Hey, Buddy, Can You Spare $30 Million?

Eliminating 106 police positions could save New Haven over $4 million a year.

It could also, in the view of some people, cost us more in lost lives and a more dangerous city.

We could save hundreds of thousands of dollars eliminating or combining a bunch of higher-level management positions — if we believe we won’t lose out in the long run.

New Haven is now wrestling with those choices. Choices that can produce savings or cuts in the millions, not thousands. Choices that force the city to rethink what tasks city government can continue to perform in an era of finite help from the tottering state government.

Please join us in exploring those choices. By putting our heads together to right the ship.

A respected analyst of our local government finances — Mohit Agrawal, chair of the independent Fiscal Review & Audit Commission— reports that our city has a $30 million structural deficit. The city has crushing long-term debt, woefully underfunded pensions, and a limit on how much it can tax its property, more than half of which is tax-exempt. That means we need to find ongoing ways (not one-shot fixes, like selling off property) either to raise that money, cut those costs from city government, or some combination of both.

The Harp administration tried to close some of that gap by raising taxes 11 percent as of this week on already tax-strapped property owners. That produced an outcry to reverse the hike. But according to FRAC’s analysis, the city would have actually needed a 20 percent increase to produce a balanced budget this coming year. (Read more about that here and here.) So the new budget still put off some of the fundamental choices New Haven now has to make.

“Our city,” a recent FRAC reported noted, ​“finds itself in a financial crucible.”

From Mayor Toni Harp to citizens who blast her administration, no one has questioned Agrawal’s or FRAC’s assessment of the city’s dire long-term financial situation.

“We’re busy looking at ways that we can be more efficient,” Harp said during her latest appearance on WNHH FM’s ​“Mayor Monday” program. For instance, she said, perhaps ​“aspects of parks and public works can come together.” She credited her predecessor for having successfully trimmed down the government during a previous financial crunch: ​“We’ve got to thank John DeStefano. He already reduced the size of the city by 40 percent. It’s already much smaller.”

Which means a new round of significant savings may require not just tweaking the bureaucracy or fixing inefficiencies, but cutting bone — well-run functions of government that New Haven may decide it can no longer afford.

The city will probably also have to look at its $1.5 billion in bonded debt, the highest per-capita municipal load in the state. It also will have to examine how to shore up its perilously underfunded pensions. A proposal simply to borrow more money to address the problem (through $250 million in new pension obligation bonds) failed to win approval during this year’s budget approval process.

FRAC, too, is embarking on months of close scrutiny of the city’s options to see how to close that $30 million gap, or else punt and surrender control of local finances to the state (the way Hartford and West Haven have done) in return for a bailout. The search for substantive solutions has begun.

So far, though, the public debate has focused on name-calling, demonizing public figures, or calling generally for ​“cutting the fat” in various bureaucracies, rather than naming enough specific jobs or functions that can be cut with enough savings to make a difference. (Here’s a story about one exception.) People have expressed outrage over an 11 percent tax increase that took effect last week. A group of citizens gathered last week to supposedly brainstorm solutions; instead, they spent an hour venting about their big tax bills and corrupt politicians without producing any sizable cuts or identifying services they’d be willing to give up.

In the interest of helping FRAC and City Hall begin that process of closing the $30 million structural deficit, the Independent is hereby inviting readers to submit specific suggestions for long-term government cuts or new revenues that add up to at least $1 million, minus the attacks on individuals or vague condemnation of bureaucracies. Please submit your ideas .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). We’ll look into some of them, examining the dollars that can be saved or raised, as well as what New Haven might lose in the process. Then we’ll publish what we’ve learned and ask you to weigh in through our ​“True Vote” polls.

Please post comments, too, as usual. But we’re going to ask people to refrain from criticizing or insulting individuals or simply venting for these stories, and focus on practical solutions.

Who knows? Maybe we can get to that $30 million and avoid more tax hikes, or selling our civic soul to Hartford.

To start the process, here’s a look at three ideas that have been circulating around town these days.

Cut 106 Cop Positions: $4.5M

New Haven budgets to have 495 cops, more than any other Connecticut city. (Bridgeport budgets just over 400, according to mayoral spokeswoman Rowena White.)

Right now, thanks to a wave of retirements and resignations, only 389 positions are filled.

Many of those positions remain in the budget as placeholders, costing taxpayers just $1 for the year. But the city did budget to bring 72 new officers on the job this coming year in two police academy classes. That would be a long-term cost.

Those officers start out earning $44,400 a year for now (pending arbitration on a new contract). Add 40 percent for the cost of benefits (the estimate used by city officials), and that’s $62,160 per position, for now. A beat officer’s salary rises to $71,000 in the fourth year. That’s lower than it is in the police departments of neighboring towns (which therefore are having success poaching our best cops). But it does add up.

If New Haven decides to cancel the classes and keep the force at its current strength long term — including not filling the $1 placeholder positions down the road (therefore cutting 106 positions overall) — that would save $4.48 million a year to begin with, and more as time goes on.

Arguments For: A decade ago New Haven still had fewer than those 389 positions. And it was doing pretty well for a while, until gangs started deadly banging again for a few years. (Then leaders were put away for long sentences, and crime dropped again.)

One experienced cop, former Assistant Chief John Velleca, argued in several interviews on WNHH FM that the cops can do fine at that strength. Part of the reason for our larger force is our community policing program hatched in the early 1990s, which relies heavily on expensive walking beats. Velleca argued that approach doesn’t really cut crime, because community-minded proactive cops will get out of their cars, even if they’re assigned to a cruiser, and meet people and build trust. Ineffective cops will find ways to pass time in corners away from the public if they’re assigned to a walking beat. The bigger challenge for the department is to train and deploy officers well, rather than assign lots more officers to walking patrols, Velleca argued.

“Don’t kid yourself. The walking beat officers aren’t swinging their nightsticks, whistling. They’re doing the same thing the cops in the cars are doing. They’re going to [calls]. In the downtime, they’re not shaking hands and kissing babies. They’re just walking up and down the street,” Velleca said in one of the interviews.

“The walking beat thing has been fed to this city for so long, it’s disgusting. Everybody believes walking beats is community policing. It’s not. Community policing resides in the officer, in the philosophy he takes to whatever assignment he’s in.”

Arguments Against: Crime is cyclical. So whether or not Velleca is right, the city will see rashes of upsetting violence, upticks in violence rates even if they’re only temporary. And the public will demand more cops — in even louder voices than heard in the recent tax-increase debates.

In the same Whalley Avenue meeting last week where 50 people called for a tax revolt, neighbors have been expressing alarm at the absence of more officers on duty, especially at night. One neighbor, for instance, called the Independent to report the horror she felt when it took 30 minutes for cops to respond to a call about an intruder in her house; she learned that only one officer was on duty for that stretch of town. Cops cost money.

New Haven has a consensus that walking beat-centered community policing is a big reason that violent crime has dropped consistently for the seven years since it’s been revived, to the lowest levels in decades and to levels lower than in other Connecticut cities.

“I think the intangibles around community-based policing and a walking beat outweigh jumping into a car,” Harp, who as an alder co-authored the original community policing plan, said in one of several discussions about the issue on WNHH FM’s ​“Mayor Monday” program.

“Part of the reason crime is down is we had 439 officers at our peak over the past couple of years. Walking beats. Project Longevity interaction. With a reduced police force, some of it is going to suffer,” Chief Anthony Campbell agreed in an interview this week. ​“This city is accustomed to a certain style of policing. They’re accustomed to high visibility.”

And the department may end up paying extra for cops on the beat if, say, a murder spree or other high-visibility crime problem requires more officers on the street.

Slash Supervisory City Hall, Cop Positions: $2.3M

(Updated: Previous Estimates based on incorrect data.) Another idea floating around is to eliminate currently vacant supervisory and detective positions in the police department, along with two of the four assistant police slots. (The police department created four assistant jobs at the recommendation of an outside consultant in the wake of a 2007 corruption scandal.) The assistant chiefs get paid $125,426 a year (or $175,600 with the 40 percent for benefits factored in.)

For instance, two lieutenant positions are open; the department pays lieutenants an average of $85,000 a year, according to Chief Campbell. So adding the 40 percent, those two slots could save $238,000 a year. (Consumer advisory: Readers are advised to double check all math in this article. Although this reporter has checked it several times, the reporter also doesn’t have a great math track record.)

Three sergeant slots are currently unfilled, according to Campbell. At $78,000 a year on average, plus the 40 percent for benefits, they could save the city $326,600 a year if they remain unfilled.

Nine budgeted detective slots are currently unfilled, according to Campbell. At what he said is a $75,000 average salary, plus the 40 percent, they could save the city around $1.5 million.

Meanwhile, at City Hall, there are potential opportunities to combine some top jobs. For instance, the heads of the Livable City Initiative (LCI) ($115,000 a year, or $161,400 with the 40 percent for benefits added) and the City Plan Department ($111,000 in salary, around $154,400 including benefits) currently report to the economic development administrator. Under one scenario, the LCI and City Plan would be folded into the development administrator post, perhaps gradually as people vacate some of the slots.

If you also eliminate the position of deputy community services director (approved salary this year: $96,684; $135,357 with benefits), the total savings from eliminating all these positions appear to hit $4.23 million.

Arguments for: We never needed four assistant chiefs. The same assistant can oversee, say, administration, training and ethics, internal affairs. A second could oversee patrol and investigative services, both of which have their own full-time supervisor. While individual misconduct will always occur in any large department like police, the integrity of the unit at the center of the corruption trial was restored. And one can argue that training, independent internal investigations, and appropriate punishment for misdeeds go further in keeping a police force clean than do extra bodies at the top.

If the top priority is keeping cops on the street — either on walking beats or in cars, in great enough numbers to avoid a decline in response time — and if New Haven can’t just continue raising taxes, then some positions need to go, even if they’re important. So that would mean supervisors.

As for the City Hall cuts, the city plan chief, Michael Piscitelli, is currently doing double duty as acting development administrator. LCI’s chief indeed has a full plate of responsibility, and then some. The argument here is that, as with police, if ranks need to be pruned, a top priority might be to preserve boots on the ground, in inspectors and code enforcers, who do already have supervisors on staff in the department.

Arguments against: The recommendation for four chiefs was designed to provide needed extra oversight of ethics and training in a corruption-wracked department. Especially in this era of greater scrutiny of police behavior, some would argue the department can’t risk a return to the old days.

Similarly, Chief Campbell has responded to recent controversial incidents involving police interactions with citizens by stressing the need for better supervision and training. The police force is young and destined to grow younger, less experienced. He argued that supervisors can play a key role in monitoring and defusing potential problems.

Fewer detectives would mean less investigation. More crimes might go unsolved; more perpetrators would remain on the streets.

And as it is, City Hall’s LCI and City Plan departments operate with smaller staffs than in the past. The directors are already overworked. Meanwhile, interest in building in New Haven is at a peak; the government needs enough staff to vet proposals, negotiate the kind of deals the public is clamoring for (to create jobs and preserve affordable housing). And slumlords are getting away with illegally housing people in sometimes horrid conditions. LCI is already stretched thin trying to stay on top of them.

City Sales Tax: $10.5M

In addition to eyeing cuts, New Haven is also exploring ways to raise new revenue. In addition to Hail Mary passes — changing state law to tax Yale more, for instance; or convincing the suburban-led legislature to meet more its abandoned obligation to fully fund the Payments n Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) reimbursements for the untaxable 54 percent of our property — more modest proposals have emerged.

One is to obtain state permission to charge a local sales tax. State Sen. Martin Looney submitted a bill to do that in 2017; it didn’t pass. It would have allowed cities to add 0.5 percent to the 6.35 percent state sales tax. The state would collect the full amount of money, then reimburse the cities their portion. (Read about that here.) At the time the bill was introduced, a state estimate had it bringing $10.5 million direct to New Haven. The bill didn’t pass.

A state comptroller candidate, Republican Kurt Miller, offered a variation of that idea, in this interview: State enabling legislation for cities to charge a 1 percent surcharge specifically on hotel rooms, entertainment tickets, and restaurant meals in New Haven.

Argument for: We need the money. Much of our retail, at least downtown, tends to be high-end. The industries covered by Miller’s proposal, in particular, are growing in New Haven, especially with several at least four ​“boutique hotels” either in planning or under construction.

“If you look at that 1 percent, that’s $1 on a $100 dinner. That’s not going to change a family from going out to dinner. It’s not going to change a businessperson from coming into New Haven to rent a hotel,” Miller said.

Argument against: Taxes are already high. Sales taxes disproportionately hurt the poor.

Restaurants in particular often struggle to stay in business, in part by keeping prices from getting too high. Some business people would complain that this could threaten their establishments’ survival, and thus endanger jobs and tax revenue.

Even if New Haven did all of the above, it would be only halfway to the $30 million. And it will not do all the above. So the floor’s open! Please, let us know where else to look.

Click on this Facebook Live video to watch Mohit Agrawal and Allan Hadelman discuss the city’s fiscal straits on WNHH FM’s ​“Dateline New Haven” program.

Click on the Facebook Live video to watch the full episode of ​“Mayor Monday.”

This episode of ​“Mayor Monday” was made possible with the support of Gateway Community College and Berchem Moses P.C.