10-27-2010, 12:32 AM
Council: Cut horses, pot enforcement
By Jane Prendergast • jprendergast@enquirer.com • October 26, 2010
Facing a $60 million budget hole, Cincinnati City Council members are beginning to hash out a wide range of possible cuts and money-generators, from eliminating police horses to repealing the city's marijuana ordinance to cutting hours at city health centers.
Trying to smooth the usually contentious process, Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls asked each council member to submit ideas for cuts so the administration can explain any costs or savings now. In past years, last-minute suggestions that needed vetting slowed negotiations.
Some council members suggested cuts; others just asked questions. The result begins to show what council members are thinking and what things might go:
Councilwoman Laure Quinlivan listed the most specifics, including moving DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) officers to regular patrol, cutting police horses, fining people who violate recycling rules and cutting the work week to four days. Council is considering legislation that would set fines of up to $150 for removing recyclables, damaging or removing the new 96-gal. recycling cartsShe also suggests eliminating the Citizen Complaint Authority, the police investigation department where she applied in 2002 to be executive director.
Councilwoman Leslie Ghiz says emphatically that police officers will not be laid off. That's a big promise, considering the police department uses 37 percent of the $334 million general fund. She wants to talk instead about closing health centers part time and using managed competition to provide some city services cheaper.
She also says she wants to stop telling departments how much of a percentage to cut "and tell them exactly what to cut."
Councilman Wendell Young, a former police officer and council's newest member, wants to repeal the city's ordinance that allows police officers to issue $100 tickets to people caught with smaller amounts of marijuana. It's not effective, he says, and costs money in police overtime, laboratory costs and prosecution time. His estimated savings: $360,000. His was the only list that included estimated savings amounts.
City Manager Milton Dohoney hasn't released any details about his budget proposal, which is expected to be finished next month for submission to Mayor Mark Mallory, who can make changes before sending it to council. But police and fire officials say their departments are expected to cut, respectively, $16 million and $11 million. The two public safety units take up two-thirds of the general fund.
Qualls started budget explanation sessions with individual departments last week. Officials from planning went first, facing questions and doubt when they said the $400,000 cut they took this year means $800,000 in lost revenue from inspections and other services the department provides.
"There's just no way," Berding said.
Other council members asked questions. Though they didn't directly propose anything, their questions are sometimes pointed enough to show what they're thinking:
Qualls, who posed all hers in the form of "What would the cost savings be": to implement a Medical Expense Reimbursement Plan, or health reimbursement arrangement, which allows employers to give tax-free money to employees for health care expenses; switch to Google or Microsoft cloud computing services; consolidate IT, human resources and budget functions?
Charlie Winburn: How much does the city administration plan to cut from the police administration budget without laying off any police officers? How many department and division heads is the city administration planning to lay off?
Jeff Berding asked for a breakdown of employee benefits costs, by department.
Cecil Thomas: The practice of hiring back retirees, or double-dippers, should be examined; explore possibility of moving employees into jobs in enterprise departments. Enterprise funds, such as golf and Metropolitan Sewer District, are departments that pay for themselves and don't use the general fund..
Chris Bortz submitted more than two dozen questions to Budget Director Lea Eriksen since summer, including requests for lists of positions and pay rates for the parks and recreation departments, the recreation department's method of evaluating which centers get the most use and detailed budgets for the health centers and health department.
Councilman Chris Monzel, who is running for Hamilton County commission, didn't submit any questions this time, but reminded that he has, in the past, suggested cutting car allowances and using managed competition.
Council members acknowledged last year that they didn't really fix anything when they filled much of the this year's $50 million deficit with one-time cuts and borrowing from savings. They said they knew they were only pushing the problem off until this year. Increasing property taxes isn't an option. Council voted last week to set the millage at 4.6 mills, which will bring in about the same $29 million next year as the city has taken in each year since 2001, when council first started its rollback policy.
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20101...nforcement
By Jane Prendergast • jprendergast@enquirer.com • October 26, 2010
Facing a $60 million budget hole, Cincinnati City Council members are beginning to hash out a wide range of possible cuts and money-generators, from eliminating police horses to repealing the city's marijuana ordinance to cutting hours at city health centers.
Trying to smooth the usually contentious process, Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls asked each council member to submit ideas for cuts so the administration can explain any costs or savings now. In past years, last-minute suggestions that needed vetting slowed negotiations.
Some council members suggested cuts; others just asked questions. The result begins to show what council members are thinking and what things might go:
Councilwoman Laure Quinlivan listed the most specifics, including moving DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) officers to regular patrol, cutting police horses, fining people who violate recycling rules and cutting the work week to four days. Council is considering legislation that would set fines of up to $150 for removing recyclables, damaging or removing the new 96-gal. recycling cartsShe also suggests eliminating the Citizen Complaint Authority, the police investigation department where she applied in 2002 to be executive director.
Councilwoman Leslie Ghiz says emphatically that police officers will not be laid off. That's a big promise, considering the police department uses 37 percent of the $334 million general fund. She wants to talk instead about closing health centers part time and using managed competition to provide some city services cheaper.
She also says she wants to stop telling departments how much of a percentage to cut "and tell them exactly what to cut."
Councilman Wendell Young, a former police officer and council's newest member, wants to repeal the city's ordinance that allows police officers to issue $100 tickets to people caught with smaller amounts of marijuana. It's not effective, he says, and costs money in police overtime, laboratory costs and prosecution time. His estimated savings: $360,000. His was the only list that included estimated savings amounts.
City Manager Milton Dohoney hasn't released any details about his budget proposal, which is expected to be finished next month for submission to Mayor Mark Mallory, who can make changes before sending it to council. But police and fire officials say their departments are expected to cut, respectively, $16 million and $11 million. The two public safety units take up two-thirds of the general fund.
Qualls started budget explanation sessions with individual departments last week. Officials from planning went first, facing questions and doubt when they said the $400,000 cut they took this year means $800,000 in lost revenue from inspections and other services the department provides.
"There's just no way," Berding said.
Other council members asked questions. Though they didn't directly propose anything, their questions are sometimes pointed enough to show what they're thinking:
Qualls, who posed all hers in the form of "What would the cost savings be": to implement a Medical Expense Reimbursement Plan, or health reimbursement arrangement, which allows employers to give tax-free money to employees for health care expenses; switch to Google or Microsoft cloud computing services; consolidate IT, human resources and budget functions?
Charlie Winburn: How much does the city administration plan to cut from the police administration budget without laying off any police officers? How many department and division heads is the city administration planning to lay off?
Jeff Berding asked for a breakdown of employee benefits costs, by department.
Cecil Thomas: The practice of hiring back retirees, or double-dippers, should be examined; explore possibility of moving employees into jobs in enterprise departments. Enterprise funds, such as golf and Metropolitan Sewer District, are departments that pay for themselves and don't use the general fund..
Chris Bortz submitted more than two dozen questions to Budget Director Lea Eriksen since summer, including requests for lists of positions and pay rates for the parks and recreation departments, the recreation department's method of evaluating which centers get the most use and detailed budgets for the health centers and health department.
Councilman Chris Monzel, who is running for Hamilton County commission, didn't submit any questions this time, but reminded that he has, in the past, suggested cutting car allowances and using managed competition.
Council members acknowledged last year that they didn't really fix anything when they filled much of the this year's $50 million deficit with one-time cuts and borrowing from savings. They said they knew they were only pushing the problem off until this year. Increasing property taxes isn't an option. Council voted last week to set the millage at 4.6 mills, which will bring in about the same $29 million next year as the city has taken in each year since 2001, when council first started its rollback policy.
Quote:Some budget Q's and A's
Here's some of what Councilman Chris Bortz has asked the administration throughout the summer, with answers:
How many police officers are assigned to investigations, patrols? 276, 694.
What are the average salaries for police officers and non-sworn personnel? $73,270, or $100,590 including benefits; $45,040, or $60,620.
How much would a countywide quarter-cent sales tax increase generate and cost? About $30 million county-wide, and would cost an average of $46.65 per city resident 18 and older.
How much is the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority budget? $103.7 million, more than $40 million from the city. If the city no longer funded SORTA, the 2.1 percent earnings tax would go down to 1.8 percent.
How many police officers are assigned to work at road construction projects? None. They're paid by the entities doing the work.
How many police officers are paid to be school resource officers? 11, at a total cost of $966,480 including benefits. About 12.5 percent is covered by a grant.
Fire runs: How many total, how many for medical calls and how many led to transports? 180 a day; 80.7 percent for EMS, 69.4 percent of which resulted in trips to a hospital.
How many urban planners does the city employ? Nine, four of them paid out of the general fund.
How much does the city spend on human services agencies, and what percentage of the budget is that? $2.9 million, or 0.88 percent of the general fund.
What's the budget for the city health department, the health care centers? $43.4 million, $23.5 from the general fund; $18.7 million, $10.3 million from the general fund.
To learn more
Cincinnati City Council's Budget and Finance Committee will hold public meetings with individual departments to hear officials explain expenses and revenue and answer councilmembers' questions.
All meetings will be informational only, with no action, in council chambers. Mondays are set for 1 to 2 p.m., Wednesdays for 10:30 to noon.
Wednesday - Recreation.
Nov. 1 - Parks
Nov. 3 - Community Development, Department of Transportation and Engineering.
Nov. 8 - ETS
Nov. 10 - Police
Nov. 15 - Health
Nov. 17 - Public Services
Nov. 22 - Administrative services
Nov. 24 - Fire.
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20101...nforcement