Police say cuts will impact street patrols, Move will help city’s budget, but exacerbate current under-staffing

January 1, 2010

By DAN JOHNSON

ARGUS-COURIER STAFF

The recent agreement by nearly 90 members of the Petaluma Police Department to take 96 hours off without pay during the next 18 months is designed to help the city’s budget situation, but it also will further deplete the already-understaffed department.

The city won’t have other officers work overtime to compensate, so the department’s workforce will at times be reduced, said Ron Klein, the president of the Petaluma Police Officers Association.

The reduction in staff hours will impact street patrols, said Lt. Mike Cook.

“We are concerned about this,” he said. “We have shifted some of our resources to patrol by eliminating specialty units, and this has allowed us to maintain our street staffing without filling it with overtime.

“Providing additional time off for officers creates more work in trying to monitor appropriate staffing levels on the streets.”

The 81 members of the Petaluma Police Officers Association and eight members of the Petaluma Public Safety Mid Managers — consisting of senior managers in the city’s police and fire departments — agreed to each take the hours off between Jan. 1, 2010 and June 30, 2011 to help with city budget cutbacks.

This agreement is tentative, pending approval of the Petaluma City Council, and affects 52 police officers as well as several managers, dispatchers and civilian workers. The furloughs will result in a 3.1 percent reduction in the employees’ salaries, and can be taken a few hours at a time or for longer periods.

City Manager John Brown is trying to reach similar tentative agreements with unions representing some 300 city workers whose salaries also are paid by the General Fund. The pay cuts are designed to prevent layoffs and help balance the city’s General Fund deficit of around $3 million.

In a written statement, Klein explained the reasons why the police association agreed to the salary reduction and work furloughs.

“As the associations representing the police officers and public safety managers, we felt that it would be important to take a lead role in assisting the city in its financial crisis and to allow our associations to better serve the residents of our community,” he wrote. “The decision was not easy, as Petaluma Police Officers Association members have been without a contract since June of 2008. The police officers association has in recent years suffered to retain trained officers, often losing them to more competitive-paying departments.”

Klein also said that in 2005 the department was 28 percent behind comparable-size cities in salary and that 12 positions have been eliminated or frozen.

(Contact Dan Johnson at dan.johnson@arguscourier.com)