City budget planners had to make some tough decisions
in proposing a budget
for the upcoming fiscal year and the following year. As part of the proposal laid out by City Manager T.C. Broadnax and Budget Officer Kerri Lang at Tuesday’s Council work session, staff is proposing a $9 million decrease in the Police Department overtime budget and an $8.3 million reduction in the overtime budget for the Fire Department.
The
proposed budget
for the police department is over $542 million. The fire department budget is about $263 million and the city’s proposed EMS budget is about $148 million.
In order to reduce the Fire Department budget, staff has proposed revising the existing requirement for four-person staffing on all firefighting equipment, so that some units would operate with only three firefighters. Austin Fire Association President Bob Nicks has already said his union is opposed to that idea, but Council members did not express disagreement with the idea at Tuesday’s meeting.
Broadnax said he anticipates the change to start in January. Firefighters and city negotiators are scheduled to begin negotiations on a new labor contract
this week
. The current contract expires at the end of September.
The Fire Department budget also includes $416,000 for the cost of 16 sworn positions added during the past year for the Canyon Creek Fire/EMS station. The EMS budget includes an additional $338,000 for the annualized cost of 12 sworn positions at the same station.
Council Member José Chito Vela noted that the city adopted the four-person staffing requirement “relatively recently” in 2018. “That is the gold standard we want to be at. Given the budget constraints we are facing right now I am supportive of moving back to a three-person staffing model to get us through this tough budget situation,” he told the
Austin Monitor
after the meeting.
Vela also pointed to changes in staffing that APD Chief Lisa Davis is utilizing to cut costs in her department. The department currently has 1,420 officers but is budgeted for 1819 officers, making overtime commonplace and adding to departmental costs.
In order to cut some of that overtime from the police budget, Davis said her department would be moving 54 officers from their current positions into patrol. That includes some officers from the police academy, she said, with sergeants filling the academy positions. Davis said the change is planned to take place on August 24.
In addition, the APD budget projects a $6 million increase in cost for an interlocal agreement with Travis County for magistration and counsel at first appearance services for those who have been arrested. The city will at the same time save $3.5 million by eliminating those services at Municipal Court. So, the total cost increase for that service is $2 million. Staff said the city will also save $500,000 by relocating the Blue Santa warehouse to a city owned facility.
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