising pension costs, also expressed support for the changes.
Toward the end of the discussion, a frustrated Wysocky asked, "Is crime up or down in the city? Are we all that scared?"
"I think that's one of the things we've learned is we don't want to get to the point where we're scared," Olivares responded.
Millison said she would firm up the numbers and return to the council May 24, followed by a formal budget presentation June 14.
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