Firefighter, police jobs cut from city budget

The Spokane City Council on Monday grudgingly bowed to Mayor Dennis Hession’s wishes not to fund additional firefighter and police positions.

Council members voted 6-1 to remove $439,000 from the budget they approved in December, saying that since the mayor has declined to fill the eight jobs, they didn’t want him to use the money for something else.

Last month Hession told the council that he would not hire the additional two detectives, two neighborhood police officers and four firefighters that the council added to the 2007 budget.

Hession has pointed to a recent efficiency study, conducted by California firm Matrix Consulting Group, that says the city doesn’t need more police or fire staff. Hession said Monday that he agreed with the council’s action.

Council members said they hoped to convince the mayor that the positions are needed and to put the money back into the budget later this year.

The city didn’t hire an outside consultant to find out “how we could lower the level of service even more,” said Councilman Al French, who is running for mayor against Hession.

“The experts brought in lack expertise in what this community needs,” said Councilwoman Mary Verner, who also is running for mayor.

Councilman Brad Stark, who proposed the removal of the money from the budget, said Spokane’s police staffing is low compared to that of other Washington cities. He said high numbers of registered sex offenders, increasing gang activity and other problems indicate the positions are needed.

Hession argued that the Matrix group is a respected firm that compared the city’s statistics with national numbers and trends. He said that while Spokane had extra money last year, officials still expect future budget shortfalls.

“When they apply these standards to what we have in Spokane, their conclusion is we don’t need more,” said Hession, who said his mind could be changed after a full review of the efficiency report. “These costs run on for years. There’s no guarantee that those years will have sufficient revenue.”

The fire positions would have allowed the city to staff Station 15 near Hillyard with four firefighters around the clock. Eight of the city’s 14 stations, including Hillyard, have three firefighters.

“The cuts that took place in 2005 have hurt our department and have hurt our response times,” said Greg Borg, president of the firefighters union, at Monday’s meeting. “We just don’t have enough people on duty.”

Two of the extra police would have been assigned to work closely with neighborhoods to solve localized crime problems that often fail to be addressed by regular patrol.

The city now has five of those neighborhood resource officers. Two of them testified that with increasing gang activity, there’s a strong need for the extra officers.

“It’s unrealistic, and it’s overwhelming,” said Brenda Yates, one of the two officers assigned to areas south of the Spokane River.

Councilman Bob Apple voted against pulling the money, saying he wanted it easily accessible in case the mayor changes his mind.