They wanted a website redesign investment. They wanted a PR firm that was in charge of the recruiting plan. Then, Mosqueda said, she looked at the items Harrell proposed funding with the money from the remaining 120 positions, and asked “what is above and beyond on that list. But “we know we are never going to fill, so we are going to put those dollars back into the general fund.”Ĭouncilmember Alex Pedersen said any proposal to cut vacant positions from SPD’s budget amounted to “revisiting the debate in 20” about “defunding” the police department. “We are not touching the 120 and we are not touching the hiring plan,” Mosqueda told PubliCola Sunday. Mosqueda anticipated the objection that eliminating funding for positions that will never be filled amounts to a “cut” in the police department. “I see in the proviso that it takes away the police department’s flexibility to use savings to address overtime needs, despite the fact that they have a severe staffing shortage,” Pedersen said. Mosqueda’s budget proposal doesn’t touch this “reinvestment” and still funds the vast majority of Harrell’s police hiring and recruitment plan, which still includes large bonuses for new recruits and enough money to hire a net 30 new officers over the next two years-an ambitious plan that would represent a rapid reversal of police hiring trends over the last several years.Īt Monday’s initial council meeting to discuss the proposal, Councilmember Alex Pedersen said any proposal to cut vacant positions from SPD’s budget amounted to “revisiting the debate in 20” about “defunding” the police department. Harrell’s budget assumes that the 120 vacant positions Mosqueda’s proposal leaves untouched won’t be filled, and “reinvests” those on-paper savings back into other police programs. Mosqueda’s plan would eliminate proposed new funding for Shotspotter (or another gunshot detection system) reduce the proposed increase in police recruiting efforts reduce the amount of new funding SPD will receive for new guns and ammunition and reduce the amount of new spending on SPD’s Develop Our People leadership academy, a management training program for sergeants. Twelve days after a late-breaking revenue forecast punched new holes in the city of Seattle’s biennial budget, city council budget committee chair Teresa Mosqueda released a two-year “balancing package” that amends Mayor Bruce Harrell’s October budget proposal by eliminating proposed new programs and initiatives, allowing revenues from the JumpStart payroll tax to fund programs that would not ordinarily qualify for JumpStart spending, and reducing the number of vacant police positions the city will continue to hold open next year from 200 to 120. The city council’s budget “balancing package” still leaves a large gap the city will have to address in the future, possibly through new progressive taxes that have not yet been identified.
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