Politics & Government

New Snag for Filling Police Vacancies

El Cerrito's pledge to bring the police department up to full strength with the Measure R sales tax hike has been stymied by the threatened loss of funding for police assigned to schools, city officials say.

El Cerrito's efforts to bring the police department up to full strength have run into another barrier, according to city officials.

The West Contra Costa Unified School District, which has been paying for three El Cerrito police officers to be assigned to schools in the city — two at and one at — has notified the city that it will terminate the funding as of June 30 next year.

As a result, City Manager Scott Hanin told the City Council in a recent memo that it will be necessary to maintain three vacancies in the department until funding for the three uniformed officers now assigned to schools can be identified for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, 2012.

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During last year's campaign for Measure R — which El Cerrito voters passed in November and which raised the city's sales tax to 10.25 percent — revenues from the boost would be used to bring the police and fire departments up to full strength. Measure R was intended not just for police but to maintain a broad range of city services at their existing levels.

The authorized strength for the police department is 46 officers, including the three assigned to the schools and the police chief, according to Police Chief Sylvia Moir.

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In an interview Thursday, Moir said the loss of school district funding for the three school officers introduced an unexpected potential  burden on city finances that had not been anticipated during the Measure R campaign.

She said it would be "irresponsible" for the department to fill all the vacancies and then find itself forced to lay off officers if no funding is found to replace the $420,000 per year that the school district now pays the city for the three officers.

"I think the community not only expects us to live up to our commitments under Measure R but also to evaluate the different conditions we're operating under and not be fiscally irresponsible," she said.

She said any intentional vacancies could be short-lived if the city is successful in expected negotiations with the school district over a new contract for funding officers assigned to schools.

Councilwoman Janet Abelson, who was mayor during the Measure R campaign and , said the school district's cancelation of its officer-funding contract is a new turn of events whose consequences are difficult to predict, particularly because of other financial uncertainties besetting the city, including the fate of its Redevelopment Agency.

"This is new information," she said. "This just happened."

Abelson, who in El Cerrito schools, said the police officers in the middle school and high school have "really had a major impact in safety in the school."

"I think it's important that the school district keep these officers," she said.

Charles Ramsey, president of the West County school board, that the school resource officers throughout district schools have made a "huge difference" in providing a more relaxed, secure environment on school campuses.

The district funds officers at several schools in West County cities — El Cerrito, Hercules, Pinole and Richmond. El Cerrito, the only city that doesn't pay for at least one officer, draws a large proportion of students from outside the city limits. The attached chart provides a breakdown of funding for police officers assigned to district schools.

The school district sent notice of cancelation of all its contracts that subsidize officers in district schools, not just those in El Cerrito, said Sheri Gamba, associate superintendent of business services for the district.

The district's struggle to maintain funds for the officers has become more difficult year by year, as the district has cut staff, increased class size, reduced employee benefits and made other cuts, she said.

"This has been going on for more than three years — cut, cut, cut," Gamba said. A major contributing factor is the loss of federal stimulus money that the district had been receiving, she said.

Moir said the El Cerrito police department currently has three sworn-personnel vacancies, following a recent retirement on July 9, but that the number of openings will shrink to one on Monday when two new officers are sworn in. However, four more officers are due to retire in this fiscal year, an unusually high number in one year, she said.

When Hanin presented the new city budget for the current fiscal year, 2011-12, to the City Council on June 6, he said the budget calls for continued vacancies in the department in the 2011-12 fiscal year because of the difficulties of replacing six members of the department who are retiring during the year. That was before he received the school district notice, which was sent in a June 29 letter from district Superintendent Bruce Harter. (See copy attached above.)

The next El Cerrito police officer retirement will be in September, and the department has been screening candidates for that position, the current opening and the other three that are expected to open, including two in December and one in the spring, Moir said. By proceeding now with the arduous and long screening process, the department can more quickly fill any openings that may be left intentionally vacant, once the funding green-light is given, she said.

In the run-up to the Measure R vote, the department had four vacancies among sworn officers, police Lt. Steve Bonini said at a city-sponsored information meeting on Measure R on Oct. 11. The missing officers represented "cases that aren't being handled," he said.


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