WHEN POLICE CHIEF Mike Reese strode into a city budget workshop last Thursday, April 7, he came with a posse. Stoically, nearly a dozen uniformed cops fanned out in chairs behind him.
It was a convincing display of influence. But it wasn’t as overpowering as the chief’s budget request: $9 million in new money from the city’s general fund, further fattening the city’s biggest bureau (up to $166.3 million) at a time when most other offices have been asked to cut or hold the line.
But with just a $21.7 million surplus to carve up, at last reckoning, the chief’s request puts the city council—and Mayor Sam Adams, who will release his proposed city budget next month—in a bind.
Saying yes will preserve programs commissioners say they want and like: new Tasers, continued services for addicts and the mentally ill, even a new police training center at Portland International Raceway.
It also will keep the bureau from laying off cops. The bureau has lost millions in towing revenue thanks to a court case that limits when drunken drivers’ cars can be hauled off. The city also finds itself on the hook for millions in new council-backed pay hikes for its officers [“Breaking the Bank?” News, March 10].
Saying no, however, would let the city salt away some of its surplus for a rainy day in case things get worse, and also sprinkle more money on other bureaus—like housing and parks and fire—who are making big requests of their own.
“We have plenty of onetime money,” said one council aide who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the issue. “If we don’t set some of that aside, we’ll have trouble down the road. And we’ll be cutting ongoing budgets much deeper than we’ve done at this point.”
In a worst-case scenario laid out by the city’s financial planners, dozens of the bureau’s nearly 1,000 workers would be laid off. And money for the bureau’s sobering station, CHIERS van, Project Respond crisis intervention team, and misconduct review board would be eaten up.
Financial planners are urging commissioners not to go that far—yet. They say the city should consider a smaller bureau, but for now recommend only putting off the training facility (even though Adams promised it in his State of the City speech) and skimping on graffiti patrols, among other cuts.
Adams may still push for Reese’s full request, but he might not find his colleagues receptive.
“We understand the front-line issues related to mental health, especially, and the community’s interactions with police,” says Brendan Finn, chief of staff for Commissioner Dan Saltzman. As for the training center? “[Saltzman] would want to see the Office of Management and Finance’s blessing.”
Commissioner Randy Leonard, meanwhile, said he’s prepared to consider staff cuts to deal with the new union contract. But he’s crossing his fingers for good news when new forecasts emerge this month.
“If we are on a rebound economically,” he says, “that may offset the need to cut.”
Sorry Denis and other Portland Mercury Staff. Street roots has just won my heart over with the funniest article ever about our precious Sam Adams.
http://streetroots.wordpress.com/2011/04/1…
Oh poor Sam Adams he is sorta the laughing stock right now and he started out so good. It’s ok Mayor Adams you can bounce back in a new career. Maybe Tre at Voodoo Donuts would hire you. Then you can serve donuts to all yr cop friends. Maybe Voodoo could donation a portion of the proceeds to benefit the Portland Police so they can get the money that Chief Reese says they need.
More cops.
Even as local and state services face debilitating austerity cuts across the board, somehow we have millions of dollars for more cops. Bigger classrooms & less teachers, more cops. Thousands of public sector workers laid off across the state – more cops. Less for housing, mental health services, parks, & fire – more cops. Less for CHIERS, sobering stations, & police misconduct review boards – more cops. Cuts for [civilian] staff at the city level & furloughs/lay-offs for thousands of unioned workers state-wide – more cops. And more cops. And more money/pay hikes for all those cops.
You know, isn’t it fucking funny how the city/Multnomah county refuses to fire – never mind prosecute, but FIRE – cops who’ve proven themselves to be a liability? Cop kills someone, and the city/county settles a multi-million dollar claim, and continues to pay this pig’s salary. Yet, we don’t have money for anything else. Teachers and other workers across the board face cuts, furloughs, and lay-offs, but we can’t even get rid of the handful of cops who’ve proven to be dangerous and unfit for public service.
And isn’t it something you know, how Chief Fürher Mike Reese can just walk into a budget workshop with his “posse” – his blue wall of thugs having his back, and demand $9 million [more] for the Police Bureau out of a $21.7 million surplus? Isn’t that some mafia-type shit right there? Reese has some balls, i’ll give him that. But then again, with a mayor/police commissioner who bitches up any time the Bureau/Gestapo as well as the Police Union/SS makes demands, i can’t really blame him.