Sacramento’s public-safety dance

Not so long ago, folks in City Hall talked about making Sacramento the “most livable city in America.”

Today, Sacramento’s options seem more limited. One possible future: Sacramento City Council will not be able to budget for parks or economic development, or after-school programs, or any services to residents beyond basic public safety like police and fire.

“The money is just not there to have a full-service city anymore,” said Brent Meyer, president of the Sacramento Police Officers Association.

Last week, Meyer and his fellow officers protested a proposal to cut some $12 million from the force—including elimination of 80 sworn officers. As this story was going to print, the firefighters union was preparing to make its case at City Hall.

Push-back from cops, neighborhood groups and from some on the city council might save that department from losing any positions. But keeping the public safety whole could dramatically alter Sacramento city government.

In the city’s fiscal year 2011 budget, $194 million went to public safety, while all other departments were allotted $42 million—just a bit more than the current shortfall.

“If we shut down every other department, and got rid of the city council—which I’m sure some people would be happy about,” there would still likely be a deficit, City Councilman Kevin McCarty noted at a recent council meeting.

Even as the state is beginning to see a little bit of an uptick in tax revenue, the picture for local government is as grim as ever. “Sales-tax revenue is coming around in places, like Folsom and Rancho Cordova. Not for us,” said interim City Manager Bill Edgar.

Edgar served as the city manager in the mid-1990s, and recently came back to fill in after the previous interim City Manager Gus Vina resigned.

This is the worst budget Edgar’s seen. The shortfall this year is $39 million, with a “structural deficit” of $62 million over the next three years.

Currently, the city’s reserves stand at just $14 million. “That’s barely enough to meet one payroll,” explained City Treasurer Russ Fehr, adding that reserves should be at least 10 percent of the city’s general fund, or $35 million.

About $20 million, or a little more than half of the city’s deficit—is due to increases in labor costs over the last year, says Edgar.

That includes staffing a new fire station in North Natomas, and restoring part of a 5 percent cost-of-living raise that the police had agreed to forgo last year.

As part of that agreement, the police got a 2 percent raise in January of 2011, while the rest of the raise will be spread out over 2012.

Three more unions are due for 2 percent raises this year. And city firefighters will get a 5 percent bump in January of 2012.

“We’ve asked all the labor leaders to come to the table. If they want to trade dollars for officers, we’re willing to look at that,” said Edgar.

But both Fehr and Edgar said that the city has been too reliant on “one time” money, like temporary labor concessions.

Since 2008, the city has had to make $90 million in cuts and lay off 900 people. But so far, none of those layoffs have hit the police or fire departments.

There’s a very good reason for that, says Meyer. “I think the city needs to go back and think about what its priorities are,” he said of the proposed budget. Police Chief Rick Braziel is predicting a crime surge would follow any reduction in the force.

Meyer said the city of Sacramento already spends about $10 million a year less on its police department than the similarly sized city of Oakland.

When asked what he would cut instead, Meyer said, “Does the city need an Economic Development Department, a Department of General Services?”

Three years ago, the city spent 68 percent of its discretionary budget on police and fire. This year, because of deeper cuts to other departments, the public-safety share has swelled to 85 percent. “After this budget, that percentage will probably be greater,” said McCarty. “Clearly, [public safety] is not just a priority. It’s been the priority. I think we need to keep that in perspective.”