Ryan ChartrandThe controversial neighborhood policing program that would put more police officers on patrol in San Luis Obispo neighborhoods, particularly ones where long-term residents and rowdy students clash, has been put on hold due to a $4.8 million gap in the city’s finances.
During a special city council meeting to address short-term actions for rebalancing the 2008-2009 budget Tuesday night, the council voted unanimously to put a freeze on the hiring of two new officers for the program.
The program was part of Measure Y, a half-cent sales tax that was enthusiastically passed in 2006 to fund street improvements, neighborhood safety, fire and paramedic services, traffic congestion relief and flood and creek protection. Some aspects of the measure, including the neighborhood wellness program, were temporarily put on hold in June due to student protests.
The neighborhood policing program, which would include a graffiti abatement program, has been deferred mainly due to a controversial Binding Arbitration Award which bestowed the Police Officers Association with $5.8 million – well over the $1.8 million the city wanted to give them.
“This is all about the difference between our final offer and what the arbitrator agreed on,” Financial Director Bill Statler said.
Residents and council members alike decried binding arbitration, which allows police and firefighters to strike during labor negotiations.
“Every single council person in the past has been opposed to binding arbitration because it takes away judiciary responsibility, the main responsibility of the city council,” said Councilwoman Christine Mulholland. “Due to the. award, at least half of that income has been wiped out just like that and we’re going to have to cut the services that we had budgeted for.”
The award, combined with what the council called state budget “take-aways” and downward trends in property, sales and transit occupancy taxes, will also eat away at other Measure Y programs, the largest being a 46 percent cut for flood control and street and sidewalk repair funds.
The council also voted to rescind a raise of $60 a month for themselves in what they called a symbolic gesture, due to the small impact it will have on the overall budget.
Although the future looked grim for the many Measure Y supporters, Statler remained optimistic.
“We may be doing less than we had hoped but we are certainly doing more than we were before Measure Y,” Statler said. “We are certainly fortunate to have the Measure Y revenues.”
Statler was confident that programs like the neighborhood policing program would find a way to get off the ground.
“We just needed to evaluate them in the context of our new fiscal situation and maybe this will emerge as a high priority,” Statler said. “Even if they don’t fill the two (new officer) positions, they will still be able to do more in the way of neighborhood policing than we would have otherwise.”
Mulholland was especially disappointed that the neighborhood policing program had to be put on hold. She said it was needed because there are currently not enough officers able to respond to the calls irate neighbors make about students.
“We have had ongoing problems in neighborhoods for years and we have been unable to respond in a timely matter to a lot of the calls we get,” Mulholland said. “People who make calls in other parts of the city.don’t get response at all because the cops are so tied up. in neighborhoods where the students have a large impact. I have one (resident) who has had his car keyed and smashed year after year.and the cops can’t even deal with it because they are out at big parties.”
Brett Cross, chairperson of residents for quality neighborhoods, said his organization was one of main groups lobbying for the neighborhood policing program.
“If you look at the number of noise violations that are occurring in the city on the annual basis, those numbers are significantly too high,” said Cross. “We have minor crimes, burglaries and then we have more major crimes of assault and I think that if we get some officers out in the neighborhoods, those areas can be addressed.”
Even if the neighborhood policing program does find funding, it still may have some obstacles to overcome.
When it was first introduced, the program was met with protest by some students concerned with what they considered a crackdown on partying by the police.
A facebook group named, Stop the People’s Republic of SLO’s Student Abuse, claimed that the police were going to come down too hard on noise violations.
Police Chief Deborah Linden said her department met with student organizations including ASI and the Greek community and held an open forum in the spring to address their concerns.
“Most of the information on the facebook site was wrong,” said Linden. “We had some great input from students where we actually tweaked the program that we were presenting based on student input.”
Civil engineering senior Michael Ginther, who started an alternative facebook group called Cal Poly Students AGAINST Measure Y, said that he listed facts about the program correctly.
Although Ginther said that many Measure Y programs would be good for the community, he was concerned with certain parts of the neighborhood policing program.
“I was against the ‘no warning for repeat offenders,'” Ginther wrote in an e-mail interview. “This bullet on the program basically would allow the police to give a lot of unwarranted tickets to people just because they are living in a house that is flagged as a party house.”
Ginther added that he is also against the no warning periods.
“This allows the police to choose weekends as they see fit to become no warning weekends and if you get a complaint about noise, you can get a ticket,” he said. “This.frustrates me because I don’t think students will be aware of the fact that a certain weekend is a no warning weekend and will have people over and be subject to a ticket.”
Sean Grant, ASI’s chief of staff, said that most students’ concerns about the program have turned out to be unfounded.
“As far as cracking down on parties, that wasn’t what it was designed to do,” Grant said of the program. “They were developing neighborhood teams to give officers a closer relationship with neighborhoods to try to avoid the crackdown that the facebook group has brought up.”
Grant added that relations between the city’s students and long-term residents will always be an issue in this college town.
“Some (measures) work, some won’t and it’s going to be a learning process between Cal Poly and the community,” Grant said. “Hopefully someday they will find a perfect solution.”