By Eric Stirgus
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ATLANTA — The Atlanta Police Department will have overspent its budget by between $18 million and $22 million by the time the fiscal year ends next month, city finance officials said Thursday.
The increases were caused by overtime, rising fuel and vehicle repair costs, increased spending on health care and errors such as not including enough money in the current budget to pay for every police employee salary, Chief Financial Officer Janice Davis said in an interview.
The issues came to light during a City Council budget hearing. Mayor Shirley Franklin said in January that the city is facing a budget deficit for the fiscal year ending June 30 due to some of the same factors that affected the Police Department. The deficit is estimated at $60 million.
In addition, Franklin said the city has a shortfall of about $140 million for the fiscal year beginning July 1. The mayor proposes filling the gap by laying off 441 city workers, a process that began earlier this month. She also wants to raise property taxes and various fees, not fill 347 vacant positions and transfer 616 positions to departments not funded by property taxes.
Some council members and citizens have argued there must be other alternatives to a tax increase. During Thursday’s hearings, Councilwoman Felicia Moore called the mayor’s budget proposal “faulty.”
“If that’s an indication of what’s been going on in the budget . . . the council’s been hoodwinked,” Moore said, referring to the Police Department budget.
Franklin has said she is open to suggestions from council members to fill the gap. She says the only alternative is to lay off about 265 police officers and 90 firefighters and close six fire stations. The mayor said she won’t consider that option because public safety is her top priority.
Council members are scheduled to consider Franklin’s budget proposal next month.
On Thursday, council members grilled police commanders for more than three hours about their budget. Many appeared surprised when they read a page showing the department’s projected spending at $191.9 million for the current fiscal year, about $22.4 million more than the adopted budget of $169.5 million.
The largest chunk, about $14 million, stemmed from confusion between the city and Police Department over the funding of positions, Deputy Chief George Turner told a reporter. Davis said the city did not set aside money for some police positions that later were filled.
Turner said other unexpected costs came in the form of maintaining the department’s 911 call center. Another $2 million was spent on paying officers overtime late last year.
Atlanta Chief Operating Officer Greg Giornelli said Thursday that the adopted Police Department budget may be “flawed” considering the mistakes city budget officials made and were discovered after the council approved this year’s budget, such as not setting aside nearly $8 million in debt payments for Underground Atlanta.
Copyright 2008 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution