A Plan for Our Public Safety and Quality of Life

Editor's Note: The Long Beach City Council will hold a 3:30 p.m. session its in the Council chambers (330 W. Broadway) on whether to conduct a budget hearing to receive and discuss the Proposed Fiscal Year 2012 Budgets for various departments. It will be followed by the Council's regularly scheduled 5 p.m. meeting, which should see discussion on how the Council should spend the $18 million in unbudgeted oil revenue. The Council may vote on the budget, or it may be voted on in two weeks.

Today, our City Council will be discussing what our priorities should be for our City for the next year and beyond. Our City Council must act by September 15 to adopt the budget for the next fiscal year, which begins October 1.  This means we only have two council meetings remaining to debate and vote before the deadline. The City’s budget determines how long it takes for a police officer or firefighters to respond when we call 911, what sort of services we have at our libraries, and how well our parks are maintained.  The budget reflects our priorities for our city.

In the past eight years, we have cut more than $188 million from our city budget, and eliminated 644 positions.  We have maximized efficiencies, and we are certainly living up to the axiom of doing more with less. However, as our police chief and fire chief have said, we are now operating with skeletal crews.  There is not more fat to cut. The cuts we make now will have a definite impact on the level of service and quality of life in our city.

The Mayor’s and City Manager’s proposed budget would eliminate 31 police officers, including patrol officers, gang enforcement, and violent crime detectives.  By cutting 27 firefighter positions, Long Beach would become the only major urban city with three firefighters on an engine, delaying their ability to fight a fire and provide emergency services.  Three of our neighborhood libraries would offer almost no services to our residents and children.

The City Council has heard from the Police Chief that the proposed cuts to his department, in conjunction with other factors, could lead to an increase in violent crimes in the city and a reduced ability for the Police Department to be proactive in crime prevention.

 The City Council has also heard from the Fire Chief that he would not support shifting to 3-person engine staffing, if not required to by the proposed budget reductions. Recent developments provide some optimism that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, in terms of the City’s fiscal situation.  Our police officers just approved significant pension reform, and the firefighters are considering similar reform.  Most of these savings will be realized within two years.

At the same time, there is more than $18 million in surplus oil revenues that the City has in hand, that are unbudgeted and not part of any reserve account. This is money that the City Council will spend one way or another, it is a matter of determining what should be the priorities for our city.   Councilmembers Steven Neal, Gerrie Schipske and I believe that there is an alternative way to responsibly balance our budget, while upholding our duty to maintain the public safety and well-being of the City.

Our Public Safety and Quality of Life Protection Plan would utilize surplus oil revenue that we already have in hand to restore the most severe cuts to our core services – our police, firefighters, libraries and parks -- without touching our reserves or relying on money that we don’t have.  Our plan also sets aside money for the following year’s proposed shortfall. Our plan will keep more police officers on the street, allow our fire department to maintain four firefighters on each engine, and keep all of our libraries open, without touching any City reserves or the $9 million in the Budget Stabilization Fund.   At the same time, we are still addressing our City’s infrastructure needs.

  The proposed budget increases funding to repair our streets and sidewalks by $5.1 million, more than 43% above this past year.  When we are cutting our police force, slashing our fire department, and eliminating services at our libraries, where is the logic in saying that we need to increase our infrastructure funds by more than 43%?

The surplus oil revenues are not “one-time funds.” We have received surplus oil revenues in 9 out of the past 10 years, and this Mayor and City Council have previously used these additional revenues to offset budget shortfalls and avoid further cuts to city services.   The surplus oil revenues can cushion the impact to our core services until we have the pension savings.  Otherwise, the City Manager is proposing even deeper cuts to our police, fire, libraries and parks in Fiscal Year 2013.   Our budget situation will be brighter within two years, but the impacts of these proposed cuts will be felt in our community for much longer.  

When do we say enough is enough? Please call and email your councilmembers and come to the City Council meeting on Tuesday, September 6 to share your priorities for our city.