The Editor's Desk
Additional commentary and newspaper insights
Alternative public safety staffing solutions
September 4th, 2008, 4:04 pm · 7 Comments · posted by Scott Shackford
Lest people think it’s outrageous of me to suggest that our police and fire staffing issues are a direct result of the significant pay and benefit increases we’ve given over the past few years, police officers in Clovis have voted to give back part of their pay in order help the city make its budget.
The fire department plans to follow suit. Why are they doing this? Because the departments feel they are understaffed and it’s a way to get the money to keep their numbers up to what they need them to be. The alternative would be layoffs.
Interesting. Read the full story at the Fresno Bee here.
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I find it interesting that at the bottom of the article it states that “The police and fire unions intend to educate the public over the next few months about the need for an increase in the city’s sales tax to help maintain police and fire services.” This tells me that their generosity by giving back wages and benefits to the city to balance its budget is only temporary. Also, this seems to be an apples to oranges comparison. As Barstow did not have any problems that I know of getting its budget in order. What works in Clovis will not necessarlity work in Barstow.
Oh I agree that their situation is different. They seem to be in a tougher bind than we are as far as their finances are concerned, and I haven’t checked to see what their salaries are.
But it does highlight that there’s more than one solution to these problems.
How would the Firefighters in Barstow give back money? I was under the impression that they are a special district and are not under the control of the city of Barstow and recieve their funding from the county. Wouldn’t that mean they would be giving money to the county?
The Barstow Fire Protection District, here in Barstow, manages the department, not the county, just as Barstow Unified School District manages the schools, even though the funding comes from the county.
Barstow firefighters are underpaid!But no one is talking about payraises. They need more help to protect the citizens of the fire district….period. More firefighters and police officiers. Read the facts on demandpublicsafety.com. I would give everything I have to ensure my family is safe. How about you?
Would you give back a raise? Or pension benefits?
I do not know much about how the Fire District is funded or staffed. I do not know whether it will be cheaper to contract this service to the county.
But, I do know somethnig about public safety expenses related to Barstow PD. I have done some research and found every city in the desert region of San Bernardino County (Victorville, Hesperia, Adelanto, Apple Valley, Yucca Valley, Twentynine Palms, and Needles) contract with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department (SBSD). These cities would all pay much more to fund their own PD. Needles and Adelanto used to have their own PD’s but now save taxpayer money contracting to the county.
For the 2008-2009 fiscal year, Barstow PD will have a budget of 7.2 Million dollars. That gives them 32 sworn officers and 20 civilian personnel. The Town of Apple Valley contracts with SBSD. They will pay 7 Million dollars for 55 Sworn personal and 13 civilian employees. They have less civilian employees because they use the Sheriff’ dispatch center in Victorville instead of having their own like Barstow does. So, Apple Valley pays 200,000 a year less for police services that Barstow will probably never have.
Why should the tax payers in Barstow fork over more money for a gradual increase in officers over a four or five year period when they could get what the Town of Apple Valley has sooner and cheaper??? Apple Valley currently has 35 patrol deputies, 8 detectives, traffic deputies esxlusively for the city, and gang deputies exclusively for the city. Also, the city would get access to SBSD’s Homicide detail, Gang detail, Aviation, Training, and numerous other special details for no extra charge.
Wake up Barstow, vote no on measure D, and demand the city council spend less of our money for much more public safety services by contracting out with SBSD!!!
By the way, the stats I used here can be found on the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s website under the Apple Valley Station link and the 2007 annual report, the Barstow City budget available on their website, and Desert Dispatch article printed on 09-19-08 about Barstow’s police staffing needs.