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After making deep cuts in the Police Department over the past two years in response to dwindling revenues, Palo Alto on Monday accelerated its push to hire more officers as part of a major adjustment to the city’s approved budget.
By a 5-1 vote, with council member Greg Tanaka dissenting and council member Tom DuBois absent, the council voted to adjust the budget and add 11 full-time positions across City Hall, including a new deputy director for the Police Department’s Technical Services Division. In addition, the council authorized Police Chief Robert Jonsen to recruit five additional officers, with the understanding that the city will approve funding for these positions in the upcoming budget cycle.
All six council members supported bolstering police staffing, though Tanaka voted against the motion because of concerns about other expenditures in the adjusted budget. These include a reduction in the city’s planned contributions for pensions for the coming year and funding relating to a ballot measure to create a business tax.
The council’s move is a response to two recent trends: a healthy uptick in sales- and hotel-tax revenues and growing concerns from businesses and residents about a recent rise in thefts in business districts and residential neighborhoods. It also follows the council’s decision last year to begin restoring some of the positions and services that it had cut in 2020 as part of an effort to reduce the budget by $40 million.
In the Police Department, the cuts meant the elimination of all specialty teams and a reduction in the number of investigators from 12 to four. With one detective currently injured, the number currently stands at three, Jonsen told the council Monday.
“We have really scaled down all our specialty positions to be nonexistent, that includes the detective position,” Jonsen said. “Until we fill patrol spots, we will not be able to fill the investigator positions.”
The budget that the council approved last June authorizes 125.33 positions in the department, down from 155 before the pandemic. This includes 79 sworn officer positions, though because of attrition and injuries the city currently has only 59 sworn officers, Jonsen said.
The Monday move came two days after the council adopted a new set of priorities for 2022, which includes “community health and safety.” On Monday, council members heard from residents and business owners who urged them to follow through on this priority by bolstering police staff.
Roger Smith was among them. Smith and the group Mothers Against Murder recently put out a $20,000 reward for information about a recent shooting that happened on South Court, when a resident tried to confront a group of people who were trying to break into cars (the shot did not hit anyone and the group fled). Smith lamented what he called insufficient staffing in the detective division.
“It’s a laughingstock. With all the crime that we have in Palo Alto we have three detectives! Give me a break!” Smith said.
Megan Kawkab, co-owner of The Patio, a downtown bar and restaurant, said crime has become a daily occurrence in the business district, with visitors’ cars routinely getting broken into.
“I can walk out of my business and look at public parking and there’s glass everywhere… Every night at 2 a.m., glass everywhere. It’s deterring people from coming downtown,” Kawkab said.
Jonsen assured the council that he has already made some moves to bolster staffing. Six applicants are now going through the hiring process and, with the council’s authorization, more will follow, he said.
“In a very short period of time, we can actually be at a point where all our vacancies can be filled,” he said.
The Police Department isn’t alone is experiencing a staffing shortage. The city’s Fire Department has seen its staffing level gradually drop from a high of 129.7 full-time-equivalent positions in 2009 to 95.25 positions in the current fiscal year. The department is preparing to hire up to seven firefighters in the coming fiscal year, which includes filling four vacancies and hiring three additional firefighters in anticipation of future attrition, according to city staff.
The council’s budget adjustment on Monday includes, among other items, $805,000 for firefighter training, which includes $682,500 to backfill overtime costs to maintain minimum staffing while new firefighters attend the academy.
The city had also received a federal grant of $3.66 million last fall that will fund another five firefighter positions for three years.
The council’s Monday action also bolsters the city’s effort to meet its climate change goals by adding a position in the Office of Sustainability to manage its ambitious Sustainability/Climate Action Plan, which aims to cut local emissions by 80% by 2030, with 1990 as the baseline. A major component of the plan is converting residents from gas to electrification. To help with that effort, the council authorized four new positions in the Utilities Department to upgrade the electric distribution infrastructure and develop electrification programs.
Council members recognized that making such major adjustments to an approved budget is highly unusual, though they largely agreed that the recent changes in the city’s revenue projections and emerging crime issues warrant the added investment.
“I think it speaks to our ability to pivot and respond to what’s going on,” council member Alison Cormack said.
I value the work of our emergency responders. Thanks for your service to our community, PAPD and PAFD. I am glad to hear that these departments will be getting the new team members they need. Other departments are also struggling with staffing deficits.
The funding reporting in this particle needs some clarification, I think. There was an unexpected windfall of $4.6 million above projected revenues after the $40 mill cuts that were made in response to Covid-related revenue fall. How is this $4.6 being spent? The numbers are pretty scattered in this article.
Yes.
“[Cheif] Jonsen assured the council that he has already made some moves to bolster staffing. Six applicants are now going through the hiring process and, with the council’s authorization, more will follow, he said.”
Please let this pass through city council.
..and fire-department.
The amount of criminals that drive to Palo Alto to commit crimes and assault people is not something any of us paying the high taxes to live here.
This is like a free-for-all to the anti-work (“Oh there are no jobs!”), let’s steal from the ‘rich’.
I believe we all want to help the less-fortune, yet the less-fortunate criminals have targeted cities that don’t have enough police-force.
Please, and not to blame anyone, but lock your cars and homes and invest in video door-bells.
“the council voted to add 11 full-time positions across City Hall, including a new deputy director for the Police Department’s Technical Services Division. In addition, the council authorized Police Chief Robert Jonsen to recruit five additional officers, with the understanding that the city will approve funding for these positions in the upcoming budget cycle.”
Consider Your Options.
“The funding reporting in this particle needs some clarification, I think. There was an unexpected windfall of $4.6 million above projected revenues after the $40 mill cuts that were made in response to Covid-related revenue fall. How is this $4.6 being spent? The numbers are pretty scattered in this article.”
I’m confused, as well. I’d wished that this journalist, Gennady Sheyner, would had offered more insight — yet seeing their previous articles on PAONLINE they seem to just report the least facts, I’d wish for PA ONLINE.
Please explain why PAPD had to wait for “revenue to recover” to RE-assign some existing staff to investigate at least some of the the crimes.
The criminals sure weren’t waiting for an economic recovery and in fact escalated their activities. Where’s the common sense?
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“Please explain why PAPD had to wait for “revenue to recover” to RE-assign some existing staff to investigate at least some of the the crimes.
The criminals sure weren’t waiting for an economic recovery and in fact escalated their activities. Where’s the common sense?”
This WAS NOT PAPD waiting to recover, this was the horrible ‘blm’ and activists, believing PAPD were just ‘like every police dept” which it isn’t I despite what Gennady Sheyner writes against PAPD in EVERY article.
Common sense, I’d assume would say “I assume people that are paid to protect me, will protect me”
Yet, we have lawsuits from persons that seem to (I am only going By Facts), sue PAPD for many things, if these frivolous lawsuits from “unhoused’ and the frivolous lawsuits, this is what happens.
The people that pay taxes, and own houses seem to have to advocate and ask for city council to PLEASE and YES pay for police.
Ridiculous — the lawsuits from people that are criminals have definitely damaged our PAPD , it is ridiculous.
Too many “I want to give to the most unfortunate –” are giving to the ‘unfortunate’ and so many ‘unfortunate’ have so many oppurtuanties.. pls let PAPD hire?
“The budget that the council approved last June authorizes 125.33 positions in the department, down from 155 before the pandemic.”
I read somewhere that this number is still well below the number of police positions that existed before the 2000 dot com bust the plus additional cuts after the 2008 mortgage bust. And we now have an increased population as well as additional office buildings adding to the demand for public safety services.
As a fiscal conservative, I was surprised by Greg Tanaka’s remarks appearing to disapprove of paying overtime to make up for personnel shortages in the police department. While the current situation is untenable and we most definitely need to bring the police department up to past numbers, if some employees are willing/desire to put in reasonable overtime hours to boost their annual income, surely that means fewer employees need to be hired? Each additional hire comes with considerable benefits and pension costs, as well as training costs. Costs already baked in for existing personnel working overtime.
Especially considering the city’s responsibilities for future pension costs are underfunded by millions of dollars.
I am puzzled about the statement that the Council approved 11 City Hall positions and yet only 5 police people, not counting a technology officer. This follows the approval for the City Manager to hire yet another assistant to his staff recently.
I would prefer we put out money toward public safety officers and fire people out on the line serving the community. I see so many people ignore stop signs in my neighborhood —and why not since there is no traffic unit. I see all of these reports of porch robberies, bicycle thefts from backyards, catalytic converters stolen, car break-ins, and now a gun being shot in a residential area. This is not the Palo Alto we want to have.
Let’s get back to basics here and make the City work for people who live here.
I too would rather have more police doing something about crime. I’m shocked that Mr. Shikada is getting ANOTHER assistant.
How many does he now have? What do they do? They don’t respond to media queries.