By Robert Vitale
The Columbus Dispatch
Columbus will add police recruit classes in December as the city braces for a wave of public-safety retirements next year and Mayor Michael B. Coleman gears up for re-election.
A class of 50 new police officers will begin training Dec. 6 and begin working in June, the mayor announced yesterday.
The city budgeted for just one police class and one fire class this year. Most of the money for the new classes will be in next year’s budget.
Public Safety Director Mitchell J. Brown has asked Coleman to include two more police classes and two more fire classes in the 2011 budget he will submit in mid-November.
Brown has recommended that the city train 115 police recruits and 80 fire recruits next year, when 98 police officers and 80 firefighters are expected to leave their jobs. Most will retire in January as part of a state deferred-retirement program.
Coleman has yet to decide what he’ll recommend for next year, spokesman Dan Williamson said.
“This decision has been made,” Williamson said of yesterday’s announcement. “We’ll see what can be afforded from here on out.”
Jack Reall, president of International Association of Fire Fighters Local 67, said a class of 48 recruits now being trained will join the force in January. He said he’s hopeful that new firefighters will be on the job as others retire.
The city’s forecast of firefighter retirements is a minimum, Reall noted.
“We need these people to continue the service we promised people last year,” he said, referring to the recruits and the 2009 income-tax increase that Columbus voters approved.
Jim Gilbert, president of Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge No. 9, called the December class “at least a start.” His union and the firefighters campaigned for last year’s tax increase, and both thought that this year’s budget shortchanged safety forces.
“We’re glad to see they’re moving in the direction of getting a class started,” Gilbert said.
In past re-election campaigns, Coleman has touted that he has protected the Police and Fire divisions from layoffs and budget cuts. But in 2007, challenger Bill Todd repeatedly accused the mayor of underfunding the Department of Public Safety.
Copyright 2010 The Columbus Dispatch