No Cuts To Police and Fire

I guess I should not be surprised that certain Watsonville city leaders continue to show their incompetence and lack of vision by even considering cutting our police and fire services. This is after allowing Daniel Dodge to cause the city to pay $80,000.00+ that it can’t afford to have a special election in June instead of just waiting until November. The city is also facing the reality of having to pay the state back $4.4 million in Redevelopment funds that the city misappropriated. And we all know about the fire truck fiasco. Now amongst the city’s gross financial mismanagement, it is threatening to cut public safety and is issuing pink slips at the same time that they are trying to convince us that financial Armageddon is looming if we do not vote for Measure T.

Before the city even considers cutting essential services like fire and police (which by the way are mandated by the State of California), it should take a look at two other places to make cuts. Let’s begin with the City Manager’s office. It is public record that our City Manager makes $191,129.12 per year, not including perks like gas and car allowance, bilingual pay, pension and medical benefits, etc. An article published in the Los Angeles Times, dated March 13, 2013, indicated that Governor Jerry Brown’s salary in 2012 was $173,000.00. So, the Manager of a cash-strapped city of about 50,000 people (22% of whom are unemployed) makes over $18,000.00 more than the governor of our state? And this does not even include the exorbitant salaries and perks paid to his staff. Yet, an article in the May 18th edition of the RP (City May Cut Some Police, Fire Jobs) quoted union reps saying, “city management received wage increases ranging from $1,000.00 to $20,000.00 since 2009.” The same article then speaks of a Library Assistant who has worked for the city for 15 years who has endured cuts that have forced her to live paycheck-to-paycheck and unable to meet unexpected expenses. What’s wrong with this picture?

The other place the city should look for cuts before resorting to cutting public safety are non-essential services, such as ones provided by the Parks and Recreation Department. Yes, I am very familiar with the fact that many Parks and Rec programs help to keep kids off the streets and out of trouble. I am not disputing that these services are valuable, and in better times, I would love to see the Parks and Rec budget significantly expanded. But with the current budget woes, when push comes to shove, our police and fire should be the priority. Right now we simply cannot afford all of the freebies that parents should be providing for their own children anyway, like supervision and guidance, recreation and food.

Bottom line, crime will increase and response time by the fire department will suffer if these departments, which are already cut back to bare bones, are cut even further. This is at the same time the Santa Cruz Police Department is recruiting officers and offering big sign-up bonuses. While our city is no doubt in financial straits, keep in mind that the prospect of cutting our public safety serves as a convenient scare tactic to convince us to vote for Measure T. Destroying prime farmland to build big box stores that pay minimum wage and run our local small businesses into the ground will not help us to hire more police officers and fire personnel. No cuts to our police and fire, and vote NO on Measure T.