Council Takes Initiative, Pushes Plan for More Police

Guaranteeing a ratio of two San Diego police officers for every 1,000 residents will require hiring 112 additional officers and cost nearly $8 million in salaries and equipment, but the City Council appears committed to that goal next year.

Reaching that ratio could mean making deep budget cuts elsewhere or requesting a tax increase. But council members sent the signal that they were committed to that goal during an unusual budget workshop Tuesday at which they told City Manager Sylvester Murray and his assembled department heads where to spend taxpayer money beginning in June, 1986.

In a cost-cutting mood, council members also showed a willingness to take a closer look at their own spending habits. Councilmen William Jones and Bill Cleator recommended that their colleagues and city employees discontinue the use of city credit cards and suggested more careful scrutiny of mayoral and council office budgets, which have burgeoned over the last few years.

Normally, the council would be among the last to discuss any city budget. Traditionally, the city manager’s office has polled department heads and assembled the budget before distributing it to the council for debate and revision in the spring.

But Mayor Roger Hedgecock wanted to turn that process around for the 1986-1987 budget and allow the council first crack at naming its wish list. He convened Tuesday’s workshop as a way for council members to give direction to Murray and his office about its expectations for the contents of next year’s budget.

“The main thing that happened today is the council continued to commit to the two-officer (per 1,000 residents) standard, even if it means a cut in city services,” Hedgecock said after the session.

That standard emerged from the council’s budget hearings last summer, which focused on several controversies involving police protection and the safety of officers themselves.

To reach that goal, Murray told the council in a memo issued late Monday, it would take an additional $7.85 million in salaries and equipment for 112 additional officers and police support personnel. The city manager said he believes that the increase would require the council to ask voters to raise taxes next year.

Current police staffing is closer to 1.5 officers per 1,000 residents, and Murray said that even to maintain that level, 31 officers would have to hired in the 1986-1987 budget. The Police Department now has 1,490 positions for sworn officers.

Despite the price tag, council members said they favored attaining the two officers per 1,000 residents figure. Cleator suggested that some of the money for the added police could come from greater efficiency in running the city.

Meanwhile, Cleator and Jones circulated a memo that was aimed at making council members more accountable for expenditures involving their staff and office activities. Instead of allotting each council member a lump sum to run his or her office every year, as is the custom, Cleator and Jones recommended that budgets for the mayor, council members and executive services be analyzed like every other city department--line item by line item.

They also proposed placing a spending ceiling on council office budgets, doing away with city-issued credit cards and curtailing lunches purchased with city money for board and commission members on days they meet to conduct city business. They also asked the city auditor to furnish a public report every three months to show what kinds of items and services City Council members buy with their office funds.

Cleator said after Tuesday’s workshop that he asked for the guidelines to put pressure on the council members to reduce their office budgets, which records show have more than doubled from $1.5 million in fiscal 1979-1980 to $3.2 million in 1985-1986.

Jones said he wanted the changes to make council members more “accountable” for expenditures in their own offices. Now, they are given a lump sum, and their itemized expenditures are not reported routinely for public inspection.

Jones also said the joint proposal was not intended to cut back the strength of the council’s staff in relation to the city manager, who is charged by the City Charter with overseeing the daily operations of city government and its 7,100 employees.

“I believe in having a strong council,” said Jones, whose district includes Southeast San Diego. “If I’m not (for a strong council), I’m not going to have a district that will get off the ground. I’m not advocating a weak council.”

The Cleator-Jones proposal was forwarded to Murray for study and comment.

Other items mentioned Tuesday as priorities for council members included street sweeping, clearing trash and weeds from major streets, and capital improvements.