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Councilors flag multiple public‑safety budget priorities: recruitment, telecommunicators, CHaT and street response
Summary
During a free‑wheeling budget discussion the Community and Public Safety Committee reviewed possible amendments and budget notes addressing police recruitment and retention, BOEC telecommunicator staffing, CHaT funding, Portland Street Response expansion, PBEM planning positions and park‑service restorations.
The Community and Public Safety Committee used the final portion of its May 27 meeting for an open discussion of possible amendments and budget notes to the Public Safety Service Area budget. Committee members and bureau leaders flagged several priority items.
Police recruitment and retention: Chief Bob Day described a recruitment strategy that includes travel, university outreach, digital marketing and targeted hiring incentives. Day said the bureau spends roughly $400,000 annually on digital marketing and that recruiting activity (travel, advertising and backfill for officers serving in recruiting roles) contributes to the requested recruitment and retention funding. He noted that neighboring jurisdictions have used signing bonuses to boost hiring.
Telecommunicators / BOEC: Bob Causey, director of the Bureau of Emergency Communications (BOEC/311 call operations), said BOEC currently has permanent funding for 128 positions and limited‑term funding for eight call‑taker positions. He described a plan to convert limited‑term positions to permanent positions over time using overtime savings; BOEC estimates a winterneed of about 130 certified call takers and a summer need of around 150 to meet national call‑answering standards.
CHaT and PSR funding: Councilors discussed proposals to (a) convert a portion of one‑time CHaT (Community Health and Crisis Team) funds to ongoing funding to provide stability for staff and partners, and (b) expand Portland Street Response (PSR). Stephanie Howard, director of community safety, said the mayor’s proposal includes 14 additional PSR FTE phased over time; the program manager expects that number is the minimum needed to approach 24/7 coverage and that hiring and training would be phased across roughly two years.
Police forfeiture and PS3 authorization: Councilors signaled interest in accessing police forfeiture funds and in increasing authorization for PS3 (public‑safety support specialist) hires as a workforce strategy. Councilors discussed an amendment that would ask the police bureau to report on its forfeiture fund policy by December and another amendment to increase PS3 hiring authorization.
Other items discussed: Councilors described a prefiled amendment to restore some parks dispatcher positions (about $380,000 cited in committee discussion), budget notes to make a portion of Violence Prevention and CeaseFire grants ongoing, and a possible PBEM request to fund planners and an all‑hazards watch desk manager to support CEI hub planning and other emergency plans.
Bureau leaders cautioned that converting one‑time funds to ongoing commitments requires tradeoffs across service area budgets. Deputy City Administrator Mike Myers said the strategic plan should be used to guide which initiatives receive ongoing funding; bureau leaders said they would return with more detail as amendments are drafted.
Ending note: Committee members indicated which amendments or budget notes they plan to file for the June budget meeting and asked bureau staff to be available for follow‑up questions.
