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Cities cutting safety forces as costs rise

The budgets for Hamilton fire and police services have increased in the past decade, despite annual revenues being less than expenditures for most of those years. Staff photo by Nick Daggy

Staff photo by Nick Daggy The budgets for Hamilton fire and police services have increased in the past decade, despite annual revenues being less than expenditures for most of those years. Staff photo by Nick Daggy

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By By Richard Wilson, Staff Writer 12:10 AM Monday, December 5, 2011

The costs to support police and fire services in Butler County’s two largest municipalities have increased at the expense of other city services.

The trend reflects the priorities set by city leaders in a tough economy to reduce other services in order to keep police and firefighters on the streets.

But as revenues continue to drop from income and property taxes and from the state, city leaders are faced with cutting safety services jobs to balance budgets.

A JournalNews analysis shows that the city of Middletown has reduced nonsafety services by approximately $2.1 million since 2000. The city of Hamilton has cut its nonsafety services by about $2.3 million during the same time period.

Compared to police and fire services, in Middletown, the police budget increased 31 percent and the fire budget 32 percent since 2000, city records show.

In Hamilton, city records indicate since 2000 the police budget increased 43 percent and the fire budget rose 66 percent.

While the cost of Middletown’s safety services has increased at about the rate of inflation of 31.5 percent, according to the U.S. Consumer Price Index, Hamilton’s costs to support police services have increased 12 percent beyond inflation and about 34 percent beyond inflation for fire services.

The inflation rate translates to this: Because of higher costs for various commodities, what you could buy for $50 in 2000 would cost about $66 today, according to Consumer Pricing Index.

Inflation coupled with new technology costs and the significant rises in health care costs have contributed to the rise in safety services budgets, more so than salaries, said Brian Robinson, Hamilton police union president.

Robinson said there are other added costs for police to use databases for stolen goods and for fingerprint services.

“The costs for everything have gone up,” he said. “We have computers in cruisers now. There are new costs to stay up with technology and provide the services that everyone expects in this day and age.”

Within the next year, the Hamilton Police Department will have 17 fewer employees than in 2000, according to Chief Neil Ferdelman. That’s because the police union agreed to reduce manpower to 105 officers, which is below national standards of 125 officers for a department in a city the size of Hamilton, Smith said.

In 2000, there were 122 police officers, no corrections officers and 31 dispatchers and clerks. Now there are 112 officers, nine corrections officers and 22 dispatchers and clerks, Ferdelman said.

Since 2008, the police budget has been reduced by nearly $2 million Ferdelman said, but calls for police service have also decreased, from 71,612 in 2000 to 65,823 in 2010, according to city records.

“We have not decreased patrol levels, and have eliminated school resource officers and have recently reduced Community-Oriented Policing officers,” Ferdelman said. “This will continue as further reductions take place.”

Contrary to police numbers, calls for service for fire and medical services for the Hamilton Fire Department have increased, but staffing levels have remained about the same as costs have increased.

There were 9,415 fire and medical runs in 2000, compared to 11,385 runs in 2010, according to Hamilton fire Chief Joe Schutte. There were 109 full-time employees under the fire department in 2000, compared to 110 now, Schutte said.

The Hamilton fire union contract contains a minimum staffing clause, which means overtime if people are out sick or on vacation. When staffing dipped to 106 between 2008 and 2010, overtime was a significant factor in the fire budget increase, city officials have said.

The Middletown Division of Fire is estimated to handle a total 10,596 calls in 2011. Middletown fire Chief Steve Botts predicts 11,225 in 2012.

Middletown City Council recently voted on the 2012 budget, which includes cutting nine firefighters from the payroll as part of cuts to public safety services of $2.6 million, city records show.

Hamilton council members have not yet approved next year’s budget, but City Manager Joshua Smith said there will not be any layoffs, primarily because of a sizeable estate tax settlement that is providing a $5.9 million cushion to absorb costs next year.

According to a study by the National League of Cities, there is typically a lag between the economic cycle and city fiscal conditions, and the impact from the most recent recession, which started in September 2008, may be hitting municipalities now.

The low point for city revenues and expenditures after the 1991 recession occurred in 1993 and after the 2001 recession, the low point for city revenues and expenditures occurred in 2003, according to the NLC study.

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4542 or rwilson@coxohio.com.

Where the money goes

Police, fire and remaining general fund expenditures:

Hamilton

Police

2000 $10.5 million

2012 $15 million

Fire

2000 $7.6 million

2012 $12.5 million

Remaining general fund

2000 $17 million