By Ryan Hagen, The (San Bernardino County) Sun
Posted: 08/29/2012 07:39:41 PM PDT
View: San Bernardino Pre-Pendency Plan
View: Pre-Pendency Plan – Replacement Page 27
Special section: San Bernardino
SAN BERNARDINO — More than 100 positions would be eliminated from City Hall in a budget plan presented for the first time Wednesday, a number that City Council members and department heads said was alarming but that still leaves a deficit of more than $7million.
The city filed for bankruptcy Aug. 1 because of a $45.8 million deficit – which Interim City Manager Andrea Travis-Miller said grows by $125,000 a day if no changes are made – and a severe cash-flow shortage.
All the cuts in the plan add up to $22.4million, with Miller recommending an additional $9.4million in concessions from unions and cuts to the offices of the city attorney and City Council, which were not included in the plan.
“(The plan is) a very difficult pill to swallow. It really is,” said Councilwoman Virginia Marquez. “Catastrophic.”
Each department head was expected to make a presentation on the proposal, with a vote likely coming at the Sept.4 meeting.
But the discussion, which was filled with sometimes heated criticisms of staff and elected officials, had only gotten to the first department late Wednesday night.
Police Chief Rob Handy outlined $6million in cuts for his department, including eliminating 41 of 104 non-sworn positions.
In addition to layoffs and attrition of those non-sworn employees – ranging from stenographers to a dispatch manager – Handy expects 11 police officers, five sergeants, a lieutenant and a captain to retire or leave for other jobs.
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These cuts would work if accountability were meted-out to those remaining employees. Consider just the number of trees in the City that have died from simple neglect– probably lack of proper planting in the first place, lack of water not to mention occasional fertilizer, and lack of pruning out the dead wood. That kind of blight with a bloated parks and recreation department could actually be turned-around if the dead wood were removed from those clearly not doing their jobs.
Sometimes it matters what the public thinks as much as what’s actually happening. For example, no one I know likes seeing a fire engine parked in the fire lane at COSTCO while an engine company picks-up pizza. Don’t trouble yourselves to explain it here just knock it off. Is the City seriously considering contracting with County Fire? Does County Fire charge residents that giant, extra fee when they respond to a medical emergency– something ostensibly already paid-for by taxes?
And I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have a story about how disgusted they are with the police department. Since 1976, I’ve met a couple of sworn and non-sworn who’ve behaved professionally. But, having had law enforcement as a collateral duty for 15 years, I’m in a better than average position to know good work when I see it, and I’ve not been impressed with what I’ve seen in the City of San Bernardino this would be a good time to change or contract with the Sheriff who handles law enforcement economically for Adelanto, Hesperia, Highland, Loma Linda, Victorville and brings more than a dozen aircraft to the party.
Someone explain to me why it would be illegal to require new-hire police employees who work in the City to reside within the City rather than in, say, LA and Orange Counties, where they would spend their high wages back into the local economy. I’m sure there is some reason but it looks to me like it is not common sense for several reasons including working to get crime rates off the front pages of newspapers across the nation with resulting drops in home values and the property tax base.
J. Clayton – It used to be required years ago that you had to live in the city that you were employed in to apply and keep your job. Same was true for the county. As I recall some court ruling stated it was illegal…