Sacramento Mayor Steinberg wants council to reject city manager’s plan to add cops
Under immense pressure to reduce police funding, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg is rallying the City Council to reject City Manager Howard Chan’s proposal to add new police positions to the city budget.
Chan’s proposal would add 10 new sworn officer positions to the current city budget — positions he says would improve the department’s transparency, equity and accountability at a time it’s facing intense public scrutiny. It also includes training and overtime, adding a total of $3.6 million to the department’s budget that’s already at an all-time high of $157.5 million for this year.
Steinberg said Tuesday that while he supports adding the positions to the next budget, which starts July 1, the money available now should instead be spent on sparking construction of affordable housing, youth programs and participatory budgeting.
“I’d rather take the money now and use it for other priorities,” Steinberg said during a meeting of the council’s Budget and Audit Committee. “I believe we should send the right signal with the mid-year budget expenditure plan.”
The controversial proposal comes after the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd ignited a national “defund” movement, with communities of color across the country calling on cities to reduce police funding and redirect money to youth, mental health and other services. Sacramento responded to the movement not by removing police funding, but did create a new office that will take over response to homeless and mental health-related 911 calls. The mid-year budget proposal includes $2 million to hire 12 non-police employees in the department, called the Office of Community Response.
Chan’s proposed police additions would bring the number of budgeted sworn police positions in the budget from 751 to 761. But the department doesn’t actually have all those positions filled. As of Jan. 15, the department had 711 sworn officers employed, according to department data. That’s more than the 2008 level of 710 officers, but below the 735 officers the department employed when the Great Recession began striking the city budget in 2007.
The earliest the city could fill the 10 new positions, if added now, would be December, after the current academy and next academy graduate, Police Chief Daniel Hahn said in response to Steinberg’s question. Therefore, keeping the new police positions out of the budget will not prevent the department from hiring new officers as planned in this current fiscal year, which ends June 30, Steinberg pointed out.
The budgeted 761 sworn positions would still be far fewer than the 804 budgeted positions that were included in the 2008 budget, when the city’s population was much smaller. This year, the department has been operating with roughly the same number of sworn officers it had in 2010, despite the city adding more than 47,000 residents since, a roughly 10% increase, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The city officers’ union supports the proposal to make what it called a “small increase in staffing levels.”
“While the increase still fails to return the department to pre-recession staffing levels, it is a step in the right direction,” Sacramento Police Officers Association President Officer Tim Davis said in a statement. “Our Sacramento police officers are exhausted from a long year dealing with increased violent crime, a global pandemic, and consistent mandatory overtime brought on by protests and riots. We welcome any staffing increases the city can provide and encourage the city to continue to work towards achieving staffing levels that adequately address a rapidly growing population, increased violent crime, and the safety demands of a diverse population.”
During the meeting, a slew of business owners — including David Shippman, general manager of the Citizen Hotel and Kevin Fat, CEO of the Fat Family Restaurant Group — called to say they supported the new police positions.
“There’s no sugar coating the impacts we’ve seen downtown with the pandemic,” said Michael Ault, executive director of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, which represents downtown businesses.
What would new police funding go toward?
The hiring proposal would include about $1.1 million for the 10 new positions, including two new officers to work in the internal affairs unit, investigating officers’ wrongdoing. It would also include six new officers for the background unit, which would help the department attract more people of color and women to be hired as officers — a recommendation in a recent Department of Justice report. It also includes one officer for the drone unit and one officer for the professional standards unit, which handles data and footage on use of force incidents.
While those positions are vacant, the department can assign patrol officers to those duties and make up the difference with overtime, Steinberg said.
The $3.6 million proposal also includes an additional $2.5 million for police overtime, meaning the department is expected to hit about $7 million in overtime this year. A consultant’s report recommended the city cut down on police and fire overtime, which has skyrocketed in the last 10 years.
“The pandemic, increasing homelessness, increased demands for de-escalation and public demonstrations in the City have resulted in rising overtime costs,” Chan’s proposal said.
Also included in the $3.6 million is about $370,000 for training for officers to use “new innovative less-lethal tools.” The city is facing multiple lawsuits from people who were struck in the face by officers’ rubber bullets during the largely peaceful protests against police brutality this summer.
It’s unclear if the City Council will agree with Steinberg to reject the request for additional police staff, but he will certainly have the support of new members Katie Valenzuela and Mai Vang. During the Budget and Audit Committee meeting, Vang agreed with Steinberg on rejecting the new positions. Councilman Eric Guerra said he supported sending the proposal to the full council for consideration. Councilman Rick Jennings said he is not yet ready to make a decision, and wants to talk with Hahn and Chan.
Valenzuela, who was not appointed to the committee, agreed with Steinberg in opposing the new positions. “I’m opposed to continuing to grow the department when we’re actively having the conversation about shrinking the things they respond to,” Valenzuela said.
Although the department staffing is still below pre-recession levels, Valenzuela, a supporter of the “defund” movement, says that should no longer be the benchmark.
Of the more than 3,500 people who responded to the People’s Budget Sacramento survey this year, organized by a coalition of activists including Valenzuela, 80% said they wanted less funding to go toward the police department and Sheriff’s Office. On the other side, a recent city survey about coronavirus stimulus funds found 83% of residents said uninterrupted police, fire and emergency medical services were extremely or very important.
Although the coronavirus pandemic took a hit to the city budget, it was not as drastic as staff originally projected when they expected at least $90 million in projected revenue would be lost. The city now expects about $26 million in projected revenue to be lost due to the pandemic, which gives the city a roughly $40 million surplus.
The full council is expected to consider the mid-year budget, including Steinberg’s proposal, at its meeting Feb. 2.
This story was originally published January 26, 2021 at 5:10 PM.
