EMERALD ASKS MAYOR TO FUND FIRE & POLICE SERVICES WITH PENSION SAVINGS

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January 15, 2011 (San Diego) -- Councilmember Marti Emerald has asked Mayor Jerry Sanders to use newly found pension savings to fund San Diego’s financially strapped public safety agencies.

 

The City has learned its required pension payment for the 2012 fiscal year will be about $20 million less than originally anticipated-- about the same amount demanded in public safety cuts for next year.

“This is a prime opportunity to keep these tax dollars where they will do the public the most good: funding our Police and Fire/Rescue services,” said Councilmember Emerald in a memo to the Mayor.

 

“For the sake of public safety, we can no longer cut vital manpower and resources from Police, Fire and Lifeguards,” added Emerald, who called on Sanders to “take this new found money off the table.”

 

Facing $73 million in budget cuts for fiscal year 2012, Mayor Sanders had requested that San Diego Fire Rescue identify $7.2 Million in cuts and that San Diego Police identify approximately $15.8 Million in budget cuts for FY 2012.

 

In the past few years these departments have slashed services critical to San Diego’s public safety, including brown outs of engine crews.

 

Emerald, Chair of the City’s Public Safety & Neighborhood Services Committee, stated, “At such a critical time where every additional dollar counts, the $20 million in pension savings needs to be allocated with great care. Our City’s public safety departments are currently underfunded and understaffed. With this in mind, I believe Mayor Sanders should immediately take his FY 2012 proposed public safety cuts off the table in creating the City’s FY 2012 budget.”
 


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