By Tony Plohetski
Austin American-Statesman
AUSTIN, Texas — Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said he has reluctantly found ways to slash the department’s budget by $5 million, but he warns that the cuts could affect “basic police services” in some instances, according to a draft memo obtained Wednesday.
The cuts also would shift costs to other city agencies or require City Council members to depart from earlier decisions or curtail long-standing practices. They include delaying a cadet training academy in March and putting off a council-mandated merger with the park police and airport police that is scheduled to begin Monday.
Acevedo also has suggested that City Council members begin requiring organizers of certain events to pay overtime costs to officers who patrol such activities. Each year, the city waives about $125,000 in overtime as a sponsor of such events, according to the memo.
The list, however, does not include other expenses, such as grounding the department’s helicopter, a move that an outside auditor recommended last spring and said would save $1 million. Acevedo has previously said the helicopter is a necessary law enforcement tool.
Acevedo drafted the list, which included some of the auditor’s suggestions, last month after City Manager Marc Ott asked departments to find ways to cut about 2 percent of their budgets. City officials have said they want to identify $15 million in possible cuts from the $670.7 million general fund amid lagging sales tax revenue.
“We realize that tough budget choices must be made at this time,” Acevedo said in the memo to Assistant City Manager Michael McDonald. “However, I strongly believe further cuts to the police budget during an economic downturn will adversely impact public safety.”
Acevedo said Wednesday that the memo includes “a list of options of last resort that we provided the city in case of an unforeseen need for drastic cuts.”
McDonald declined to comment on the list Wednesday, other than to say discussions about possible cuts are preliminary. Council members will make the final decisions about any such measures.
Council Member Brewster McCracken, who is running for mayor in the spring election, said Wednesday that he had not read the memo but that public safety will remain one of his main priorities. However, he said that all city departments will probably have to share the burden of cost-cutting.
“We all have the right to expect that every department puts off discretionary expenses in this time of challenge,” he said.
McDonald, who also oversees the city’s fire and emergency medical services departments, said he has not received similar lists from those agencies.
The Austin Fire Department has been asked to consider how it would slash about $2.5 million from its $121 million budget, while EMS officials must consider how they would cut about $900,000 from their $44 million budget.
Acevedo said in the memo that during the past 18 months, department officials have already “taken control of our budget,” saving $273,000 this budget year through measures that included no longer renting cars for undercover work.
He said that in last year’s budget, police officials were asked to cut $2.1 million and exceeded that goal by an additional $900,000. Acevedo said that in writing this year’s budget, he also saved $1.6 million.
Acevedo said he is especially hindered because the department’s $233 million budget almost entirely consists of salaries. About 7 percent is used to cover facilities, uniforms, equipment and other general costs.
“Given the tremendous strides we have made to cut costs and expenses, this exercise has been very difficult,” Acevedo wrote in the memo.
One of the cuts would include delaying a cadet class scheduled to begin in March.
Acevedo said that decision would save the department $2.4 million but that the savings would be offset by the need to use overtime to fill vacant positions.
More serious, he said, is that nearly a year would pass before new patrol officers are added, which he estimates would lead to 88 patrol officer vacancies.
“We reluctantly list this option given the impact to basic police services as well as the necessity to eliminate programs,” Acevedo said. “This choice would impact the ability of the department to effectively respond to crime as well as quality of life issues.”
Also as part of his cuts, Acevedo said he would want to put off the airport and park police consolidation, which is expected to cost about $2.6 million. He said he wanted to move the funding for the East Side Story children’s educational program to another city agency “because this program is actually an educational based endeavor.” He said that would cut $553,635 from his budget.
Council Member Randi Shade said public safety, as well as health and human services, will remain important to her, even if budget cuts are necessary.
Those agencies “would be the last place to look,” she said. “Not the first.”
Copyright 2009 Austin American-Statesman