Fullington gives police presentation
Published 11:00 am Thursday, October 2, 2008
SNOQUALMIE – Henpecked for weeks, City Councilman Greg Fullington finally got to present his findings on police costs at the May 23 Snoqualmie City Council meeting.
Fullington first gave a short history of the problematic police budget. In 2002, he suggested reorganizing public safety to save money by eliminating its director. In 2003, the city administrator was fired and replaced by Don Isley, former director of public safety. Later that same year, Isley’s position was eliminated, but he had accrued vacation time in excess of 800 hours. This meant the city owed him tens of thousands of dollars.
“The mayor decided to let Don take the payments over time. Don retired, but still got paid and kept accruing hours.” Eventually the city paid him off in one lump sum, saving $40,000-$60,000, Fullington said.
In 2004, Snoqualmie Police Department Chief Jim Schaffer requested a 2005 budget increase in excess of $450,000, a 22-percent increase. At the council’s request, he shaved it down to $117,691, a 5.7-percent increase. At the February 2005 fiscal retreat, Schaffer presented an expansion plan through 2009 that would add nine officers and four noncommissioned staff resulting in a 97-percent increase in wages. This would mean almost doubling wages over a five-year period.
“If I had a budget like this, my wife would kill me,” Fullington said. “We all want the Rolls Royce, but we’re going to lose the house if we go after the Rolls Royce.”
In 2004, it became apparent that the city would suffer a huge shortfall because it is using one-time revenue to fund on-going expenditures, according to Fullington.
“What’s important to me is that we compare to a benchmark of 27 cities our size. The majority are larger than us. We need to look at where we are and make hard decisions,” he said.
Fullington compared the Snoqualmie Police Department to those of 27 other municipalities of similar size. He compared the number of commissioned officers, 2005 budget, cost per officer, per capita cost, beginning officer wages and top officer wages.
The average annual cost of one officer for the cities he listed was $121,791, while Snoqualmie’s was $151,537. The average beginning wage for an officer in the cities included was $19.18, for Snoqualmie it was $24.01. The average top wage was $23.71 and $32.10, respectively. Wages were based on 1,921 hours worked per year in cities with populations between 4,700 and 10,000.
“I do want to keep the police department, but we need to get to a place where we can keep the police department,” Fullington said. “We have a shortfall staring us in the face and only a few years to clean it up.”
One suggestion Fullington gave was to eliminate three top positions from the police force and replace them with entry- level officers, saving $118, 831 per year. Cutting the assistant chief and two of the four sergeants – positions that most of the comparable cities didn’t have – is one option.
“This is not a recommendation. I wish I had a recommendations,” Fullington said. “There are those who believe one department can make a difference. It’s not just one. It’s all the other departments that will have to take a hit.”
Snoqualmie resident Gil Tumey was not impressed overall with the presentation. He said he thought the numbers were “suspect.”
“None of the numbers were naturalized for inflation,” he said. “He didn’t use the cost of money in the figures. I think the numbers were put together to tell one side of the story.”
