The Burlington City Council passed a budget late Tuesday reducing the police department budget by nearly $1 million from the current fiscal year, the day after passing a resolution lowering a cap on the number of officers. The change represents a 30% reduction in police officers.
The budget passed in a 9-3 vote. Councilors Perri Freeman, P-Central District; Jack Hanson, P-East District and Jane Stromberg, P-Ward 8, cast dissenting votes.
The city had anticipated a $10 million reduction in revenue due to the coronavirus pandemic; that has now been revised down to $8.2 million. The budget uses $6.3 million in unassigned fund balances to help cover the gap, along with cuts to the police department and other city departments.
The council passed, in a 9-3 vote, a resolution early Tuesday morning which set the new staffing cap for Burlington police officers to 74, a number that will be reached through attrition in coming years. The current cap is 105, but the department currently has 91 officers.
That resolution also declared racism a public health crisis; terminated a memorandum of understanding between the police department and Burlington School District that outlines the school resource officer program at the end of the spring 2021 semester; and establishes a review of the police department, among other steps.
Councilor Karen Paul, D-Ward 6, said that the city’s past fiscal prudence made it possible to avoid deeper cuts amid the pandemic.
“It is not an austere budget, it is not filled with long-term drawbacks,” Paul said.
The 2021 fiscal year budget is $77.98 million. Last year’s budget was $79 million. The fiscal year starts July 1. Councilors had to pass a budget Tuesday night to avoid a shutdown.
The budget dedicates $1 million to racial justice and sets aside $250,000 for funding a public safety transformation.
“One of the advantages of having that leeway is it gives us the opportunity to do what I think is the cornerstone reallocation of resources in this particular budget, and that is the resources that we are allocating to racial equity,” Paul said.
Councilor Brian Pine, P-Ward 3, said he supported the budget as it did not lay off or furlough any permanent city employees, did not include a tax increase and largely kept city services intact.
“As a city, I think we have a lot to celebrate, we really do,” he said.
Hanson opposed the budget because of cuts to seasonal employees, and proposed a series of amendments aiming to eliminate other line items intending to use that funding to fund seasonal positions. These amendments were all defeated, as were cuts proposed by Freeman and Stromberg.
“I think it’s the wrong direction, I think we should really be investing in critical services in our city and the people who do that work, and I think we’re missing that by cutting over 50 seasonal employees,” Hanson said.
Stromberg said: “If we’re going to call this budget a moral document, I’m concerned. I’m concerned for us as a city, I know we can do better.”
Councilor Zoraya Hightower, P-Ward 1, proposed that no vacancies in the police department, with the exception of the chief, be filled until the assessment of the department was completed or the number of officers fell below 74. The council established a joint committee to review “how to build a healthy and safe community and what institutions we need to reach that goal.”
That amendment passed in a 7-5 vote, with councilor Franklin Paulino, D-North District, joining the council’s Progressive councilors to vote yes.
Over 1,000 people had called into municipal meetings in the past month to support the demands of the racial justice alliance, with many saying the council should not pass the budget until the demands are met.
Mayor Miro Weinberger initially planned to propose an $18.5 million police budget for fiscal year 2021, an increase over the $17.9 million fiscal 2020 budget.
The final $17 million police budget includes $1.3 million in cuts from the original $18.5 million budget proposal and $94,000 in reallocations. The budget does not reflect an additional $735,000 in reallocations that will come from moving Parking Enforcement to the Department of Public Works, which will take several months to implement, according to the city.
The council spent a few hours Tuesday discussing specific line items.
The council voted to cut $9,000 for professional and consulting marketing from the police department’s budget, but voted against cutting the department’s recruitment budget by $12,500 and the department’s special equipment budget by $13,800.
Hanson proposed redirecting that $9,000 to the Department of Public Works to pay seasonal employees. The council voted against that, 6-6. That funding will now go to the city’s unassigned fund budget.
Freeman proposed an amendment, which failed in a 6-6 vote, requesting that employees making more than $100,000 voluntarily take a 10% reduction in salary or reduce their salary to $95,000, whichever is higher.
