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Salinas police budget grows 6.5% to $64.4M; Measure G funds traffic, records, violent‑suppression units
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Summary
Police service administrator Tanya Erickson told the advisory committee that the city's FY25‑26 general fund was about $184 million and the police general-fund budget was $64,431,730 (a 6.5% increase). She outlined Measure E and Measure G positions and said some grant-funded roles are being converted to permanent city-funded positions.
At the April 22 Police Community Advisory Committee meeting, police service administrator Tanya Erickson gave a high-level overview of the department's general-fund budget and how Measure E and Measure G funds are allocated.
Erickson said the adopted city general-fund budget for the current fiscal year was $184,000,000 and that the police department's general-fund budget was $64,431,730, a 6.5% increase compared with the prior year. She said the department shows 161 authorized sworn positions, of which four remain frozen; 157 positions are funded and there remain vacancies across sworn and civilian ranks.
She described how Measure E supports 31 positions (about eight sworn and 23 civilian roles) and told the committee that Measure G fully funds the traffic unit, the violent suppression task force, the records unit and portions of police administration (including certain administrative staff). Erickson said the traffic unit includes two officers plus collateral overtime assignments and a vacant dedicated sergeant position.
Erickson reviewed grant-funded programs that were started externally to the department and later absorbed: the outreach/"spot" team began on grant funding and the department's portion of a larger grant was described in the transcript as about $1,000,000 (the overall grant was described as approximately $3,000,000); Erickson said the police share at points reached as high as about $1.3 million and that the department budgeted to convert those grant-funded staff to permanent city-funded positions as of Jan. 1.
On process, Erickson said departments submitted position and budget requests in January for the two-year budget cycle and that the city manager and finance office would make recommendations to council. She said the department will present the annual report to council on May 12 and that a budget study session was scheduled for May 19, with final adoption typically targeted for mid‑June.
Committee members asked for clarity on midyear amendments, the disposition of funds for unfilled positions (Erickson said underspends return to the fund balance for Measure E or Measure G and can be reallocated) and how shifts among budget line items are approved (department-level transfers are permitted within appropriation limits; fund-to-fund transfers require council action). Erickson also explained a legacy animal-services position that remained on the police books after services were contracted to the county and that the role is being reclassified.
