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Supervisors and SFPD spar over proposed cuts as BLA offers $2.6M reductions
Summary
San Francisco supervisors and Police Chief Bill Scott clashed over modest Budget and Legislative Analyst cuts to SFPD’s two-year budget, with the department warning cuts could hurt recruiting and reform work while supervisors urged using alternative response teams to reduce officer duties. The committee did not adopt final changes and recessed to June 25.
San Francisco’s Budget and Appropriations Committee spent the bulk of its June 24 meeting debating the Police Department’s budget and a set of modest reductions proposed by the Budget and Legislative Analyst (BLA).
Police Chief Bill Scott told the committee the department "does not agree with the BLA’s recommendations," arguing that the suggested reductions would undermine recruiting, training and technology needed to implement reform. "We are talking about human lives," Scott said, warning that cutting support for academies, materials and non-sworn analytical staff would hamper policing and public-safety work.
Nick Menard of the BLA defended the office’s proposals as limited and achievable. "Our recommendations for the upcoming fiscal year for the police department total $2,600,000," Menard said, describing that as 0.45% of the department’s $577.2 million proposed general-fund budget for FY21-22 and noting the BLA’s view that the cuts "will not impact services, and they will not impact the department’s plan to hire 100 new police officers in each of the 2 years."
Supervisors pressed on several technical points: how many officers the city needs, the projected impact of running two or more academy classes, and whether alternative street-response teams (wellness, opioid and crisis teams) would permit reducing SFPD duties and related costs. Patrick Leon, the department’s finance director, explained that the proposed $26 million increase into year two included annualizing newly funded recruits and contractual pay increases.
Council members also questioned overtime, attrition and vacancy assumptions. Chief Scott said separations have been high in recent years and that to maintain current staffing the department plans to recruit 100 officers annually; the BLA recommended modest savings drawn from attrition assumptions and supply budgets. Several supervisors urged more ambitious changes to police staffing and spending in year two if alternative response teams reduce SFPD workloads.
The committee did not finalize changes to the police budget. Chair Matt Haney said further decisions were likely at subsequent meetings and recessed the committee to continue the budget process on June 25.
