By Tony Plohetski
Austin American-Statesman
AUSTIN, Texas — Several Austin City Council members are urging City Manager Marc Ott to reconsider cuts to the police and fire departments that are part of a plan to chop $20 million from the city’s budget.
Council Members Mike Martinez , Lee Leffingwell and Laura Morrison each say that the cuts, which involve delaying a police cadet class by six months and altering staffing levels at some fire stations, could jeopardize public safety and the safety of police officers and firefighters.
They said Ott should seek alternatives or the city should consider cutting the salaries of some — if not all — city executives, including themselves.
“I have taken a pretty hard line on public safety because I think it is the No. 1 priority in this city,” said Leffingwell, who is running for mayor and has been endorsed by Austin’s fire, police and emergency medical services unions. “I believe the general public shares that belief.”
Martinez said one option city officials could pursue is reducing the pay of the city’s highest earners until reaching a certain goal. He did not have a list of such employees Monday. Some of those executives have contracts that stipulate their salaries, so they would need to voluntarily take a pay cut.
Leffingwell said executive salary cuts “would be preferable instead of cutting public safety services.”
However, Council Member Brewster McCracken, who also is running for mayor, said he thinks Ott should proceed with his plan and said the city has a long-standing practice of trying to cut budgets equally across all departments.
“We are going to lose faith with the librarians and park employees of this city if they see the council rewriting the rules so that there is one set of rules for connected organizations and another set of rules for everybody else,” he said.
Assistant City Manager Michael McDonald, who oversees the public safety agencies, said Monday that officials have not received any response to Ott’s plans from the council “as a body” and intend to proceed.
He said that the city has not considered executive pay cuts but that officials might do so when drafting next year’s budget.
The cuts come as Austin’s sales tax revenue, which makes up a quarter of the $621 million budget, has been dipping as the economy struggles.
The concern from council members comes several days after Ott announced that the Fire Department would put a “flexible staffing plan” in place that would save $200,000.
Under the plan, the department would have only three firefighters on some trucks at times, generally at a couple of stations each day, instead of the city’s goal of four. Fire union officials have said the change could affect response times because firefighters might have to await the arrival of other firefighters before entering a burning structure.
Martinez said he was frustrated by the Fire Department plan, which he said was put together by a team of people who mostly earn six-figure salaries and drive city-issued cars.
“It concerns me that the 10 brightest and highest-ranking officials in the Fire Department put their heads together and that is the best they could come up with,” he said.
Fire Chief Rhoda Mae Kerr said department officials considered other cost-saving measures, including closing fire stations, instead of changing the staffing plan. “This one had the least amount of impact on firefighters, in regards to no one lost their job,” Kerr said.
Ott also said he plans to delay a police academy cadet class, scheduled to begin this month, until September, which would save the city about $1.4 million.
Council members said they are concerned about possible ramifications of that proposal.
Morrison said she thinks that delaying the class might cause the Police Department to spend more in overtime to make sure it has enough officers on the street.
Leffingwell said, “I’ve yet to be convinced that it won’t impact the number of officers on the street.”
Council Member Sheryl Cole said she thinks Ott should proceed with his plan.
“There are no easy answers, and we are going to have to have shared sacrifices by all the departments,” she said. “I respect the city manager’s recommendation.”