LAKE COUNTY — Lakeport Police Chief Kevin Burke said Friday he plans to oppose City Manager Jerry Gillham”s suggestion that the city council cut four police officers from his department in order to balance the city”s budget.
The Lakeport Police Department (LPD) is missing two officers after one retired in August and another resigned in December 2007, according to Burke. As part of the city”s budget discussions in May, City Manager Jerry Gillham offered the option of leaving the two positions vacant and laying off two more police officers.
“As the city is growing, the number of police officers may be cut to a level not seen since the 1970s,” Detective Norman Taylor wrote in a Friday press release. Taylor is the president of the Lakeport Police Officers Association, the department”s wage and benefit bargaining unit.
A full staff for the LPD is 14 officers. Burke said the department has kept that staffing level for the past 12 years, and that already-stretched services would have to be cut if he loses four positions.
“As a police manager, I think that (14) is the appropriate level of staffing for this department. That has made it possible for us to have a school resource officer, to have an officer on the narcotics task force and to provide adequate, uniform police coverage for the city. Laying off four police officers would take us to a level that would, in my opinion, be quite challenging to maintain an adequate level of public safety,” Burke said.
He said he will recommend to the Lakeport City Council June 10 to keep the staffing level at 14, but said the end result may be leaving the two vacant positions unfilled for another year.
“I understand that the financial picture is pretty bleak. If we have to live without filling those two positions another year, we will do it. We will do whatever it takes and work whatever hours we have to in order to ensure public safety. When you go lower than that, you start to lose your ability to make the judgments that are necessary,” Burke said.
The city is trying to close a $1.5-million deficit it discovered last summer after not balancing its budget for the previous two years.
“One of the greatest challenges I”ve faced since I came here is to come up with this year”s budget and find a way to try to balance the interests of the city to cut costs with the interests of the public having adequate safety,” Burke said.
Burke said if his two officer positions remain vacant for another year, he, Lt. Brad Rasmussen and Taylor would have to work patrol shifts.
“That would make us less accessible to the public and less able to do our jobs of oversight, and it would mean less time for the detective to work his cases,” Burke said.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
