Proposed 17% spending increase for Buffalo police would be largest in 10 years

But since then, in Buffalo and many cities across the country, police and fire budgets have continued to rise.

And if Mayor Byron Brown gets the Common Council’s cooperation, that trend will continue, with the largest increase in the department’s police budget in at least 10 years.

The police budget passed last year was just under $81 million. This year, Brown suggested giving the department $95.2 million — an increase of more than 17 percent from last year — and part of a proposed budget that would see property taxes increase by 9 percent.

The majority of the proposed spending increase in the police budget would be on salaries, which would increase from $61 million to $74.7 million. That cost increase, which accounts for nearly all of Brown’s proposed police budget increase, is due to a 4 percent increase in police salaries in the next fiscal year, said Commissioner Delano Dowell. finance, politics and urban affairs of the city.

“This is mainly due to a series of new contracts,” Dowell said.

The current contract between the Buffalo Police Department and the Police Benevolent Association, the police union, includes a cost-of-living increase that drives next year’s budgeted salary hike.

The city also plans to add more than 60 officers in the next fiscal year, or 34 additional officers when retirements and other retirements are taken into account. The number of sworn officers would increase from 741 to 775, while the number of civilian employees would remain stable at 298, according to the proposed budget.

Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia told Common Council members his department must honor the union contract as it seeks to cut spending whenever it can.

“There are many areas of this spending that we simply cannot reduce, but we are certainly monitoring and we are trying to be as efficient as possible,” he said during a May 3 budget workshop. . “We’re looking for ways to be efficient.”

By comparison, the Buffalo Fire Department’s budget would remain relatively stable. Brown’s plan would increase the fire department from $67.9 million to $69.9 million.

In both departments, overtime is systematically underestimated, sometimes to considerable extents. In the 2022-23 budget year, the city budgeted $9.7 million for police overtime and spent nearly $13.4 million. The city planned to spend $5.5 million and spent $10.3 million on firefighter overtime that same year.

Dowell said the reason overtime estimates are often far exceeded by the actual cost is because the city wants to encourage department heads to be as frugal as possible with their overtime. Setting planned spending higher would send the message that these department heads can use all of the planned overtime, which could lead to even higher totals than they see each year.

“The key for us is really to try to reduce overtime as best we can,” Dowell said.

And while large overtime overruns are not ideal, departments are able to realize savings related to budgeted vacancies, for which money was set aside but not paid out. The proposed police budget for next year calls for 812 positions. Not everyone will be filled.

“Even if they go over the budgeted amount, we still have savings on our salary line that will offset that overage,” Dowell said.

Sometimes overtime violations are blatant. In the 2021-22 budget year, the city planned to spend $7.5 million, but paid $14.8 million in police overtime. And in the 2017-18 budget year, the city planned to spend $4 million on fire department overtime, but paid out $12.1 million, more than three times what it had planned in its budget.

Gramaglia and Fire Commissioner William Renaldo pointed to the resource-intensive public safety work for large events — St. Patrick’s Day parades, canalside events, New Year’s Eve party — as major factors in their costs overtime.

And minimum staffing requirements contribute significantly to overtime, both commissioners said.

The administration has opened contract negotiations with Buffalo Fire Local 282, which represents more than 700 people in the department, Renaldo added.

“That’s something that’s still on the table,” Renaldo said of the minimum labor contract requirements detailed in the agreement between the department and the firefighters’ union. “It would be hard to break.”

Both commissioners also highlighted overtime costs related to internal affairs investigations and required training programs.

“The work being done overtime on tracking has never been more thorough than under this administration,” Gramaglia said. “Staff…. dig through every line, every category to find every ounce of dollar, every penny of overtime spent, how it’s spent, where it’s spent. We do our best to be as efficient as possible, when we can, obviously within the confines of the contract The most discretionary overtime actually goes to the detective division and the specialist unit.

During budget workshops, Council members sought clarification on specific budget lines and took the opportunity to question Commissioners about other programs and data. Council Majority Leader Leah Halton-Pope asked about wide fluctuations in budget lines, including one line covering police vehicles and another covering costs related to the department’s body camera program.

Dowell and other Department of Finance officials explained the reasons why those lines changed, including grants covering the purchase of vehicles and the expensive upfront costs of implementing the body camera program.

“Over the entire budget, these tiny amounts end up adding up,” Halton-Pope said.

The Common Council will hold a budget hearing at 5 p.m. in the council chambers of City Hall on Wednesday, May 15.