Colorado Springs Budget Shortfall

Big Changes planned for Colorado Springs City Budgets.  Help save our city and our services to make this a great place to live.  The Colorado Springs Real Estate community is helping to not have to reduce services.


Fire Department - $3,238,000 TOTAL CUT

• Eliminate vacant promoted positions and associated operating costs $1,017,337 CUT

In 2009, the Fire Department cut five firefighter positions in addition to the fourteen that were cut previously to meet the initial 2009 budget. As a result, the hazardous materials unit was taken out of service as a full-time staffed unit, reducing, by four, the number of personnel needed to staff emergency units daily. The hazardous materials team is now assigned to staff both an engine and the hazardous materials unit. Due to the staffing change, and because there have been no expansions of paramedic service in recent years, there are more positions in the promoted ranks than are currently needed. If these positions are eliminated, the present minimum daily staffing can be maintained with a small, offsetting increase in overtime funds that can be covered within the existing budget.

• Reduce minimum staffing overtime $200,000 CUT

With the cross-staffing of the hazardous materials unit and reassignments made by the Fire Department to reduce costs, the need for overtime for minimum daily staffing has been reduced. However, this is partially offset by the loss of salary savings from eliminating the vacant line positions proposed above. As a result, $200,000 is the maximum reduction in overtime that can be taken without taking additional units out of service.

• Eliminate Squad 108 and the associated six firefighter positions and reduce overtime for minimum staffing $511,865 CUT

Eliminating Squad 108 will affect first-due coverage primarily in PEZ 5 and to a lesser degree in PEZ 4.  Eight-minute coverage, the percentage of calls to which the Fire Department's first unit arrives within eight minutes of when the call is received, would drop from 90% to 88% in PEZ 5 and from 93% to between 90% and 91% in PEZ 4. City-wide eight-minute coverage would decline approximately 0.8% to 89.7%. Structure fire coverage, the percentage of calls to which three engines and a ladder truck arrive within twelve minutes, would decline due to the work shifted to engine and truck companies. PEZ 6 would see the largest decline in structure fire coverage, from 88% to a little above 87%. More dramatic than changes in coverage will be the increases in workload on nearby companies. The largest workload impacts would be on Engine 8 and Truck 8, which would see annual responses increase from 5,500 and 1,922 to 6,283 and 2,330 respectively. This would mean that Engine 8 would run to more than 17 calls per day on average, responding to a new emergency call approximately every hour and twenty-three minutes. Engine 1 and Truck 1 would also see major increases in responses from 4,583 and 1,649 to 5,141 and 1,916 respectively.

• Cross-staff heavy rescue with a truck company, eliminating twelve firefighter positions, associated operating, and overtime for minimum staffing $936,731 CUT

This would be accomplished by removing Heavy Rescue as a full-time unit and cross-staffing it with a ladder truck; one crew would cover two units. While this change would not have a major impact on first company coverage, the effect on structure fire coverage is significant. Structure fire coverage would decline by more than 5 percentage points in PEZs 7 and 9, and PEZs 3 and 4 are affected to a lesser degree. City-wide structure fire coverage would decline more than 2% to 89.4%. Workload impacts would be felt throughout the system. The companies most impacted will have to cease or curtail inspecting high-risk occupancies, such as multi-family residential properties, where local fire history shows the largest loss of life has occurred.

• Eliminate Squad 7 and the associated 6 firefighter positions and reduce overtime $572,067 CUT

Coverage impacts assume that Squad 108 is eliminated and that Heavy Rescue is cross-staffed. The effect on first response of eliminating Squad 7 would be felt primarily in PEZ 8, where eight-minute coverage would drop from above 91% to about 88.5%. Engine 7's workload would more than double, from 2,413 estimated responses before any budget reductions to 5,510 responses: an increase of 3,097 responses. The effect on structure fire coverage is primarily in PEZ 9, where it will drop by a full percentage point due to the increase in workload on firefighting units.

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Police Department - $6,216,000 TOTAL CUT

This list includes the elimination of 53 sworn positions and 12 civilian positions resulting in layoffs of 23 sworn personnel and 6 civilian personnel. Due to Civil Service rules, the sworn officers with the least seniority will be eliminated, therefore, negatively impacting the Patrol Bureau. In addition, these reductions will force a major reorganization of CSPD, severely impacting police services delivery and management oversight.

• Patrol Officers $2,294,479 CUT

Eliminate 26 of the 352 sworn officer positions from the Patrol Bureau. A minimum of 18 additional vacancies will remain frozen through the end of 2010. These numbers do not include 7 officer positions that will be eliminated due to a reduction in PSST funding. Patrol officers are assigned to respond to police calls for service, work to reduce crime in problem/high crime areas (POP), conduct routine patrol, and perform some preliminary investigations. Reductions in resources assigned to these areas will necessitate significant revisions to current service levels, including an increasing reliance upon alternative call processing and the restructuring of the priority levels of calls for service. Other potential impacts include lack of adequate resources for proactive policing, difficulty maintaining minimum staffing levels, potential impacts to officer safety for calls requiring back up units, and a reduction in crime prevention and community collaboration efforts. At current staffing, CSPD generally has adequate personnel to respond to only one major incident if officers are pulled from several divisions, resulting in the inability to staff a concurrent event elsewhere in the City. Because Civil Service rules mandate reductions in force by seniority, the majority of the officers impacted by this reduction are currently in the Police Academy. The investment made in these positions includes a significant number of hours pre-screening each applicant, as well as, the lengthy training. CSPD estimates the cost associated with hiring and training each recruit at $54,000, prior to assignment with a Patrol Training Officer.

The inability to retain the current recruit class and to timely fund ongoing academies will impact CSPD's ability to hire and train police recruits to fill vacancies created by attrition, further impacting patrol workload. It is estimated that CSPD will have 18 vacancies at the end of 2010, after eliminating 26 authorized positions. If an academy were commenced first quarter of 2011, the new recruits would not be available for field training assignment until third quarter, by which time the vacancies would likely have more than doubled during the year.

Patrol would be further impacted at a time when members of the bureau must assume additional responsibilities as a result of special unit reductions.

• Intelligence Officer $90,900 CUT

Eliminate one officer position. Two of the five intelligence detectives were eliminated in the amended 2009 budget. The 2010 reduction of another Intelligence Officer will further reduce the ability to provide follow-up and surveillance on potential threats, prepare for dignitary visits, maintain current and accurate files on persons/groups of interest, and cultivate outside sources of information. In addition, there will be less capacity to determine domestic threats via cyber and open source intelligence gathering.

• Air Support Unit -Sergeant, Officers, and Mechanic $877,478 CUT

Eliminate the air support program - eliminate one sergeant position, two officer positions, and one aircraft mechanic position and sell the two helicopters. CSPD has a comparatively large geographic area of over 194 square miles to cover, and the helicopter provides a unique vantage point and surveillance tool that cannot be replaced by single ground unit. In 2008, it was first on scene to nearly 1,000 calls. The air support unit's average response time is 2 minutes, while the average land response time to priority one calls is 9 minutes 28 seconds.

Also in 2008, the air support unit assisted with 357 felony in-progress calls, 22 vehicle pursuits, 115 shots fired calls, and 5 missing person calls. The value of its capabilities is clearly evidenced in critical incidents, such as the New Life shooting.

• Metro Vice/Narcotics/Intelligence Special Enforcement Unit Officers $272,235 CUT

Eliminate three officer positions. Special enforcement is a high-impact unit, conducting street-level narcotics and prostitution enforcement focused on target areas such as downtown, south Nevada and east Platte corridor west of Circle Drive. Reduced staffing will result in less focused effort to curb these crimes which usually occur in public view of parks and businesses. Yearly enforcement activity: 242 vice and narcotics cases, 466 arrests, and nearly $43,000 in seized narcotics.

• Tactical Enforcement Unit Sergeant and Officer (TEU) $202,878 CUT

Eliminate one sergeant position and one officer position. CSPD will no longer have two separate response teams causing an increased amount of overtime to be worked by remaining team. In addition, CSPD eliminated its fugitive unit during 2009 and assigned the associated work to TEU. This reassignment has already resulted in 42% fewer fugitive arrests. CSPD expects an additional 15% reduction in fugitive arrests from the elimination of the second TEU team.

• Community Impact Team Officers $200,278 CUT

Eliminate two officer positions. The Community Impact Team began 2007 with 32 officers and has already been reduced to the current staffing of 15. The 2010 reduction will bring staffing to 13. During 2008, the Community Impact Team seized 106 illegal weapons, $1 million in drugs, $80,000 in cash, and made 500 arrests. The elimination of these positions will further reduce CSPD's ability to proactively respond to violent crimes and gangrelated activity, dismantle criminal networks, and participate in joint investigations with the FBI, DEA, and ATF.

Some of the burden for these investigations will shift to patrol officers further reducing their availability to respond to other calls.

• Code Enforcement Officers $65,452 CUT

Eliminate two code enforcement officer positions. Two of ten code enforcement officer positions were eliminated in the amended 2009 budget. The 2010 reduction will bring code enforcement officer staffing to six (two of which are grant funded). The Code Enforcement Unit will no longer enforce nuisance violations, such as tall weeds/grass and recreational vehicle parking in residential zones. CSPD receives approximately 3,000 citizen complaints related to these violations each year. Remaining staff will continue to respond to other code violations.

• Burglary and Theft Investigators $362,602 CUT

Eliminate four officer positions. Property Crime Detectives are responsible for investigation of crimes such as burglary, burglarized motor vehicles and other thefts. Current staffing represents a 38% reduction from 2008 staffing levels. The 2010 reduction represents an additional 25% decrease from current staffing, or an overall decrease of 54% from 2008 staffing. CSPD processed 16,051 property crimes reports for victims in 2008 and is expecting these crimes to remain at current levels. This reduction is problematic because the complexity of these crimes is increasing, many of these crimes involve identity theft and other cyber crimes, and these crimes require additional investigative effort and coordination with other units such as Financial Crimes. This reduction will result in minimal resources for ongoing investigation and will necessitate focusing only on property crimes that occur in significant patterns. The burden of investigating other property crimes will fall on Patrol.

• Juvenile Offender Unit Officers (JOU) $271,510 CUT

Eliminate the JOU program and three officer positions. JOU works collaboratively with Juvenile Probation, Senate Bill 94 Committee, Department of Youth Corrections, schools, the District Attorney's Office and the court on issues regarding juvenile crime. Currently, detectives monitor a total of 50 juveniles identified as Serious Habitual Offenders who need intensive monitoring, including attendance at court appearances, community review boards, school staffing, and parent meetings. CSPD will no longer have dedicated resources to provide monitoring, participation in community collaboration, or assistance with juvenile case filing and arrests.

• Domestic Violence Enhanced Response Team Sergeant (DVERT) $109,378 CUT

Eliminate the DVERT Sergeant position. This sergeant coordinates the partners of a multiagency team allowing immediate, urgent assessment and response to domestic violence cases with the highest risk of lethal violence.

Multiple midlevel positions formerly funded by federal grants have been eliminated, forcing the associated duties to be performed by this Sergeant position. Position is subject matter expert on how to best staff and assign each case.

• Training Academy Sergeant $109,378 CUT

Eliminate one Training Academy Sergeant position. This reduces sergeant staffing at the Training Academy by 50%. This position is critical for ensuring employees receive ongoing training to maximize officer and community safety. Remaining staff will be responsible for coordinating this training.

• Inspections Sergeant $109,378 CUT

Eliminate one Inspections Sergeant position. This position tracks use-of-force situations and oversees the early intervention program in an effort to prevent officer misconduct and to provide assistance to officers in need of training or counseling. It also conducts audits and maintains internal controls of critical high-risk department functions such as evidence and impound. Loss of this position will cause those duties to be reassigned to other positions.

• Abandoned Vehicle Enforcement $52,700 CUT

Eliminate one parking enforcement position. CSPD will no longer respond to the majority of abandoned vehicle situations. 25-50 complaints of abandoned vehicles are received each week totaling more than 2,300 complaints each year. Patrol Officers or Community Service Officers will only respond to abandoned vehicle situations that are causing a safety concern.

• Motor Carrier Officer $90,900 CUT

Eliminate one Motor Carrier Officer position. This position enforces compliance with commercial vehicle laws and can issue over 550 citations and 700 warnings for safety violations, overweight vehicles, truck route violations, and spills each year. The position is also responsible for giving presentations to commercial motor vehicle organizations to increase knowledge of commercial vehicle safety to gain voluntary compliance with laws and regulations. These duties will be absorbed by the traffic unit and enforced as time allows.

• Metro Vice / Narcotics / Intelligence (VNI) Commander and Senior Office Specialist $201,927 CUT

Eliminate one commander position and one senior office specialist position. Due to the sensitive nature of VNI's undercover operations, oversight is imperative. The elimination of these positions will decrease management focus, oversight, and area expertise.

• Professional Standards Commander $142,927 CUT

Eliminate one commander position. The Professional Standards Division reviews officer involved critical incidents and investigates complaints received on sworn and non-sworn employees of the CSPD to maintain public trust. Further, the division identifies and provides mandatory training; and develops and updates policies to keep in conformity with changing laws and statutes. Although these duties will continue, management focus and oversight will decrease.

• Deputy Chief $168,000 CUT

Eliminate one deputy chief position. The identified reductions will require a major departmental reorganization, will reduce opportunities for executive level community collaboration and board involvement, and will increase the span of control for the remaining deputy chiefs resulting in less time for command-level oversight.

• Recruiting Officer $90,900

Eliminate one officer position. This officer is CSPD's first point of contact with the applicant/recruit pool in the City, region and nationwide as recruiting is impacted by the internet. The recruiting officer interfaces with the military and university communities through education programs and career assistance, represents the department at career fairs, and communicates regularly with potential candidates to encourage their participation in the application process and ensure CSPD is able to recruit highly qualified candidates who reflect our community's demographics. These duties will be substantially reduced and absorbed by remaining staff.

• Cadet Explorer Officer $90,900

Eliminate one officer position. This position oversees the cadet program that allows CSPD to mentor youth while receiving the benefit of volunteer service and potential candidates for future police academies. In 2008, Cadet Explorers volunteered 5,365 hours, approximately 70% of which supported Special Events and other operational areas. Cadet Explorer duties will be reassigned to other officer positions.

• Police Operations Center (POC) Midnight Police Service Representatives (PSRs) $117,400 CUT

Eliminate two police service representative positions. The reduction of midnight-shift PSRs will impact services provided to citizens at the POC lobby after hours. PSRs take runaway reports, accept found property and evidence, provide assistance processing accident reports, and provide investigative and operational administrative support to officers including preparation of arrest and search warrants and probable cause affidavits. Current practice of staffing a patrol officer in POC lobby instead of answering calls for service will continue but the officer position will not assume the PSR duties.

• Metro Vice/Narcotics/Intelligence Office Specialist $53,700

Eliminate one office specialist position. This position prepares extensive background information on suspects for detectives, fields narcotic tip calls from citizens, and files drug cases with the DA's Office. Elimination of this position will cause duties to be redistributed to other Metro VNI staff because these duties are required to ensure officer safety.

• Financial Crimes Clerk $53,700 CUT

Eliminate one office specialist position. This position provides the Financial Crimes Unit with general clerical support, including: typing report supplements, arrest warrants, and search warrants; entering information into and searching pawn data base to provide information to detectives and insurance companies; and preparing background information on suspects for detectives. These duties will be absorbed by unit detectives.

• Human Resources Senior Office Specialist $59,000

Eliminate one office specialist position. This position processes documentation associated with recruiting and hiring police officers including, job applications, transcripts, background checks and other hiring documents.

This position provides information to candidates while coordinating and scheduling applicable testing appointments. This workload is significant during hiring and the reassignment of these duties will impact remaining HR staff. Additionally, this position tracks employee evaluations for all department members.

• Office of the Chief Administrative Technicians $128,000 CUT

Eliminate two administrative technician positions. This eliminates two of the three positions responsible for administrative support for the Office of the Chief. Their responsibilities include complex clerical functions in support of departmental executives, maintenance of calendars, coordination of internal and external meetings, screening of phone calls and processing complaints. This reduction will negatively impact processing time required for correspondence, requests for information, changes to policies and procedures, and bureau level reports.

Jay Carden
RE/MAX Properties, Inc.
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