City North Executive Summary Team Exercise
Abstract
This paper explains the executive summary with an
overview of City North, the problem and solution to a proposed budget cut with
additional highlights and successful approaches to solving the budget cuts
necessary for the fiscal year of City North. Last, financial highlights
conclude the team’s findings.
Prior to any budgeting implementation phase, it is necessary
for City North and other cities like it to identify the stakeholders that are
affected by the budget. Those affected in City North are the residents and
taxpayers, police officers and civilian employees, policy makers and leaders,
students, parents, nonprofits, etc. The implementation of a budget and its
subsequent cuts affects all members of City North (National League, 2018). City
North can do more with less.
Overview
City North Municipal Task Force has the responsibility of
revising the fiscal budget by implementing a 7% budget cut. The Chief of Police
has assigned the task force with the responsibility of presenting how, when, ad
where the cuts or monies are to be applied. After careful review of the initial
budget of City North, this team has identified various expenditures that are
frivolous and unnecessary within the police department. These additional funds
are freed up for the upcoming fiscal year.
City North is a growing city with a population of 200,000
people that includes 66.5% of households earning an average of $52,000 yearly.
In City North, 25% of total land is available for continued development and
construction. This land alone is worth a significant amount and if sold to the
right enterprise, could yield City North additional monies for the upcoming
fiscal year. City North is home to a municipal police department with 420
authorized sworn police officers with 55 officers per district. For safe
practices, 48 are required per district. City North enrolls approximately
29,000 students in its public-school systems and is home to Northern University
which enrolls 15,000 students annually.
Presently there are no mandatory staffing requirements
regarding detectives. Therefore, utilizing these 10 different detectives by
combining them with other specialized units requires no additional need for
employment hiring processes. Eliminating the required 7% in overtime (City
North’s budget allocates $4,000,000) adds an additional $280,000 for other
operating expenditures.
The Problem
One of the main focusing problems is the budget cut. The
Municipal Task Force of city North always gets certain budget amounts that are
usually non challenging to make work. City North has a very difficult time
implementing budget cuts, because The Task Force is used to having operations
ran a certain way and no one is really a big fan of change. Budget cuts are
extremely challenging as it is, the Town Ship hopes to find a way to bring in
more revenue, that way if there ever is another budget cut in the future the
Town Ship will be okay with it. With budget cuts comes the lack of funding for
more training, equipment and manpower. This is just not City North either.
Departments from across the country expressed similar concerns about funding
shortfalls in their own departments. Public safety must be the top priority for
local government leaders. Law enforcement issues arise because public safety is
not adequately funded in many cities and counties across the country.
Altogether, the rise in violence against police officers makes public safety
funding even more critical ("Police Department Budget Cuts ", 2019).
The Solution
Finding new ways to help cover the deficit with budget cuts
will help to fill in this gap. All funding that is replenished can help start a
rainy-day fund. By cutting cost in aviation, we replace high pension workers
with the lower pension workers that are still trained and qualified to complete
the task in a safe and efficient manner. With consolidating the gang and
violent crime units, they can work interchangeable to one another when they are
not working on cases within their field. The decision will solely be determined
then divided based on the city’s demographics that include household and
education demographics, police department demographics and the city’s overall
general budget and what it will afford.
Taking the population of 200,000 people and not having enough money to
continue to fund all of the active officers forces a 7% cut in the budget. This
action can be manageable but very risky and dangerous for the community as well
as the officers. All of this would cause a shift from one demand to another,
having to decide which department is more important and more deserving of the
retainment of their budget funds. Not all departments will be affected by the
budget cut, but the decision to have to choose where the cuts should be
especially in high demand areas is very challenging to everyone that is
involved.
Financial
Highlights & Keys to Success
The staffing analysis for City
North indicates that we have 10 sworn officers assigned to the aviation
unit. To cut overtime cost and
immediately reduce the amount of resources provided to this unit we will need
to:
·
Review specialized units for staffing requirements
and for temporary or permanent reassignment to patrol operations.
o Make cuts to the
aviation unit by 50%
o Reduce the number
of units in the air; increase coverage for assignments
·
Detail the six members of the gang unit and to
regular bureau operations which will eliminate any funding or resources that
are being provided to this unit.
o Consolidate the
gang unit and the violent crime unit to save cost.
o Adding more
detectives to the daily operations allow more contributions to processing of
arrests to possibly reducing the amount of overtime spent.
·
Place additional personnel that are assigned to
administrative and specialized units back to patrol.
o Filling the
vacancies in patrol will officers from specialized units will put a temporary
freeze with hiring five personnel saving at least $500,000.
o Consolidating
units within the detective bureau will place a temporary freeze with new
staffing freeing up $720,000 that is for six out of the eight vacancies or
$160,000 for lateral transfers from patrol for eight additional personnel.
These actions will place personnel in the much-needed areas to service
the communities while continuing to focus on crime trends increasing the
quality of life for the 200,000 people living in City North.
Conclusion
City North’s budget consists of too many unnecessary
expenditures. This team was successful in assessing the needs of the police
department, citizens, and other stakeholders. Cutting the budget by seven
percent gives the city additional operating funds for the fiscal year. By
combining units such as utilizing portions of the city’s 25 detectives, public
safety is maintained. Eliminating unnecessary overtime by combining units
solves ground coverage manded in all four districts of City North.
City North’s budget allocates $4,000,000 in overtime which
is an astronomical amount with so many officers on staff. Temporarily
implementing a hiring freeze gives City North the opportunity to shift
officers, detectives, and gang units to various departments to close gaps in
city-wide coverage. It is understood that budget cuts cause one to question the
necessity, however, for City North to continue throughout the fiscal year with
ample operating funds, a budget cut is eminent.
References
National League of Cities. (2018). Federal budget
cuts are hometown cuts. Retrieved from https://www.nlc.org/sites/default/files/users/user121/%23FightTheCuts%20Action%20Guide_Final.pdf
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