Tulsa Police Chief Talks About Cuts

[DowntownNow]

Posted on News 6 this evening.

Tulsa Police Chief Talks About Cuts
Posted: Dec 28, 2009 5:44 PM CST
Updated: Dec 28, 2009 6:26 PM CST

By Lori Fullbright, The News On 6

Tulsa, OK -- With our economy in crisis, Tulsa police wait to find out how many officers could be laid off next week.

It could range from 56 to 135, depending on the city's sales tax numbers.

The News On 6 sat down for a one-on-one interview with Police Chief Ron Palmer today to talk about the budget crisis.

He told The News On 6 he presented options to the mayor and city council that would mean no lay-offs at all.

"These are the most difficult times I've ever seen," Palmer said.

The Mayor recently asked Chief Ron Palmer for two budget estimates, one that cuts 2.2% from the police budget.

The chief says that equaled 56 officers being laid off along with a half million in other cuts, like firing non- officers, cutting back on fuel and freezing open positions.

The second scenario was a 4.4% budget cut.

That would mean laying off 135 officers along with the same half million in cuts.

The chief also sent the mayor something else, suggestions for finding money elsewhere that would mean no layoffs.

"We wanted to bring to their attention there are other options they can explore before they sign the dotted line and police officers go out the door and we have layoffs," Palmer said.

They include taking $3 million designated to buy police cars and use it for salaries and selling the older of the two police choppers for around a million dollars and using that for salaries both of those would require a vote of the people.

Palmer believes citizens would vote yes.

"I think the bottom line is we'll rely on the citizens of Tulsa to determine how much money is spent on public safety," Palmer said.

He also suggested they take federal grant money that was set aside for keeping guns off the streets and cleaning up meth houses and asking the feds to let them use that for salaries.

Those ideas, along with the union's recent decision to give up take home police cars and change the way they pay overtime would save jobs.

The union also says the city's trash to energy fund has $11 million in it, which could prevent all lay-offs, not just police and fire.

If the mayor and council choose lay-offs and if it's the worst case scenario of 135 officers, that's 17% of the police force.

Chief Palmer says basic police service would remain, you call 911, you get a cop and homicides would still be investigated but many other services could disappear. No more officers working undercover drug cases, investigating hit-and-runs, car thefts or burglaries.

You can read Chief Palmer's budget cuts proposals below. The proposal to save all officer jobs is in the final four items under the mitigate force reduction line in bold.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There are cuts common to both the 2.2% reduction (Approx $1.7+ M) and the

4.4% reduction (Approx $3.4+ M) - They are listed below:

Proposed Reduction Account Type Approx. Reduction

Further Reduce Office Supplies + Non-Cap Equip Material and Supplies $11.7 K

Further Reduce Printing/Reproduction Services and Charges $20.2 K

Reduce Police Recruiting Budget " $11.5 K

Reduce Motor Fuels " $11.0 K

Refund From Helicopter Liability Insurance " $35.2 K

Helicopter Building Lease reduction " $25.0 K

Freeze Internal Affairs Vacant Position (Civilian) Personal Services $42.0 K

Freeze Vacant Police Sgt. Position " $72.5 K

Freeze three (3) Vacant Office Assistant Positions (Civ) " $63.3 K

Freeze one(1) Vacant Office Admin Position (Civ) " $33.6 K

Layoff six (6) retired officer hire backs " $62.0 K

Layoff one (1) CALEA accreditation Mgr. (Civ) " $32.5 K

Layoff three (3) Office Assistants (Civ) " $54.3 K

Layoff three (3) OT 18 Office Administrators (Civ) " $34.1 K

Layoff one (1) OT 16 Office Administrator (Civ) " $14.1 K

Estimated Fuel Savings Services and Charges $13.7 K

To get to the desired savings requested, then we had to look at laying off police officers as outlined below:

To meet the 2.2% - 56 police officers at a cost of $1,209.530 were included in addition to above for a total of $1,746,759

To meet the 4.4% - 135 police officers at a cost of $2,923,563 were included in addition to above for a total of $3,460,792

Our recommendations to "Mitigate Force Reduction" included:

1. Use 3rd Penny sales tax unexpended money earmarked for police vehicles in FY 10 by a "Brown Ordinance" amendment to be transferred to use in salary accounts. A Tedious, public approval process, but do-able. $3M dollars currently available.

2. Sell the older (2003 purchase) of the police helicopters, again use a Brown Ordinance amendment to transfer the sale of the capital item to salary accounts. Estimated value of this copter is $1.1M to $1.3 M.

3. Divert current JAG/Byrne monies already in had designated to other police projects to salary accounts for a short term, fix to the immediacy of needed cash infusion to avoid further lay-offs. This option would require we re-apply to the Fed for the purpose of re-defining use. We were in the process of using this money to rehire the 3 remaining officers laid off previously when instructed to submit further cuts, so we know this reapplication is also do-able. The down side is that officers must be laid off, prior to approval to use the money for hiring.

4. The favorable consideration of the MOU's presented by the FOP relating to concessions relating to take-home cars outside the city limits, minimum staffing levels, and the use of e-time. Roughly estimated at approximately combined total of $600K+

Ron Palmer

First, I have a huge problem with Palmer and the FOP Union eyeing the $11 million that TARE has in its reserves.  Those reserves were created through the overbilling of Tulsa citizens for years of trash service charges.  They are currently used to subsidize Tulsa's trash service and use of those funds would necessitate an increase in utility charges to cover that subsidy.  Additionally, it would allow the FOP to continue forcibly negotiating a city into living outside its means if millions of dollars were suddenly made available.

I do agree with Palmer's recommendation to curtail capital spending on new vehicles in lieu of retaining officers.  I think Tulsa's would vote for such a change.

I also think Palmer's idea of selling the older of the two helicopters is good, however, I think Bartlett has already been trying that one and its been reported that they are not having the best of luck selling in a depressed market economy.

I liked this little known line item in Palmer's recommendations which seems to support many a person's argument on police salary:

Freeze Vacant Police Sgt. Position $72.5k

...what?!  $72.5k??  How many times have we heard officer's report here or on Tulsa World that no one makes that much in the rank and file?

[tulsa_fan]

I don't think Sgt qualifies as "rank and file" that's management. 

[Nik]

Please tell me if this is true or not. I was told this by a friend and wondered if it was true. He said that with the $3 that was added to the water bills to pay for EMSA, EMSA has accrued upwards of $5 million surplus. OKC, which doesn't have the tax and, has some of their EMSA coverage paid for from the Tulsa surplus. is that correct?

[DowntownNow]

'Rank and file' is simply semantics.  These positions are promoted from within the department.  According to the Tulsa World City Employee database, the following positions classified as other than 'police officer' are:

LARSEN, DENNIS L POLICE DEPUTY CHIEF FOP $104,285.76
WEBSTER, ALVIN D POLICE DEPUTY CHIEF FOP $104,285.76
MCCRORY, MARK D POLICE DEPUTY CHIEF FOP $110,626.32
PALMER, RONALD CHIEF OF POLICE $165,000.00  
SMITH JR, GEORGE E POLICE INFO RESOUR MANAGE $97,053.84

There are 7 ranked as POLICE MAJOR $93,617.76
There are 2 ranked as POLICE MAJOR $88,252.08
There are 23 ranked as POLICE CAPTAIN $82,235.28
There are 2 ranked as POLICE CAPTAIN $77,521.92
There are 62 ranked as POLICE SERGEANT $71,002.32
HANNON, LORI R POLICE & FIRE TESTING COO $68,930.64
There are 64 ranked as POLICE CORPORAL $67,621.20
There are 5 ranked as POLICE SERGEANT $66,932.88
There are 15 ranked as POLICE SERGEANT $64,358.40
There are 4 ranked as POLICE CORPORAL $61,467.36

Essentially 500 or 61.8% out of the assumed force of 808 sworn officers make over $60,954.96/year.  

[RecycleMichael]

Good work DowntownNow.

I have heard that many officers make up to 20% more each year with overtime. I never see press coverage of overtime pay.

[sgrizzle]

Good work DowntownNow.

I have heard that many officers make up to 20% more each year with overtime. I never see press coverage of overtime pay.

one of KT's requests to the FOP was to require 5 day notice for vacation time. Supposedly it would've reduced the majority of the money spent on overtime.

[Conan71]

So, what's the implication here? That we should not promote officers and have pay grades based on years of service, merit, and the need for a management infrastructure in a department with 700 to 800 employees?  I have no idea how many corporals, sergeants, captains, and majors we truly need.  However, if you take out advancement opportunities that takes out a lot of recruiting incentive for high-quality candidates who will go to another department in another city. 

If many of these titles are ceremonial and we have an overage of desk jockeys who don't have enough work to fill their day at a time when we have high crime rates then there is a problem and we might need to look into returning some of the desk jockeys to the field, at least as part of their duties if there is not a need for that much administrative help at a time when it appears we need more officers on patrol.

[RecycleMichael]

I am disturbed that all the police keep saying is to find money for "more salaries". Everything is about "more salaries".

...They include taking $3 million designated to buy police cars and use it for salaries...

...Sell the older (2003 purchase) of the police helicopters, again use a Brown Ordinance amendment to transfer the sale of the capital item to salary accounts.

He also suggested they take federal grant money that was set aside for keeping guns off the streets and cleaning up meth houses and asking the feds to let them use that for salaries.

Even take money from other departments...

[DowntownNow]

Thank you Michael.  And that is precisely my point.  The FOP and the Fire Unions continually utilize fear tactics to appeal to the Tulsa citizen, pressuring them to provide more and more.  For years, taxes were supposed to go for increased personnel...instead those monies went to increases in salaries and benefits for existing personnel. 

Unfortunately, Tulsa is now finding out what many have said was going to happen...the overhead can not be supported by the revenues, our departments live outside their means when it comes to salaries and benefits to the detriment of other city department and services. 

While I believe there needs to be some advancement opportunities within any organization...continued advancement simply based on years of service with little regard to budget is the wrong way to go about it.  In the private sector, companies would go out of business with this model.  In the private sector, there are caps to advancement and position in order to maintain control over salary and benefit costs. 

I hate to say it, but do those that are in the department 20+ years truly have that greater an understanding of the job than someone in there 5 years?  They each are to provide the same level of service.  Just because someone hits the 10 year mark why do they have to be promoted with a pay increase? 

At what point does the department say, we have only so many sargeant, corporal and major positions to fill until one is retired?  Until then, sorry, you are capped at X pay.  No position should be based on seniority but on merit...such a model promotes a better quality officer and that is a much greater benefit to the community.

[MH2010]

"At what point does the department say, we have only so many sargeant, corporal and major positions to fill until one is retired?  Until then, sorry, you are capped at X pay.  No position should be based on seniority but on merit...such a model promotes a better quality officer and that is a much greater benefit to the community."

That is exactly what the police department does. According to the last personel email that came out, The police department has 3 deputy chiefs, 9 majors, 25 captains, 73 sergeants, 72 corporals and 626 officers.

The city of Tulsa sets the number of deputy chiefs, majors, captains, sergeants and corporals.  No one can promote to a higher rank until there is a vacancy.  Vacancies occur when someone of that rank is promoted to a higher rank, demoted, retire, quit or fired. The tests are highly competative.  Usually around 100-150 people test for sergeant and/or corporal each year.  Out of that 100-150 people that test, a list is made that ranks how everyone did.  That promotional list is good for one year.  There may only be one opening for that year so only one person off the list gets promoted or there may be 4 or 5. Some years no one is promoted. You never really know.  

There are promotional tests for sergeants and corporals usually happen every year. The tests for captains, majors and deputy chiefs are only when a position is opened up.  

No one on the Tulsa police department is promoted just because of senority.

[Conan71]

Again, what other departments are coming under such close scruitiny though?  A common thread on this forum seems to be crappy police work, a crappy DA's office, and high crime that doesn't seem to ever make a measurable push downward.

We need to evaluate our priorities.  How many jobs in public works, IT, billing, purchasing, accounting, etc. could be eliminated through consolidation of duties?  Do we want pristine streets to drive on?  Do we want new ball parks, thriving river parks, arenas and convention centers designed to bring in revenue or do we want more protection from fire and crime?  Public safety and the others I mentioned seem to be mutually-exclusive issues.  Now with state budgets falling short, it's appearing more and more that the Tulsa delegation in OKC is running out of chances to bring in more funding for our city operations other than sales tax revenue.

Either we are going to have to pay more property tax, higher sales taxes, or simply cut from other departments if public safety is our highest priority. If it's not then fine, lay off officers and firemen and go on down the road.  I think the main reason these two departments get so much attention is because they are represented by unions.  To my knowledge, no other department in the city is unionized, is it?  Where's a performance audit of each department to determine waste and asking for cuts there as well?  Perhaps this is an opportune time to combine the SD with the PD much like it's done with other city/counties in the country.

[sgrizzle]

Again, what other departments are coming under such close scruitiny though?  A common thread on this forum seems to be crappy police work, a crappy DA's office, and high crime that doesn't seem to ever make a measurable push downward.

We need to evaluate our priorities.  How many jobs in public works, IT, billing, purchasing, accounting, etc. could be eliminated through consolidation of duties?  Do we want pristine streets to drive on?  Do we want new ball parks, thriving river parks, arenas and convention centers designed to bring in revenue or do we want more protection from fire and crime?  Public safety and the others I mentioned seem to be mutually-exclusive issues.  Now with state budgets falling short, it's appearing more and more that the Tulsa delegation in OKC is running out of chances to bring in more funding for our city operations other than sales tax revenue.

Either we are going to have to pay more property tax, higher sales taxes, or simply cut from other departments if public safety is our highest priority. If it's not then fine, lay off officers and firemen and go on down the road.  I think the main reason these two departments get so much attention is because they are represented by unions.  To my knowledge, no other department in the city is unionized, is it?  Where's a performance audit of each department to determine waste and asking for cuts there as well?  Perhaps this is an opportune time to combine the SD with the PD much like it's done with other city/counties in the country.

A great number of the other city workers are represented by AFSCME.

And by all means, I would love to see Tulsa City-County combined as much as possible.

[PonderInc]

To me, cops are reactive; they don't prevent crime.  (Or their efforts at prevention are targeted at individuals who are already criminals.)  Sadly, in Tulsa and other cities, the departments that would have a long-term effect in reducing crime always take the first budget hit. 

Think about the Parks Department, for instance.  It always gets cut, as if all they do is mow grass and play games.

If Tulsa would expand Parks programming, there would be a lot more opportunities for at-risk young people (folks who haven't become criminals YET) to engage in activities that could help them develop skills, meet mentors, and discover a positive sense of self and community.  At a minimum, a thriving parks system would give young folks options: a safe place to go and spend their energies on sports, arts, educational and cultural activities...rather than hanging out in disruptive homes or unsupervised "on the streets."

Long-term, it will take more than an inflated Police budget to "solve" crime.  You've got to reach kids who are young enough to benefit from positive experiences and influences...to help them reach their potential and avoid succumbing to lousy life choices that lead to criminal behavior. 

I'd rather spend more money on Parks programing than overtime for cops.  It would benefit everyone, and, in the long run, it would be a lot cheaper.

[Conan71]

To me, cops are reactive; they don't prevent crime.  (Or their efforts at prevention are targeted at individuals who are already criminals.)  Sadly, in Tulsa and other cities, the departments that would have a long-term effect in reducing crime always take the first budget hit. 

Think about the Parks Department, for instance.  It always gets cut, as if all they do is mow grass and play games.

If Tulsa would expand Parks programming, there would be a lot more opportunities for at-risk young people (folks who haven't become criminals YET) to engage in activities that could help them develop skills, meet mentors, and discover a positive sense of self and community.  At a minimum, a thriving parks system would give young folks options: a safe place to go and spend their energies on sports, arts, educational and cultural activities...rather than hanging out in disruptive homes or unsupervised "on the streets."

Long-term, it will take more than an inflated Police budget to "solve" crime.  You've got to reach kids who are young enough to benefit from positive experiences and influences...to help them reach their potential and avoid succumbing to lousy life choices that lead to criminal behavior. 

I'd rather spend more money on Parks programing than overtime for cops.  It would benefit everyone, and, in the long run, it would be a lot cheaper.

Not to discount your assertion about the park budget at all as I think it's a valid point.  Volunteer organizations like Big Brothers Big Sisters are also effective prevention.  There's plenty of opportunities for people who have the time to put sweat equity into communities.

Beefed up patrols do act as a deterrent, so does neighborhood vigilance. 

[MH2010]

Here is a website that has pictures of the Tulsa police officers and Tulsa firefighters that will be laid-off in January.  It just started and is being updated pretty regularly.

http://www.tpdphoto.smugmug.com/Police-and-Fire-Pictures/Tulsa-Police-and-Tulsa-Fire