City of Albany faces shortfall for police, fire salaries

ALBANY – For years, Albany has sought to boost the number of first responders on the payroll, and this year the city’s police and fire departments have seen that hope come to fruition.

But that means that the Albany City Commission is facing an unexpected end-of-year expenditure of more than $4 million to pay for those new hires during the current budget that ends June 30.

City staff is requesting a total of $7.75 million, which includes about $4.1 million to meet payroll for firefighters and police officers as well as an extra $700,000 beyond the amount budgeted for demolition of dilapidated structures. Covering those costs will require dipping into the city’s reserve funds, it was revealed during the commission’s Tuesday meeting.

“Historically, we were 70% staffed at the police department and at the fire department,” Mayor Bo Dorough said. “And what (we) would do is budget for 72% (of full staffing). Now we’re at 80%.

“We can’t tell staff to hire more police officers and then complain at what it costs.”

About $4 million of the requested expenditures are $2.3 million for school zone camera expenditures. That amount will be paid by fines collected through operations.

“We are exceeding previous collections,” city Chief Financial Officer Michael Eaton said. The funds “go to the general fund” and “means we had expended for public safety purposes the additional features such as additional cameras (and) advertising for the police department and for use for a variety of purposes.”

Money paid in fines through the school speed zone camera enforcement is earmarked for allowed public safety purposes. Expenditures have included additional signage and flashing yellow lights in school zones, for example.

Commissioners requested more information on how the costs were underestimated.

“We need a detailed explanation,” Dorough said. “Wa ain’t going to have any reserves in two or three years if we keep this up.”

In formulating the current budget, staff tried to make it as lean as possible, City Manager Terrell Owens told commissioners. In coming years, the city will face significant expenditures, such as replacing aging water mains.

Plans are to replace about 25 miles of underground water pipes over five years.

“We are getting very close to that (cutting) to the bone,” Jacobs said. “It’s hard to do that and still provide services.”

Budgeting for school zone camera expenditures is difficult because the amount of fines collected can vary greatly, the city manager said during a Wednesday telephone interview.

“We don’t know how much money we’re going to collect through school zone cameras,” he said. “That’s why we do a budget amendment.”

Bringing police and fire staffing up to the range of 90% fully staffed after years of staffing being at around 70% is “a good problem to have, but it’s challenging,” Jacobs said. “It’s good and bad because now you’ve got to come up with the revenue to pay for salaries and benefits.”

The commission is scheduled to vote on the $7.74 million budget amendment request on Tuesday.