Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Occ Budget topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
OCC director warns budget cuts threaten oversight work; calls for small IT fixes and staffing enhancements
Summary
Office of Citizen Complaints director Joyce Hicks told the commission the OCC operates on a $4.3 million baseline and faces mandated 5% cuts and FTE reductions; she said the office still needs modest IT investments (online complaint filing, automated tickler) and roughly $1 million in enhancements to meet audit-recommended staffing levels.
Joyce Hicks, director of the Office of Citizen Complaints (OCC), told the Police Commission on Jan. 11 that the agency's baseline budget is $4.3 million, with personnel costs representing about $3.8 million and 34.75 full-time-equivalent positions.
"Personnel costs for the OCC comprise 89% of our budget," Hicks said, outlining mayoral budget instructions that require a 5 percent reduction of general-fund support per budget year and a 1 percent-per-year full-time-equivalent reduction over five years. She told the commission that, after charter-mandated staffing is backed out, OCC targets still create pressure and that some controller audit recommendations remain unfunded.
Hicks said the OCC has addressed 38 of 41 recommendations from a 2007 controller audit; the remaining items include implementing an automated tickler for investigative deadlines and an online complaint-filing mechanism. The director said the tickler would be a one-time cost (discussed at amounts between roughly $7,000 and $20,000 in commission back-and-forth) and estimated online complaint filing implementation at about $12,000.
Hicks urged the commission to help advocate for adequate OCC funding in upcoming negotiations with the mayor's office and the Board of Supervisors. "Position cuts of 5% over 5 years and the reduction targets will hinder our steady progress," she said, adding that the OCC needs nearly $1 million in enhancements to add investigators, supervisory staff, an attorney and an information systems analyst to reach case-load and process targets endorsed by the controller.
Commissioners questioned a rent line in the OCC budget (noted at $308,000 for space at 25 Van Ness Avenue), the office's ability to find external grants, and the operational consequences of reducing clerical or investigator positions. Hicks acknowledged the difficulty of finding funds for civilian oversight, saying those funding streams are often targeted to police departments rather than civilian units.
The commission endorsed working with Hicks and supervisors to pursue modest investments, including the tickler and online filing, that the director described as 'low-hanging fruit' to improve timeliness and public access.
The OCC report concluded with a reminder that the controller's recommended investigators-per-officer standard (16 cases per investigator) remains an unfinished target given current caseloads averaging 23 cases per investigator.
The commission offered support and said members would participate in future budget negotiation meetings to press for sustaining OCC functions.
Next steps: Commissioners asked the director to provide more detailed cost estimates and to return with any negotiated outcomes as budget talks with the mayor's office proceed.
