City officials outline public-safety budget priorities as bureaus track overtime reductions

Deputy City Administrator Mike Myers told the Portland City Council on April 16 that the public-safety service area has seen operational gains but faces continuing cost pressure as council begins its budget work sessions. Myers, who oversees the public-safety service area, briefed councilors on the budgets and performance of the Bureau of Emergency Communications, Portland Police Bureau, Portland Fire & Rescue and related programs.

Myers said he was “very proud” of the Bureau of Emergency Communications and its director Bob Kazi for lowering 911 call-answer times. “They have brought that call answering time down very close to the 20 seconds, 95 percent of the time that is the national standard,” Myers said.

Why it matters: Council is preparing for the mayor’s proposed budget and needs to weigh both rising baseline personnel costs and pockets of operational improvement. Bureau leaders told councilors recent investments and management changes have produced measurable gains — but several bureaus face recurring shortfalls tied to overtime, bargaining-unit pay and retirement contributions.

What bureau leaders reported - Emergency communications: Director Bob Kazi described the fall from historically long waits to levels near national standards. He said reduced overtime and higher staffing have returned money to the general fund. - Police: Chief Bob Day said the bureau’s crime-reduction efforts have produced declines in several categories, including homicides, and that targeted “missions” often require overtime staffing to be effective. Day described a continuing staffing shortfall and noted investigative work and major incidents drive a portion of overtime costs that are difficult to predict. - Fire: Interim Fire Chief AJ Jackson described a multi‑year effort to reduce mandatory overtime by adding straight‑time staff and creating a traveling pool. Jackson emphasized response-time targets and the safety implications of staffing decisions: “If we’re going to get a rescue done or we’re gonna save people, it is in that first 5 to 10 minutes,” he said. - Community safety: Myers and Stephanie Howard, who manages Portland Street Response and the Office of Violence Prevention, said federal ARPA dollars that helped scale prevention and intervention programs are expiring and the service area has asked for one‑time and ongoing general‑fund support to maintain current service levels and expand targeted interventions.

Council questions focused on: how many disaster‑planning tabletop exercises PBEM can run (director Shahad Ahmed said the bureau lacks a dedicated training and exercise team and estimated roughly 2–5 FTE would be required to operate a full exercise program); whether the police would re‑deploy specialty teams to TriMet if compensated (Chief Day said an agreement could improve transit safety but would require tradeoffs); and how reserves and federal grants factor into next year’s proposals.

Context and next steps: Myers repeatedly cautioned that much of the near‑term year‑over‑year budget growth in public safety is the result of “current allocation level” pressures — cost‑of‑living adjustments, health care and retirement contributions — rather than new programmatic spending. He also flagged an emerging structural deficit in the police budget and said the bureaus and the city budget office are working with council to prioritize trade‑offs.

The council did not take formal votes on the presentation. Councilors will continue the budget discussion in service‑area work sessions and will receive the mayor’s proposed budget in the coming weeks; some councilors said they will propose amendments during those sessions. The public‑safety work session provided councilors an initial chance to question bureau directors about responses times, staffing pipelines and the fiscal tradeoffs behind overtime and operational programs.