Modesto will have fewer cops, more civilians to help them in pandemic-battered budget
Modesto’s new general fund will have about a half dozen fewer police officers as these officers will not be replaced when they retire in the coming months. That is among the million in cuts the city made to balance its $140.3 million general fund, which has been battered by the new coronavirus recession.
The City Council on Tuesday adopted Modesto’s $447.5 million operating budget for the 2020-21 fiscal year, which started Wednesday. But the attention was on the operating budget’s general fund.
That is because unlike the budget’s other funds, the general fund — which relies on sales and other taxes — has been slammed by the recession. And the general fund pays for public safety, with about 50 percent of it spent on the Police Department and about 28 percent on the Fire Department.
The budget adopted by the City Council eliminates 30 police officer positions, reducing the Police Department’s allocation from 240 to 210 officer positions. The positions are from the police chief to the newest officer entering the police academy.
While the city has budgeted for 240 officers, the Police Department has not been able to fill all those jobs for a variety of reasons, including the high cost of officers and the city’s limited finances.
Police Chief Galen Carroll told council members he has about 216 officers and about two dozen unfilled positions. He said in an interview the practical result of reducing the department’s allocated positions means he’ll have about a half dozen fewer officers as he loses them to retirement and attrition.
Mayor Ted Brandvold strongly opposed these changes despite city officials — including the police chief — telling him Modesto cannot afford more officers and that the police union supports these changes. The mayor also could not get council support for his police staffing proposals.
He wanted the 30 positions frozen rather than eliminated and staffing reduced from 240 to 218 officers. (Frozen positions stay in the budget but are not filled.) Tony Madrigal was the only council member who supported this; the five others did not.
Brandvold ran for mayor in 2015 on increasing police staffing, and in 2016 the City Council approved his plan to increase it from 218 to 240 officers. And earlier this year, before the pandemic, he proposed increasing staffing to 250 officers.
Shuttering community centers
Brandvold claimed at Tuesday’s council meeting that the Police Department took more than its share of budget cuts and suggested more reductions should have been made in other departments.
“Cutting our actual, current numbers of officers is short sighted and puts our citizens and Law Enforcement Officers in harm’s way,” the mayor said in a Facebook post before the meeting. “It invites an explosion of crime, unrest, and provocation. Our most important responsibility to our citizens is first and foremost providing for your safety.”
City Manager Joe Lopez said all of the city’s departments have taken deep reductions. And public safety makes up 78 percent of the general fund budget.
Lopez said Modesto would need $2 million in additional general fund reductions if the Police Department were budgeted 218 officers. He said that would mean closing community centers and deep cuts to recreation programs and other city services.
“There’d be almost nothing left to this organization but public safety,” he said.
The $2 million consists of $1 million for eight additional officer positions and the $1 million the city would lose in furloughs the Modesto Police Officers Association agreed to take to help balance the general fund. Lopez said the furloughs are contingent on Modesto reducing its officer allocation from 240 to 210 positions.
He and Carroll stressed that the MPOA supports the Police Department budget reductions.
Brandvold also questioned the Police Department’s plan to hire five additional community service officers and five additional police cadets to handle routine matters and free up police officers to respond to crimes in progress and other matters that only they can handle. But Carroll said that is a cost-effective and efficient way to get the most out of his department’s limited resources.
Community service officers part of the solution
Councilman Doug Ridenour, who is a retired Modesto police sergeant, said community service officers have been working in law enforcement since the 1970s and have proved their worth. “They’ve become professionals, experts,” he said.
Ridenour said Modesto has been been working diligently for months putting together its budget (the city also held budget hearings for council members in May), and it would open itself to problems if it followed Brandvold’s suggestion of making additional cuts to other departments at the last minute to find more money for police.
Ridenour is among the several candidates running for mayor in the November election.
Councilman Bill Zoslocki also said the changes to the police budget had been mischaracterized, causing some members of the public to believe that 30 officers would be losing their jobs.
Carroll, the two councilmen and other city officials said they support more police officers, but Modesto has to live within its means and be a city that is more than just public safety.
“I live here,” Carroll said. “I don’t want a city without parks. I don’t want a city without some of the other things we need in a city. ... But we cannot just be a police department. So we have to lead the way. ... And this is how you police a community. And yes ... we have a high crime rate. But if we use our resources right, I think we can not only police this city well but protect this city.”
Modesto has more workers than it can afford
Lopez said the bigger issue is that well before the pandemic Modesto’s general fund has had an ongoing structural deficit, which is based on an analysis by the consulting firm Management Partners. The city has more employees than it can afford. That is because employee compensation and pension costs are rising faster than the city’s revenues.
Modesto has about 1,200 employees, and the city’s strategy is to reduce its work force through retirements and attrition over several years.
The 2020-21 budget includes cutting 61 open positions (including eliminating the 30 officer positions and eliminating and-or freezing 18 open firefighter positions), four layoffs and 15 employees taking early retirements through an incentive program that pays each of them $10,000.
This story was originally published July 2, 2020 at 11:57 AM.
