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Caldwell council debates police staffing, incentives and whether to reallocate transit funding
Summary
Councilors and staff reviewed a staff proposal that reduces requested fire hires, adds three police positions, and explores using foregone and other transfers to trim a projected general-fund deficit; councilors also debated reducing Valley Regional Transit funding in light of low ridership.
At a July workshop on the FY2027 budget, staff presented a recommended scenario that trims six of 12 requested fire positions this year, adds three police positions (including two discussed earlier), and frees money by delaying a $1,000,000 transfer to a building capital fund so the general fund deficit is reduced under the proposal.
“Removing those six positions and shifting the transfer freed up some money to make our general fund look palatable,” the acting finance director said while outlining her recommended scenario, which also includes the option to take a 1% foregone to add revenue for public safety.
Councilors pressed staff on tradeoffs between hiring additional sworn officers and increasing wages to retain current staff. Staff estimated about $106,000 per new sworn hire (including training and benefit burdens) and proposed a roughly $220,000 pool for incentive or retention pay. Police leadership told the council retention is costly and time-consuming and urged support for both hiring and targeted pay to retain trained officers.
“Anything to keep our good employees here,” the police chief said in discussing incentive pay and the costs of turnover, while cautioning that a significant proportion of the expense of hiring is training time and separations can quickly erode savings.
Councilors also raised the Valley Regional Transit (VRT) contribution after Nampa’s recent decision to cut funding. Some members warned that removing a transit line risks permanent service loss; others said ridership is low and suggested redirecting some transit allocations to public safety if VRT cannot demonstrate adequate service to Caldwell. Staff cautioned that moving transit money to public safety would be a programmatic decision and likely handled via a midyear budget amendment if approved.
Staff and council agreed to reconvene at a Tuesday workshop with updated spreadsheets showing the fee-revenue breakout, the property-tax components, and refined general-fund scenarios so the council can decide how to balance hiring, wage adjustments and program funding ahead of publication deadlines.
