During a meeting of the City Council's Budget Oversight Committee at City Hall, Director if Financial Management said that the cutting the proposed Long Beach Police Department academy for the 2011 year could save the city $1.5 million dollars.
4th District Councilman Patrick O'Donnell said "The proposition of laying off and then three months later starting an academy is darn foolish." Councilman Patrick O'Donnell is a member of the committee along with 3rd District Councilman Gary DeLong and 2nd District Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal.
Lori Ann Farrell, who is the Director of Financial Management said that more than 20 Police officers could
potentially be laid off because of planned cuts to help eliminate an $18.5 million general fund deficit.
Braden Phillips who is the Bureau Chief of Police Administration Bureau said that he didn't yet know exactly how many positions the $1.5 million would save, but that likely one sergeant and 11 police officers would be preserved.
City Manager Pat West's proposed budget calls for "Plan A" cuts and more draconian "Plan B" cuts, which would be necessary only if city employee associations don't agree to freeze their pay.
Plan B appears to be a growing certainty, especially for the police, whose association president has said officers aren't going to forgo their pay raises. Mayor Bob Foster told the Press-Telegram Tuesday that Plan B cuts "are going to go ahead" without contract concessions.
The Plan A police cuts would eliminate 27 sworn police positions, which are all vacant, and outsource school crossing guards, along with a few other cuts to save $3.8 million.
The Plan B police budget would cut 44 patrol officers and five patrol sergeants and their vehicles to save $6 million.
The $1.5 million police academy funding had been placed among the Plan B reductions to give the council another savings option, but it isn't necessary to make up for the police officers' pay raises, Farrell said.
This article was originally posted on 9/08/10 by the Press Telegram, We at All American Bail Bonds felt it was relevant to our commitment to post information on Bail Bonds and Law Enforcement.
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