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One of the key items on tonight's Oro Valley Town Council agenda is the $94 Million Oro Valley Town Budget. Greg Caton, acting town manager, will present it. This is about 4% greater than last year's budget.
You can view Greg's presentation by clicking here and then locating and downloading Regular Agenda Item 1.
The budget is really comprised of various funds. The largest is the General Fund, which includes such items as the Police Budget. "The recommended General Fund budget totals $26.8 million (excluding contingency reserves of $10.9 million), and is 1.8%, or $472,000, more than the current year adopted budget of $26.3 million." (Source: Caton Budget Presentation, Page VI)
We have begun our analysis of the budget. So, you we will be writing much more about it in future postings. At the moment, however, we think it best to have the town introduce and discuss it before we begin commenting.
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8 comments:
Part I
Since the Host of this blog has elected to wait until a later date to open a discussion about the police department, I will graciously point out when posts seemingly point out the OVPD unfairly. This post starts out fine, and then it introduces “The largest is the General Fund, which includes such items as the Police Budget.” Pray tell why the OVPD is highlighted here and not some other Town department. The OVPD is a large part of the General Fund budget, but what about the other 53% of it? What is included in that 53%? Why isn’t that singled out? Tell me if I am crunching the numbers wrong, but I have read over and over again on this blog that the OVPD is 47% of the budget. If the budget is $94 million and the OVPD budget is roughly $12.6 million isn’t that 13.4% of the budget? 47% of the Town budget would be $44.18 million. It is 47% of the General Fund budget, not the overall Town budget, right? So, just to make it clear… 86.6% of the Town’s money is being spent on things other than the OVPD, right? Please let me know if I am wrong. And please let me know if I am wrong about the OVPD being the only department in the Town that is singled out in this post. Since we will talk about the OVPD at a later date I just want to finish the discussion that was posted under the MUN posting. The following does have to do with the budget, but more about common sense. So, read on if you would like to, but if you strictly want to talk about money you can pick and choose which sentences you would like to read…
I agree that budgets should be scrutinized, especially in this day and age of government overspending. It just seems that this blog panders to what amounts to a “lynch mob” when it comes to the OVPD. We have a police budget that is handled by the staff that works for the Town/department. Are we saying that we don’t trust the decision makers that we have hired to run the police department and/or the Town? If so, then why are they working for us? What is the point of having employees, and then paying thousands of dollars to some outside agency to check up on them? Why don’t we just hire the people from this outside company to run the department? I think our Town and OVPD staff members are more than capable at making a decision as to what “office supplies” to purchase, and negotiating contracts for “daily durable goods.” Do we really need to pay somebody thousands of dollars to come and tell us to buy our office supplies from a different supplier? Do you think that the OVPD doesn’t research these things? A secretary straight out of high school can research where to buy office supplies and get the best deal for them, and you are saying that seasoned professionals can’t? If we need to pay somebody else thousands of dollars to tell us these things then we have a much bigger problem than even you think we do.
I hope that anyone that writes about the OVPD on here has taken a tour of their facilities and has gone on a ride-a-long or two with them to see what they have to work with. Maybe the reason that the department’s budget is large is because an officer works with the same five cent pen that the rest of the Town’s departments work with, and on top of that they carry a couple hundred dollar gun on their hip, wear $700-$800 worth of body armor, and drive around 24/7 in patrol vehicles. Not to mention the mounds of paperwork that is used because the Town won’t invest in a paperless report system, and the cost of keeping an organization full of well-trained first responders is high. The list goes on and on… Which of these things would you like to cut back on? We want our officers to be the best at handling any given situation that comes their way, right?
Part II
Any management/leadership class will tell you that your people are your greatest asset. Bottom line is that your people need to be taken care of and feel appreciated. How could officers with the OVPD feel appreciated when the town is sitting on money and they haven’t been given raises in four years. How would this not be construed as a thankless and dead end job? Officers that were hired four or more years ago were told that they would be bumped to the next step in their pay scale if and/or when they receive favorable marks on their annual reviews, and they have not been bumped up. Where is their motivation supposed to come from? Granted, police officers do not become police officers to become rich. It takes a special person with a certain drive to want to make the world a better/safer place for people that they don’t even know. So, on the one hand they are doing it out of the kindness of their hearts, but on the other hand they need to support their families and feel that they are being rewarded for what they do. “Just be thankful that you have a job” does not cut it anymore. So, when good officers take positions elsewhere who do you think will fill their positions? If you were a solid officer with another agency would you jump at the chance to join the OVPD where you know that they are four years behind on paying their employees what they should be getting paid? Even in the military there are ample opportunities for promotion and yearly COLAs. If you do well you get rewarded.
This is more than about the OVPD budget; this is about taking care of those that take care of you every day. A lot of us don’t see the behind the scenes activity that the OVPD conducts on a daily basis. This Town is not safe because there are no criminals; this Town is safe because men and women work hard every day to keep it that way. OVPD officers are not asking to get rich; they are asking to be paid what they were told they would when they signed on to work here.
An officer that was hired 4 years ago is still being paid as a recruit (Step 1: $44,075), and they should be getting paid at a step 5 by now ($52,062). That is nearly $8,000 a year that this person should be getting paid for the experience they bring to the table. Are we saying that our officers today aren’t worth that? $52,062 a year is not a huge amount of money for what these men and women in uniform do, and Step 5 is more than half way up the pay scale. An officer who was, and still is, at a Step 4 four years ago should be topped out at a Step 8 by now. That is a difference of (Step 8: $60,278 – Step 4: $49,587) nearly $10,700 per year! Officers knew when they took the job that if they worked for the OVPD for 8 years they would top out at a Step 8 and would not receive any more step increases after that. The officers are not asking for more steps to be added on, they are asking to be paid what they were told they would be paid. An officer with eight plus years on the street is well worth the $60,278 a year salary. Why don’t we show them that they are? *Note: these figures are all gross salaries.
Part III
Instead, we are telling those officers with four or so years of experience that they are worth as much as a recruit, and those with 8 years that they are worth as much as an officer with four years of experience. I know that the military doesn’t get paid a whole lot for what they do either, but at least they are paid what they were told they were going to be paid for their time in grade/time in service. The least that we can do for our men and women in uniform is pay them what we told them we would when they were hired by us, and give them the appreciation they deserve. Words of appreciation don’t feed families, or pay the bills. Trim the budget and buy our officer’s one ply toilet paper and gear from the lowest bidder if you must, but let them bring home the paycheck to their families that we told them they would be bringing home. This Town CAN afford it, and should invest in making the OVPD the premier police department in Arizona, and stop trying to bring them down to par. If you’re playing for par, you’re not playing to be the best. This isn’t a friendly Saturday morning game of golf we are talking about here; this is the safety of our Town and the livelihood of those that keep it safe. Take pride in this Town. Show Arizona that this is a place that they want to come to live, work, play, and shop in. Show Arizona that this is a safe Town because we have motivated police officers that are appreciated and work hard for every cent that we give them. Most of all show our officer’s that they are appreciated with more than a “they are great” “they’re not the problem” posting on this blog. Pay them what they are worth… and if you don’t think that they are worth paying what we said we would pay them when we hired them…then we lied to them and we have failed them.
If you agree that OVPD officers should be paid what we promised them, then I would expect the same chatter from all of you on this blog that you give to the “gang of four” or whatever other “hot” topic of the day that you write about. I’ll hold my breath…..
Amen "OV"
You hit the nail on the head with your posts. I will add though that not only should the police officers get the raises that they deserve, all town employees should. It is my understanding that all employees salaries have been frozen for the last 4 days. They should get the pay that they deserve.
This is an exceptional town that we all take pride in. This is due to the excellent work of the dedicated town employees as well citizen involvement such as this blog. We need to show the town employees that they are appreciated or I fear we will lose them.
Thank you to the wonderful employees and the dedicated police officers.
As I have stated many times before:
Cut the number and associated costs of the take home vehicles and then increase police officer pay. Conduct a management study of the PD and use any savings to increase police officer pay.
At the risk of sounding like a geezer (which I am) I will also state that when I worked as a public servant, I was aware of only ONE take home vehicle for an US Army unit of over 20 thousand troops. I am sure there were and are public service, enforcement and other agencies where there was a justified need for more vehicles, but as a former supervisor/manager, I can assure you that the paperwork and associated costs to justify these vehicles would cause a normal, for profit civilian company into bankruptcy court.
I think OV has a very valid point when he mentions the mounds of paperwork required since the town will not invest in a paperless report system for the police. Do you think that a management study of the police would also mention this aa a potential cost savings?
Do the study
Lets face it, all governments are bureaucratic at the core, and TOV is no exception. And, like all bureaucracies, TOV is subject to bloat, self-aggrandizement, and a culture of privilege. We already pay taxes at the county, state, and federal levels, so before I buy into everything OV is expressing, TOVPD would need to get out of the SWAT business (we pay for this at the county level,) out of the Joint Task Force business (paid for at the county, state, and federal levels,) and out of the latest fad in police vehicle paint scheme business (take some of those savings to upgrade to a paperless system!) Just a couple of thoughts....
in my last post I meant 4 YEARS not 4 days.
Sorry about the typo.
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