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Roth votes “no” on moving money from debt service to cover OT …
… as Festa casts a cautious “yes.”
Alders approved transferring $5.6 million from the city’s debt service other accounts to cover fire and police overtime.
During the first Board of Alders meeting of the month Monday night at City Hall, they voted for the approval over the objection of one colleague who raised concerns about kicking the ongoing public safety overtime problem down the road.
In a 21 to 1 vote, alders approved transferring $1.4 million from the debt service account to pump up fire overtime by $1.1 million and the fire salary account by $300,000. In a separate 21 to 1, they approved moving $2.2 million from the police salary account and $2 million from the debt service account. The police overtime account would get $4 million and police equipment account $200,000.
Downtown Alder Abigail Roth, the lone vote against the transfers, said she was concerned that by “papering-over” the public safety’s overtime problem with what amounts to an accounting maneuver was “removing the pressure of addressing the issue now.”
The Harp administration is using surplus funds achieved through a $160 million refinancing of the city’s debt to cover the cost. (Read more about that here.) Roth said it’s fiscally irresponsible to draw from current debt service payments to cover excess operating expenses.
“I believe we need to undertake independent studies of fire and police now so we can come up with objective strategic ideas for addressing issues now,” she said.
East Rock Alder Anna Festa said Monday she stood “hesitantly in support” of the transfer to cover police overtime. She said she hoped that the chiefs of fire and police understood from the most recent Finance Committee meeting that alders expect them to reconcile some of their overtime costs in the future and look for ways to save on equipment contracts.
“I will be supporting this item because we either pay now or we pay later,” Festa said of her support of the transfers. But she said the city must be mindful of what it means when moving money from debt services to pay for operating expenses.
“It’s like paying for your mortgage with your credit card,” she said.