Thu, March 8, 2007

Video: HMB City Council decides not to consider rising police costs

Updated

By on Thu, March 8, 2007

UPDATED:  Flash files are now available that should play on any system.

The theme of Tuesday’s Half Moon Bay City Council meeting was budgeting.  Three items on the agenda were budget-related:  A review of status of the current budget, a proposed calendar for the 2007-08 budget process, and a discussion of the budgeted cost for the city’s police department.

Council member Jim Grady asked that the police expenses be put on the agenda.  He said that with the chief retiring, now would be a good time to discuss department staffing, and potentially outsourcing police services to the county.

Public safety expenses have increased from $2.7 million in 2002-03 to $4.0 million projected for 2006-07—from 33% to 39% of the city’s expenditures. This is a compound annual increase of ten percent.

However, the other four members of the city council declined to look at the cost of the department until the regular budgeting process, which is laid out in the budget calendar.

Do yourself a favor and take half an hour to watch the video (it’s the last clip on the list), and download the linked documents so you can see for yourself what they’re talking about. This is a huge issue and it’s only going to get bigger.

Connect with Coastsider