Police
Department budget headed for deficit
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Police
overtime
rises sharply. |
Aug.
7, 2006 -- The Police Department will likely
need a bailout from the contingent fund to offset salary
costs that are projected to be $900,000 to $1.6 million
more thn budgeted, according to City Budget Director Mark
Nicolini.
Early
projections show the infusion of more than $1.5 million
in new city and state overtime funding is not enough to
keep the department's budget in the black, according to
figures Nicolini presented to the Common Council's Finance
and Audit Committee.
Overtime
has been the budget-buster for the MPD. The department
is on track to spend $13.5 million to $15.5 million in
tax levy-supported overtime, but has just about $11.5
million to pay for it, officials said.
"The
MPD has utilized more than 27,000 additional overtime
hours compared to this time last year, an increase of
14%," Nicolini wrote in his July 25 memo.
The
shortfall in the overtime budget will be partially offset
by savings in other areas of the police budget.
While
police earlier attributed increased 2006 overtime to the
trial in the Frank Jude, Jr. beating case and the subsequent
protests of the verdict, the search for Purvis Virginia
Parker and Quadrevion Henning, and the "A Day Without
Latinos" march on March 23, records show that overtime
expenditures remained high after those events all ended.
Deputy
Inspector Anna Ruzinski told the committee that summer
overtime expenditures could be attributed to Summerfest-related
activities, including July 4th fireworks; other summer
events; and a violent crimes initiative.
Ruzinski,
while declining to discuss specific strategies, said the
initiative involved sending additional officers into high-crime
areas for short periods of time to get better control
of the situation.
The
officers are moved from area to area so criminals do not
know exactly where they are or when they will show up,
she said.
Police
overtime rises sharply
May
7, 2006 -- Milwaukee Police Department overtime
was up 4,000 hours -- 100 work weeks -- in the first eight
pay periods of 2006 compared to the first eight of 2005,
records show.
Department
staff were compensated for 108,597 hours of overtime during
the first eight pay pay periods of 2006, up from 104,629
in 2005.
City
officials attributed the increase largely to the trial
in the Frank Jude, Jr. beating case and the subsequent
protests of the verdict; the search for Purvis Virginia
Parker and Quadrevion Henning; and the "A Day Without
Latinos" march on March 23.
The
Police Department spent $4.1 million on overtime, or 42%
of its overtime budget, through the first eight payrolls.
Last year, over the same time period, the department spent
$3.7 million, or 38% its overtime budget.
City
Budget and Management Director Mark Nicolini said in a
memo to Ald. Michael Murphy, chair of the Common Council's
Finance and Personnel Committee, that overtime is more
expensive this year due to police pay increases, while
the overtime budget is slightly smaller -- $9,677,805
compared to $9,725,000.
