For years, the residents of the City of San Diego have continued about their lives without feeling tangible proof of the inadequacy of the Mayor and City Council's public safety and fire fighting funding. On the final weekend of October, 2003, residents of the City were awakened to the news that their neighborhoods were under threat from what would become the worst wildfire in state history. In the City of San Diego alone, the Cedar fire burned 28,676 acres and destroyed or damaged 406 structures before it was extinguished.

The containment of the City's losses is a testament to the courage and extraordinary efforts of the City's public safety personnel. As the City Manager's "Initial 30-Day Post-Fire Overview" dated December 3 attests, "The City of San Diego's public safety personnel did an outstanding job with the resources available to them. " The Cedar fire has served to spotlight the intentional underfunding of fire and public safety, and the deficiencies in equipment, hiring and training that leave City residents at risk.

The October fires punctuated a message that our law enforcement and fire safety officials have presented time after time to the Mayor and City Council. The presence of a deadly fire in the City's neighborhoods brought home to all residents that there exists a crisis that will lead to the deterioration of our quality of life if not addressed immediately. The City of San Diego is facing an unprecedented fiscal crisis that affects the ability of law enforcement and fire safety officials to protect the public. This paper will outline the crisis as it stands today, and will recommend actions that will lead the City onto safer ground.

The Scope of the Crisis

One major issue of concern is the lack of safety personnel to meet the needs of a growing San Diego population. Since Fiscal Year 2001, the number of San Diego Police Department sworn personnel departures has far exceeded the number of sworn hires. In Fiscal Year 2004, there have been 46 departures, but there have been no new recruits in the Regional Academies since January, 2003. The only hire in Fiscal Year 2004 was the Chief of Police, William Lansdowne. Bill Farrar, President of the Police Officers Association, recently stated that the City has not replaced the nearly 100 officers who left the force in 2003. The Department projects that it will lose an average of 86 sworn officers per year over the next five years. The Department must hire 792 officers by the year 2010, at an average of 113 per year, if it is to maintain service at current levels and make up for expected attrition and population growth. According to a January, 2004 report, the Department's ratio is 1.65 officers per one thousand residents, a ratio that places the City of San Diego at 29 th out of the 30 largest cities in the nation. This ratio does not account for extra policing needs associated with tourism or illegal immigration. When flocks of vacationers come to San Diego , they stretch the already thin police line. As Police Chief William Lansdowne concluded in a report to the City Council Committee on Public Safety and Neighborhood Services on January 9, 2004 , "Faced with a growing population and a corresponding demand for police services, attrition and the inability to replace or hire officers because of budget constraints continue to be a major concern for the Department."

The loss of sworn officers is exacerbated by the cuts in civilian positions in the Police Department. Civilian positions provide critical support for officers. The tasks that they perform are essential for police work, but do not require officer training in public safety. However, as the fiscal crisis has deepened, civilian positions were cut or left unfilled. In the Fiscal Year 2004 budget, 36.75 civilian positions were cut and another 80 budgeted positions were to be held vacant. The result is that sworn officers have been called upon to handle the administrative tasks that were once handled by civilian employees. The skills of highly trained public safety professionals are being wasted as sworn officers are asked to perform civilian jobs such as record keeping, auto maintenance and payroll. Despite a 2002 study that suggested that 80 positions could be civilianized, officers continue to perform tasks that properly trained civilians are suited to perform. The result is that there are fewer officers on the streets than the current officer-to-resident ratio suggests.

Fire safety staffing is also woefully inadequate to meet today's demands. The City of San Diego has only 881 firefighters, and the ratio of firefighters to residents is .69 per 1000 residents. This means that San Diego is 800 firefighters short of reaching the national median per resident. For another comparison, the Fire Department had a staff of 763 in 1980 to serve a population of 870,000, yet today's 881 firefighters serve a population of 1.3 million. The result of underfunding of fire safety was underscored in a report to the Council on January 29. Chief Bowman's report, "Acceptable Standards of Emergency Response Coverage for San Diego Fire-Rescue Department," indicated that response times have increased in most areas above the 5 minute benchmark once considered acceptable. In a fire-prone and arid area like San Diego , this staffing deficit puts residents' lives and property in danger. That danger must be dealt with now, rather than after a report is finished in 13 months, as Mayor Murphy has suggested. ("Murphy Vigorous but Vague on Fire Services," San Diego Union-Tribune, Jan. 18, 2004 )

In addition to personnel needs, fleet, equipment and facility needs of the Fire and Life Safety and Police Departments are not being met in the current budget. For instance, despite a DMG Maximus Study of City-wide vehicle needs that estimated that the Mayor and City Council needed to invest $6 million annually for new and replacement vehicles, the approved 2004 budget only dedicated $400,000 for vehicles, the entirety of which was to be used to make annual lease payments for the 47 police cars leased in Fiscal Year 2003. Fiscal Year 2001 was the last year that patrol cars were purchased with General Funds.

The need for replacement vehicles is dire. Of the 1436 Police Department mission vehicles, 284 have over 100,000 miles, 154 have between 80 and 100,000 miles, and 123 have from 70 to 80,000 miles. The industry standard for replacement of law enforcement vehicles is 80,000 miles. With no vehicles budgeted for purchase in FY 2004, 62% of all patrol vehicles have over 70,000 miles, and more than half of these older police cars are operating with more than 100,000 miles on their odometers.

This neglect of the fleet has significant consequences. Officer morale and public perceptions of the police force diminish when the symbol of the Police Department, the black and white police cruiser, is obviously in disrepair. Life cycle costs for vehicles increase after 80,000 miles; in the long run, deferring the replacement of vehicles costs the agency more money than if they had been replaced on time . Breakdowns take officers away from patrolling the streets. An aging fleet also puts officers' safety at risk, because newer vehicles provide advanced safety features, while older vehicles cannot withstand the strain often associated with police work. In a high-speed chase, an officer behind the wheel of a car with 100,000 miles has a higher likelihood of an accident due to steering, brake or axle failure. (For complete details of the fleet deficiencies, see San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne's Report to the Council Committee on Public Safety and Neighborhood Services dated January 14, 2004 )

Fire and Rescue Department vehicular needs are also evidenced in various reports to the Mayor and City Council. In a report to the Council's Committee on Public Safety and Neighborhood Services on July 30, 2003 , Fire Chief Jeff Bowman details the fleet deficiencies that fire fighters must contend with when protecting lives and property. As the report states, "San Diego Fire-Rescue Department continues to be unable to sustain an adequate emergency response marine and fire fleet. Budgetary constraints over the past several years have repeatedly eliminated any proposed fleet replacement programs." The facts are devastating: 41% of all front-line emergency vehicles are beyond the industry safety standard of 12 years and 9% are beyond 24 years old. The aging and outdated fleet puts firefighters' lives at risk, and causes firefighting vehicles to be out of service when they are needed for an emergency such as the Cedar fire.

Fleet deficiencies are only one of the many underfunded needs within the Fire-Rescue and Police Department budgets. Both departments face the challenge of safeguarding the public while working with outdated and obsolete data and communication equipment. The Mobile Data Terminals (MDT) in public safety vehicles were purchased by the Departments in 1989, and have since become obsolete. Indeed, parts to fix those units have been unavailable for 6 years. The Police Department has been using laptops in police cars, yet these laptops are 4-5 years old. Most private businesses upgrade their computers more frequently than the departments that we trust to keep us safe.

Just as detrimental is the lack of support for necessary police and fire technology. The Police Department has not added civilian positions for technology support in 8 years, despite the fact that the computer system grew from 200 desktops to over 3000 desktops and laptops. A Gartner Group study for the Police Department estimated that 22 Information System Analysts would need to be hired to maintain the existing patrol and investigative support systems and to support the new Criminal Records Management System on a 24-hour basis. Despite this knowledge, no hires have been approved by the Mayor or City Council over the past 8 years.

Fire Chief Bowman's Report on Fire-Rescue Deferred Maintenance presented to the City's Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee on September 24, 2003 detailed the facility needs of fire safety in the City. That report concluded that the "most effective method of addressing ongoing maintenance needs is through an adequate and consistent annual maintenance budget." According to the report, every year 2 to 3 roofs and kitchens need to be replaced, 5 buildings need painting, 5 facilities need a new heating/air conditioning system, and 7 structures require new carpet. These large-scale repairs are in addition to more frequent need for maintenance such as asphalt repair, termite control and exhaust cleaning. In FY 2003, the Fire Department spent $513,559 just to do repairs needed to fulfill minimum health and safety requirements. In the FY 2004 budget approved by the Mayor and City Council, the set aside for all maintenance costs on fire and life safety facilities was just $282,102. That amount must meet the maintenance needs of the 50 Fire-Life Safety facilities.

Police Department facilities face a similar deferred maintenance problem. In January, Police Chief Lansdowne estimated deferred maintenance at $462,000, for everything from roofing to parking lot repaving. He recommended that $500,000 annually be budgeted for maintenance, in order to maintain current standards at police facilities. He cautioned that deferring these maintenance needs would add 20% to the cost, when it becomes impossible to put off the maintenance any longer.

The Cedar fire spotlighted the facilities, supply and equipment shortages of the City's public safety departments. After reviewing the response to the Cedar fire, fire officials have said that there is a need for 11 more engine companies and stations, and three more truck companies. Several firefighters were reported to have been sent to the front lines without equipment, and some said they had to purchase their own batteries for their radios. In addition, the San Diego Police Officers Association stated that officers must now buy their own business cards. In a January report, the Police Chief estimated that they would need an additional $3 million just to cover essential supply needs for things like gasoline, cleaning supplies, and DNA testing, and another $1 million to purchase needed safety equipment like sirens and police car safety cages. Working under such shortages is increasingly difficult, as the problem is compounded by underfunding year after year.

Fund a Permanent Fire Safety Helicopter

An independent report by Conklin & de Decker Associates commissioned by the Mayor and City Council and released on January 28, 2004 confirmed what many had been saying for years: the City of San Diego needs fire fighting helicopters for fire protection in the area. The failed attempts by several concerned citizens, firefighting groups and elected officials to convince the current City Administration to invest in a year-round, locally controlled life safety helicopter had devastating consequences during the Cedar fire. Prior to the fire, on July, 22, 2002 , Mayor Murphy voted against funding for a firefighting helicopter. Since the fire, the Mayor has called for a short-term lease of a helicopter, a lease that the County of San Diego has agreed to support. Yet the Mayor must fully commit to fire safety by purchasing a helicopter to be stationed in the City for local use as needed. This helicopter would complement the helicopter that the County Board of Supervisors has indicated that it will purchase in the next several weeks. In addition, a locally owned fleet of helicopters must be coordinated, so as to best serve all of the residents of this region. As was clear during the Cedar fire, a wildfire does not respect jurisdictional boundaries, and quick response to a small fire is essential to avert disaster.

Proposition 172

To balance the state budget in 1993, the Legislature approved the transfer of $2.6 billion in local property tax revenue from the counties, cities and special districts to help fund local school districts. This transfer was in addition to a 1992 transfer of $1.3 billion. The hardest hit agency in the San Diego region was the County, which assumed 85% of the revenue loss for the region. Funds shifted by the state from the County's General Fund were dollars that supported the Sheriff's Department, the District Attorney, Probation, and the operations of the courts and jails. In November, 1993, Proposition 172 was placed on the ballot to permanently extend a half-cent sales tax due to expire in December of that year. The intention was to partially compensate for the state's transfer of revenues.

It is clear from the information passed on to voters that Proposition 172 was intended to make up in part for the loss of revenue to the local agencies. All of the official election materials sent to the voters in the Voter Pamphlet made it clear that revenues were specifically intended to partially backfill cities and counties for the lost revenue from the state property tax shift. The State Legislative Analyst's statement, included in the ballot information sent to registered voters, confirmed this fact. The enabling legislation passed by the Legislature to implement Proposition 172 was written to allow cities and counties to backfill the services they had been providing at the time of the shift. The state makes certain that the money is used to replace existing public protection services (services provided by each county and city at the time that Proposition 172 passed) by enforcing a maintenance-of-effort provision that requires counties to fund public safety at the 1992-93 levels. Since the County of San Diego did not have a fire protection agency at the time of the ballot measure, its entire portion of the revenue has been designated for the Sheriff, the District Attorney, and Probation. Accordingly, Proposition 172 revenue funds 32% of the Sheriff's budget, 39% of the District Attorney's budget, and 10% of the Probation Department's budget.

While some have argued that Proposition 172 should be used to fund a regional fire department, or simply to fund firefighting equipment, it is clear that such a fund shift would have devastating impacts on law enforcement in the region. In fact, such a shift would create a dollar for dollar reduction in law enforcement services. While the County has kept faith with the voters with respect to Proposition 172 allocations, it has done so while providing some funding for firefighting services. Sometimes overlooked is the fact that the County currently provides funds for rural fire districts, even though this is not part of its responsibilities. Similarly, the County provides a communications system and has provided funding for a firefighting helicopter. In the end, we cannot attempt to solve one problem- the underfunding of fire safety- at the expense of other services essential to public safety.

Special Events

In addition to the inadequate budgets and staffing that the public safety departments are forced to work under by the Mayor and City Council, those departments are instructed to offer services at special events throughout the City without reimbursement. According to Police Chief Lansdowne's report dated January 14, 2004 , the San Diego Police Department is not currently reimbursed for officer assistance at special events. In the report, Police Chief William Lansdowne points out that the SDPD is reimbursed for less than a quarter of the cost for police services at various public functions. Indeed, even for-profit events like Chargers games and Street Scene do not fully reimburse the department.

Redevelopment Agency Funding for Fire Safety and Police Capital Improvements

In 2003, Councilwoman Donna Frye pressed the Centre City Development Corporation, for a report regarding the use of revenues from redevelopment. That report, presented to the Mayor and City Council in December 2003, analyzed revenues that the agency receives from development in the covered areas. According to the report, since 1992 an estimated total of $351 million has been injected into the City's General Fund. However, despite those funds, essential fire and police safety needs in the Downtown area have not been met. For instance, only one ladder truck serves the high-rise community which has become the hallmark of the Downtown revitalization. Questions have arisen regarding the lack of fire stations in the affected area as well. But, as some redevelopment agency officials contend, "they have no control over how the money they send to the city is used." (Jonathan Heller, "Redevelopment's Gift," San Diego Union-Tribune, December 8, 2003 ) The Mayor and Council determine how the redevelopment revenues are spent.

Emblematic of this willingness to look the other way when it comes to making public safety investments is the decision to defer completing installation of fire sprinklers and other fire safety measures in the City Administration Building. On December 8, 2003 , the Mayor and Council voted to defer that installation until January 1, 2008 , despite requiring those same systems for every similar building in the area. City Hall is the only high-rise office building without a complete sprinkler system. The lack of a sprinkler system puts employees and visitors at risk every day, and makes firefighting more dangerous for firefighters.

Given the expanding needs for fire and police safety in the rapidly developing Downtown area, the Mayor and Council must create a plan for addressing that need. One of the funding sources for that plan should rightly be the City's revenue from redevelopment projects. Of course, the Mayor argues that these revenues must be used first for a downtown library and landscaping along the waterfront.

Steps Toward Safeguarding Our Future Funding for the City's basic safety needs must be a priority. Underfunding of these essential services places all residents in jeopardy, and threatens the economic prosperity that peaceful living brings to San Diego . The City's elected leaders must possess the courage to ignore the requests of special interests, and focus on what is in the best interest of the people who elected them.

Along with those steps designed to bring the City's fiscal house into order (as outlined in a previous paper), the following must be accomplished to safeguard our future:

1. The first purpose for government is to safeguard the public.

2. Set as the number one priority fixing the deficiencies in fire and police funding.

3. Stop appointing blue ribbon panels, committees and task forces to study what is already evident to everyone: public safety is underfunded in every aspect.

4. Create a multi-year, disciplined plan to limit spending in other City Departments.

5. Defer "wants" like the new downtown library, for "needs" like public safety.

6. Support increase of Transient Occupancy Tax if proceeds are earmarked specifically for police and fire protection and tourism promotion.

7. Identify a phased, 5-year plan for purchasing replacement vehicles and equipment, and fund this with Transient Occupancy Tax proceeds.

8. Identify funding from special districts and agencies such as The Economic Development Corporation and the San Diego Unified Port District that should be used for public safety.

9. Use revenue from redevelopment to fund public safety in redevelopment zones, especially downtown.

10. Pass a moratorium on providing public safety at special events without 100% reimbursement, until a time when the City's public safety departments are properly funded.

11. Fund a permanent City Fire-Safety helicopter and join with the County in a regional safety authority.

12. Hire those already trained qualified officers immediately to stop the downward spiral of attrition.

13. Fund the police academy to train officers for the increasing San Diego population.

14. Create a phased plan for funding deferred maintenance of facilities under all departments, but especially for Police and Fire.

15. Stop replacing administrative clerks with sworn officers. Let police officers do the job they were trained to do.

Conclusion

The City cannot wait for an economic miracle. Waiting to fund police and fire until an improved economy increases City finances is like waiting to fix the lock on your front door until your next raise. The Mayor and City Council must act quickly to stop the degradation of the City's public safety departments. The Cedar fire highlighted a problem that the current Administration has known about and ignored for some time. The time for studies and committees is over. Our City must act now to stop the downward spiral. The most fundamental responsibility of government is to protect its citizens and their property.

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