Despite the city’s severe budget deficit, which will force cuts elsewhere, Portland City Administrator Michael Jordan is not suggesting reducing funding for the city’s police, fire, and Bureau of Emergency Communications.
Jordan accepted former Mayor Ted Wheeler’s advice to spare public safety agencies, but he defied several new members of the City Council who had proposed in January that cuts be distributed throughout the city. Jordan claimed that neither the public nor Mayor Keith Wilson would be in favor of that.
At a press conference, he stated, “We’re pretty sure that most people in Portland want to maintain public safety, generally speaking.”
City officials said that in order to accomplish that, it might have to look for a future public safety bond or tax (like the one that Vancouver voters rejected in November).
Jordan suggested on Friday that the city extend the one-time funding that was about to expire for Portland’s Office of Violence Prevention and its Ceasefire violence intervention program. He also suggested keeping Portland Street Response, the city’s alternate crisis response program, staffed at its current level and perhaps growing it.
Jordan’s proposal would provide the Police Bureau a budget of $316 million, which is roughly $1 million less than what the police have asked for yet a 7% increase over the current fiscal year. Additionally, the bureau is being asked by the city administration to cut overtime expenditures by roughly 5%.
This financing could hinder Chief Bob Day’s ambition to increase the number of officers to over 1,000 by maintaining the Police Bureau at around the same staffing level as the prior fiscal year.
As of this week, there are 90 open positions among the 791 sworn police officers.
Jordan’s proposal is likely to undergo more modifications, and cuts to public safety are not entirely out of the question.
The city will have public budget debates in each of the four City Council districts over the course of the next few weeks. The budget will be finalized by city councilors in June after Wilson releases his proposed budget in May.
Jordan’s recommendations, if implemented, would still need to find an extra $57 million in savings, mostly because of stagnant business and property tax income and growing city costs.
According to Jordan, there is still a $57 million shortfall that may be filled by talking about public safety.
For The Oregonian/OregonLive, Zaeem Shaikh writes about criminal justice problems and the Portland Police Bureau. You can reach him on X@zaeemshake or at 503-221-4323, [email protected].
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