City of Madison public listening session on the police department budget

By
Brenda Konkel
-

The Public Safety Review Committee formed a subcommittee to write a report, we did the best we could with limited support, and are having a public hearing, will anyone attend?

PRESS RELEASE

Press release went out yesterday morning, I see no press on this.  We couldn’t get the city to send it out for us, so we sent it out ourselves.

Public Safety Review Committee Invites Public Input on Police Department Budget

The mission of the Public Safety Review Committee is to advise the Mayor and Common Council on matters related to police and fire department budgets. Before COVID-19, the committee decided to make feedback about the police department’s budget a high priority for this year. With recent calls to defund the police and packed agendas on policing reform, we formed a subcommittee to assist the community, Mayor and Common Council in having a robust discussion about the police department budget. A policy subcommittee and OIR recommendations subcommittee were also formed.

The budget subcommittee is seeking public input on the compiled report to provide a roadmap to the police department budget before the report is finalized. “We have been listening to the public when crafting our questions and prioritizing which areas of the budget to focus on. However, direct public input is vital to the completion of this report. We hope that this will give many the opportunity to redefine and reimagine public safety”, said Matthew Mitnick, PSRC Budget Subcommittee Chairperson.

We are asking the community several questions:

  1. What priorities or recommendations would you make to the police budget?
  2. Are you comfortable with the police department’s spending and resource allocation?
  3. What other questions would you like to se answered in the report?

The full PSRC will get an update on the report at its September 16th meeting and members of the subcommittee are asking the full PSRC to attend the subcommittee public hearing on:

Thursday September 24th, 6:00pm

The public can participate in the following ways:

The full report is available at: https://madison.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=4601255&GUID=C616C0F4-E94F-4EC1-B377-CF0CEAE3FE4A

THE REPORT

We wrote the report ourselves with no staff support.  I started it, Matthew Mittnick did a ton of work, then I did some more work, then Matthew did some more work . . .  and there’s probably more work to do.  I did a chart of information that I wanted, the city staff never verified it, so its missing from the report.  But here’s some of the highlights.

IMPORTANT BUDGET DATES

SEPTEMBER – CAPITAL BUDGET

  • September 1 at 6:30pm: Introduction of Executive 2021 Capital Budget at Common Council Meeting
  • September 8 at 4:30pm: Capital Budget Overview & Hearings at Finance Committee
  • September 9 at 4:30pm: Capital Budget Hearings at Finance Committee
  • September 15 at 6:45pm: Public Hearing on 2021 Capital Budget at Common Council Meeting
  • September 16 at 4:30pm: Finance Committee Member Amendments to 2021 Capital Budget due to Finance Department
  • September 18 at 12:00pm: Finance Committee Member Amendments to 2021 Capital Budget released
  • September 21 at 4:30pm: Votes on Executive 2021 Capital Budget at Finance Committee

OCTOBER – OPERATING BUDGET

  • October 6 at 6:30pm: Introduction of Executive 2021 Operating Budget and Public Hearing on 2021 Capital Budget (Report of Finance Committee) at Common Council Meeting
  • October 12 at 4:30pm: Operating Budget Overview & Hearings at Finance Committee
  • October 13 at 4:30pm: Operating Budget Hearings at Finance Committee
  • October 20 at 6:45pm: Public Hearing on 2021 Operating Budget at Common Council Meeting
  • October 21 at 4:30pm: Finance Committee Member Amendments to 2021 Operating Budget due to Finance Department
  • October 24 at 12:00pm: Finance Committee Member Amendments to 2021 Operating Budget released
  • October 26 at 4:30pm: Finance Committee: Votes on Executive 2021 Operating Budget / 4:30 pm

EARLY NOVEMBER – COUNCIL AMENDMENT

  • November 4 at 4:30pm: Common Council 2021 Capital & Operating Budget Amendments due to Finance Director: Proposed amendments must have two sponsors to be considered by the Council. In the case of amendments from the floor of the Council, members may consider an amendment to a proposed amendment as well as other amendments that are written and distributed to Council members.
  • November 6 at 12:00pm: Amendments Distributed to Common Council

MIDDLE NOVEMBER – 2021 BUDGET DELIBERATION MEETINGS

  • November 12 at 5:30pm: Public comment on the budget only at Common Council Meeting
  • November 13 at 5:30pm: Budget only
  • November 14 at 5:30pm: Budget only

 The November 12 and 13 meetings of the Council shall recess or adjourn not later than 12:00 am (Midnight) unless the council by a 2/3 vote agrees to extend the time of recess to a different time.

MPD IN CONTEXT OF 2020 OPERATING BUDGET

Specifically from Madison’s General & Library Fund, MPD constitutes the largest portion within the Public Safety and Health category at $81,830,699. This means that out of the City of Madison’s Public Safety and Health agency, 56.4% of funds are allocated to MPD. MPD has the largest department budget from the General & Library Fund in the City of Madison. This funding source comprises 98% of MPD’s budget. Moreover, out of Madison’s General & Library Fund, MPD constitutes 24% of it.

MPD CAPITAL BUDGET

MPD BUDGET

For MPD in particular, this pertains to asset costs of equipment that cost $20,000 or more, assets that have a useful life of 10 or more years, and funding. Asset life does not include ongoing maintenance or subscription costs. MPD’s capital budget is funded primarily through GO Borrowing that is paid back with future year Debt Service payments.

We note that there is a 5-year Capital Improvement Project (CIP). Major changes in the 2021 Agency Request from MPD include a nearly $100,000 reduction from the prior year’s budget. This report also indicates that although the new North District Police Station’s total project budget of $14.2 million was originally added from the Horizon List, it has since been removed. $152,000 will be added in 2026 for renovations to the North District Station if a new one is not built.

INVENTORY OF ITEMS

As part of our factfinding, we did obtain a list of inventory items from the Madison Police Department. The first list is a general inventory of larger items.

The second list is items obtained through the 1033 Program. The Law Enforcement Support Office (LESO) takes applications from police agencies to participate in its 1033 program. Participating agencies receive a Department of Defense Activity Address Code (DODAAC) and LESO can track the issues property. By being part of this program, MPD was granted access to a web-based application, which allows them to search for and request equipment. Acting Chief Wahl provided our subcommittee an inventory report of 1033 program items. Please note that highlighted items have been returned as of September 4, 2020.

Finally, pursuant to a public records request, please find the purchasing requests MPD made to replace the pepper spray, tear gas, foam bullets, and other less lethal resources that were needed to be replaced or placed back into inventory following the May 30, May 31, and June 1 protests in the City of Madison. A total of $18,619 being spent is listed.

See Appendix F – Inventory for more details.

ITEMS OBTAINED THROUGH THE 1033 MILITARY SURPLUS PROGRAM

Highlighted items have been returned.

OTHER INVENTORY

They said they don’t really have an inventory of the items they  have.  And they don’t have an inventory of the tear gas and mace or other weapons they have.  This is the best we could get from them.

WHERE MPD GETS THEIR MONEY

HOW MPD SPENDS THEIR MONEY

PERSONNEL

NON-PERSONNEL

MPD STAFFING

There are several pages in this section that talk about police staffing studies.  You can read them on your own.  The biggest issue with the current staffing study is that it only studies the Police Officer Positions in the chart below, not the detectives, investigators, sergeants, lieutenants, captains and chiefs.

There are 598.7 total MPD positions.

  • 7 Civilian Positions: These employees perform work relevant to the work required for trainings, record keeping, technology development, public records management, property, professional standards, internal affairs, finance, personnel, and facilities management.
  • 483 Commissioned Positions: These employees perform police patrol, traffic enforcement, criminal investigative services, special operations, and staffing for community support services. Please note that there are 3 more police officer positions in the 2020 Adopted Budget than there were in 2019.
SWORN OFFICER POSITIONS

CIVILIAN POSITIONS

POSITIONS ADDED/REMOVED  IN THE PAST 10 YEARS

Sworn Officers

The police department has seen several increases in staffing over the past 10 years. The timeline below documents this:

  • 2011 – 8 new positions
    • 4 police officers
    • 4 detectives
    • New unit – Special Investigations Unit (SIU) to implement a focused deterrence initiative
  • 2012 – 3 new officer positions
    • To complete staffing for SIU
    • Grant funded
  • 2015 – 8 new officer positions
    • 3 were grant funded
      • MPD’s Community Outreach and Resource Education (CORE) unit
    • 5 were Neighborhood Resource Officer (NRO) positions
  • 2016 – 2 new sergeant positions and 2 new officer positions
    • All grant funded
    • To complete the formation of CORE and to implement a Use of Force Coordinator position
  • 2017 – 7 new officer positions
    • Creation of the Midtown District
  • 2018 – 9 new officer
    • 1 in Midtown District
    • 8 were added after the final budget process
    • The adopted budget had authorized MPD to increase authorized strength by 15 officers, contingent on the approval of a COPS hiring grant,
      • The grant was ultimately not awarded to The Common Council subsequently voted to amend the budget and add 8 positions to MPD, reflecting the amount budgeted for the match
    • 2019 – 1 new detective position and 1 new officer position
      • The detective position was designated to focus on the emerging issue of human trafficking in Madison
    • 2020 – 3 new officer positions added in 2020 Adopted Budget
      • An Addiction Resource Officer position just started that is grant funded
      • 12 positions were returned to patrol
        • 6 Community Policing Team (CPT) positions
          • 1 per district
        • 2 Gang Unit officers
        • 2 CORE officers
        • 2 NPOs

Civilians

MPD ORGANIZATIONAL CHART

This chart used to be updated with the number of staff in each of these positions, we were unable to obtain that information from the police department.

POLICE CALLS FOR SERVICE – HOW DO THEY SPEND THEIR TIME

Printable version I did . . . it’s not in the report this way.

TOTAL COST OF A FULL TIME POLICE OFFICER

This figure is based on an average and doesn’t include investigators, detectives, sergeants, lieutenants, captains, chiefs.

Total cost per full time officer is $127,792.

Personnel: $87,121

  • Base Wages: $65,939
    • Assumes step 5 of the Police Officer Classification
  • Education Incentive: $11,872
    • Assumes 18% incentive as of July 28, 2020
    • 76% of officers are earning the education incentive at this level, which is the equivalent of a Bachelor’s Degree
  • Premium Pay: $1,988
    • Based on 2019 actual premium pay earned divided by the number of authorized positions
    • Does not account for vacant positions
  • Overtime: $7,322
    • Based on 2019 overtime earned divided by the number of authorized positions
    • Does not account for vacant positions

Benefits: $26,118

  • Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA), Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS), Health Insurance, Miscellaneous Benefits: $26,118
    • Based on 2020 rates
    • Assumes family health insurance

Supplies: $14,553

  • Uniform & Supplies: $10,000
    • Based on MPD estimates for initial issuance
    • Existing officers receive $500 per year for uniforms, as established in their contract
  • Fleet Costs: $4,353
    • Assumes one patrol squad for every 3 officers when adding additional staff
    • Based on debt service costs for 2019 police cruiser

 COST OF OTHER SWORN PERSONNEL

We were unable to get this information.  I did my own calculations, but it doesn’t include the additional pay or supplies, only the salary.

POLICE UNION CONTRACT IMPACT ON THE BUDGET

Again, we were only able to get minimal information from staff on what is in the police union contract and how it impact the budget.

I went through the contracts for MPPOA (police union) and AMPS (supervisors union).  I heard all kinds of things about what the contracts do and don’t do, but the number of Madison Police Officers is not addressed in the contracts.

City retains rights to:

  1. To hire, promote, transfer, assign and utilize employees.
  2. To suspend, discipline, demote, discharge or lay off employees in accordance with the provisions of Wisconsin Statutes Sec. 62.13. Prior to any reduction in force, the parties agree to meet and discuss potential workforce reductions.
  3. To determine work standards; the quality and quantity of work performed by employees and to determine whether employees meet said standards.
  4. To establish departmental policies, rules, regulations and procedures. Whenever reasonably practicable, the City agrees to furnish the designated representative of the Union with a copy of newly established or amended policies, regulations and procedures, which are applicable to Union members at least ten (10) calendar days prior to their effective date.
  5. To establish work schedules and to assign overtime work.
  6. To establish and utilize methods, processes and technology by which departmental work is to be performed.
  7. To determine the number of personnel to be employed.
  8. To operate and administer facilities, equipment and operations.
  9. To establish, expand, transfer, consolidate or terminate functions, programs and operations.
  10. To contract and subcontract matters relating to departmental operations.
  11. To transfer any governmental operation to another unit of government. Such transfer shall not require any prior negotiations or the consent of the Union and furthermore, upon transfer, all agreements are terminated including this Contract as pertains to personnel of the department affected by the transfer.
  12. To determine the organizational structure.

The rest of the information I found was not easy to summarize, but can be found here. 2 Madison Police Department Labor Contracts bullet points  The main point of that is that police get paid extra above their base pay for just about everything – here a few examples

  • Shift differentials
  • Saturday Pay
  • Sunday Pay
  • Overtime Pay
  • Holiday Pay
  • Training Pay
  • Paid to take horses and canines to the vet and train them

They also get reimbursements for uniforms, kenneling their canines, tuition, etc.

POLICING FUNCTIONS

This section was nighmarish – trying to figure out what everyone not in patrol does is hard.  And trying to get a cost for each of these units never happened.  I’ll show my (wrong) numbers below so people can get a ballpark indication of what it would cost for each of these units.  What each of the units do can be found by following the links for looking at their mission statements.

Please note that the Crime Prevention/Social Media Coordinator (1 position) and Addiction Resource Officer (1 position) are both not listed here.

The following functions do not have dedicated staff, they are duties performed by officers, detectives, investigators, sergeants, lieutenants and captains with other assignments.

Some other functions that do not have officers speicifcally assigned to them include:

This chart is wrong and we are waiting for staff to verify the cost of benefits, additional pay and supplies for non-police officer positions.  For purposes of these numbers, I just used the police officer costs, which are likely higher in these positions so the numbers are likely underestimated.

CIVILIAN FUNCTIONS

MPD Civilian Functions

Other civilian functions

The police happily gave us the costs of the civilian positions in great detail, we could not get this information for the sworn officer positions.

POLICE DEPARTMENT RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A 5% CUT TO THEIR DEPARTMENT

According to a memo (See Appendix K) by MPD, this would be a reduction of $4,209,219. Acting Chief Wahl indicates that there will be the following impacts as a direct result of this proposed cut:

  • Elimination of MPD’s Community Outreach Section
  • Elimination of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU)
  • Elimination of the Crossing Guard Program
  • Elimination of the Traffic Enforcement and Safety Team (TEST)
    • In 2019, the TEST team accounted for over 31% of the total traffic citations issued by MPD
  • Reduced Patrol Officers
  • Reduction to Neighborhood Officer Program
  • Reduction to Mounted Patrol Unit
  • Eliminate Police Report Typist Positions
    • 6 fulltime civilian police report typists (PRTs) would be laid off
  • Eliminate Property Clerk Position
  • Employee wellness checks cut
  • Eliminate Pro Training funding
  • Adjustments to the annual over hire formula

HOW MUCH WOULD OTHER CUTS TO THE DEPARTMENT BE?

Please note that public feedback is encouraged on which areas of MPD these cuts would be made to (ex: number of patrol officers, fleet costs, etc.).

  • 10% budget decrease:
    • $8,892,263.90
  • 15% budget decrease:
    • $13,338,395
  • 50% budget decrease:
    • $44,461,319
  • 75% budget decrease:
    • $66,691,979

WHAT HALTING THE TRAINING ACADEMY WOULD DO

Acting Chief Wahl indicated that with roughly 25 to 30 officers leaving every year, not having an Academy for five years would be a reduction of roughly 100 to 150 officers. This would save approximately $12,779,200 to $19,168,800 over such a time period.

CITY ATTORNEY SENDING US A MEMO ON COUNCIL BUDGET POWERS

When I was first elected (2001), we were repeatedly told that we couldn’t mess with the police running their own department because the Chief had that power through state statutes.  During the council oversight committee, it was determined that the council could give “lawful orders”.

What we were told when I was first elected, was that we had the “power of the purse” – that we could make our wishes known through the budget.  Now alders are being told that they can’t specifically cut a particular officer or unit, that their only power is in cutting a dollar amount and then the department will determine where the cuts are made.  I think that’s hogwash. So the city attorney is supposed to get us a memo on that before the public hearing on Thursday.  When you get it, read it very, very, very carefully.  Pay attentions to may and should vs shall.

PLEASE GIVE INPUT ON INFORMATION NEEDED

You can tell us our report is shit.  It won’t hurt our feelings.  We did the best we could with what we had in the short amount of time we had.  We need better and more info from the police department to fully understand their budget, so feel free to tell us that

PLEASE GIVE INPUT ON RECOMMENDATIONS

You might notice, we haven’t made any recommendations.  This is purely an informational report.  However, there is a public input section where we will list your recommendations.  And maybe, eventually, the PSRC will make recommendations.

HOW TO GIVE INPUT

Either send us your comments via email:

Or attend the meeting on Thursday:

 

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