The City Council continues to lurch towards a balanced budget, having adopted $19,791,840 of potential savings, leaving a gap of $9,752,031. Closing the gap, however, is becoming contentious.

Figure 1 - From June 9, 2020, Budget Presentation by City staff

Figure 2 - From June 9, 2020, Budget Presentation by City staff

City staff has proposed four budget scenarios to close the gap, all of which include some layoffs, some union concessions, or both. None include spending down reserves.

The unions responded with a proposal of their own that is based on a partial hiring freeze, additional cuts to departmental budgets and a $2,185,715 tap on the reserves:

RICHMOND UNION COALITION BUDGET BALANCING PROPOSAL – June 9, 2020:
Rather than push to impose labor and service cuts on workers and residents who are already understaffed and under-resourced, the Richmond Union Coalition recommends balancing the remaining projected $9.8M FY 20-21 Budget Deficit by the following combination of reductions/deferrals of General Operating Items and modest spending down of the City’s reserves: 

1. Additional Departmental Savings beyond what’s already contemplated in the 6/2 budget presentation: $4,091,509
2. Additional Vacancy Savings: $3,522,776
3. Spend down a modest amount of reserves: $2,185,715

Total savings to close the gap: $9.8m

1. Departmental Savings

2. Vacancy Savings

Additional Vacancy Freezes:

3. Use of Reserves

$2,185,715

• The average Year-End reserve for the last ten years: $13.4 million.
• Reserve Balance after FY19-20 cost saving measures: $17 million
• If the City spends $2,185,715 of reserves as recommended to close out the remaining deficit, City would still maintain a reserve balance of $14.8m, which is above the 10-year, Year-End reserve average.

 
Source: Richmond 2019 CAFR p222.
Conclusion:                  
Additional Departmental Savings:           $4,091,509
Additional Vacancy/Freeze Savings:       $3,522,776
Modest Reserve Spending:                    $2,185,715
Total Gap Closing:                               $9,800,000       

On June 9, the City Council focused on the hiring freeze, rejecting staff recommendations and adopting much of what the unions proposed. It was not possible to take action on the proposed departmental cuts because staff needs to research whether there are redundancies with cuts already proposed or other compelling reasons not to make the proposed cuts. The City Council took no action on the reserves.

The interaction between the unions and staff has not been productive. Staff recommendations have typically been available well before City Council meetings, while union recommendations come at the day of the City Council meetings and lack sufficient detail to fully evaluate. Instead of collaborating with staff to review possible cuts, the unions provide competing proposals at the last minute.

So far, the union proposals appear to appeal to the City Council more than the staff proposals. This is not surprising since City Council members depend heavily on union support for election campaigns.

Like city council and county boards of supervisors across the country, Richmond City Council member have received hundreds of cut and paste emails, similar to the one below (also see National Campaigns for Police Reform Reach Richmond, June 4, 2020).or Police Reform Reach Richmond

To Mayor Butt, the Richmond Board of Supervisors, and Richmond Elected Officers,

My name is XXXXXXX, and I am a resident of Richmond. This past week, our nation has been gripped by protests calling for rapid and meaningful reevaluation of the role of policing in our communities and an end to racism and anti-Blackness. Our city has been at the forefront of much of this action. Accordingly, it has come to my attention that the budget for 2021 is being decided as these protests continue. RPD has been a waste of our resources. Last year, the RPD budget was $74,990,406, the majority of which comes from the Richmond general fund. While we’ve been spending extraordinary amounts on policing, we have not seen improvements to safety, homelessness, mental health, or affordability in our city. Instead, we see wasteful and harmful actions of our police. I call on you to meaningfully restrict the RPD budget and instead use those extraordinary resources towards solving homelessness, which is felt most by our Black neighbors and veterans. Social programs and education generally have been shown to be much more effective at promoting safety and social equity than policing and incarceration. We can be a beacon for other cities to follow if only we have the courage to change. Can I count on you to consider an alternative budget that puts a focus on social service programs? Sincerely,

XXXXXXX

At the June 9 City Council meeting, during a budget discussion, the City Council tabled a motion to defund the police department (https://eastcountytoday.net/richmond-mayor-proposes-defunding-the-police-save-70-million/) . A motion to table cannot be debated, so there was no discussion

Motion to table. This motion, if passed, requires discussion of the agenda item to be halted and the agenda item to be placed on “hold.” The motion can contain a specific time in which the item can come back to the body. “I move we table this item until our regular meeting in October.” Or the motion can contain no specific time for the return of the item, in which case a motion to take the item off the table and bring it back to the body will have to be taken at a future meeting. A motion to table an item (or to bring it back to the body) requires a simple majority vote. (https://www.cacities.org/Resources/Open-Government/RosenbergText_2011.aspx)

The item drew a lot of media attention, including the ire of the unions. My motivation for the motion was not to actually dissolve the police department, which is obviously extreme, but instead to simply start a conversation about the police department that could result in funding changes, including millions of dollars in overtime pay.  After all, City Council members have collective received thousands of emails demanding to “defund the police,” many of which came from Richmond residents.

I take issue with you characterizing my motion to “defund the police” as “tone deaf, irresponsible and unreasonable” as well as “sarcastic.”

Collectively, city council members and I have received thousands of emails demanding that we do exactly that, defund the police department, far more than on any other budget-related issue. Granted, such a request is extreme, and no one knows exactly how it might work. But we need to have a conversation about issues, alternatives and budgeting related to the Police Department, and my intent was to start it.

Obviously, my colleagues are not ready to begin that conversation. They reacted, instead, by cutting out 6 of 8 proposed new police officer positions and 3 of 4 sergeant positions, among other things.

Here are some RPD issues that need to be discussed:

• There are hundreds of complaints about fireworks, but the RPD appears to be totally incapable of reining it in, and it’s getting worse.
• San Francisco just announced that SFPD will no longer respond to neighbor disputes, reports on homeless people, school discipline interventions and other non-criminal activities. They would be replaced with trained, unarmed professionals to limit unnecessary confrontations. https://www.kcra.com/article/african-american-reparation-bill-passes-california-assembly/32843430
• There is the Johnathan Spragan and Dejan Brown incident where multiple police units converged on a pretextual traffic stop that resulted in a false police report. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFfO-K4Jw4s and https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/06/05/video-richmond-police-hit-with-lawsuit-alleging-wrongful-arrest-falsified-police-report/.
• The RPD used $4.7 million in overtime last year, blowing its budget by nearly 40%.

As for the Richmond bargaining units and the Labor Council, I would advise you to do a better job of collaborating with city staff and using the bargaining process. Competing budget proposals are not helping. For example, instead of working with staff ahead of time to flush out millions of proposed departmental savings, staff now has to comb through your proposal to see if there are any fatal flaws and if there are redundancies with already adopted staff proposals.

The final issue I have been bringing up is overtime. See Ten Employees Cost the City of Richmond Over $4 Million, June 4, 2020. The top ten compensated employees in Richmond, other than the city manager and police chief, received nearly $1million in overtime last year. In Concord, a larger city than Richmond, the top ten employees received only about $150,000 in overtime. The RPD alone used $4.7 million in overtime last year, exceeding its overtime budget by nearly 40%.

I proposed cutting overtime in half, saving $3.7 million, but the City Council rejected it, dicing instead to reduce the overtime budget by a modest $1 million.

Huge overtime budgets, as well as routine excesses, are hard wired into the City of Richmond culture.

Figure 4 - From June 9, 2020, City staff presentation

Figure 5 - From June 9, 2020, City staff presentation

Figure 6 - From June 9, 2020, City staff presentation