(Editor’s note: This article was slated to be published last week, but due to lack of space it is being posted here instead)

“What is the city but the people”
—William Shakespeare

” The problem is, when a government entity takes the people’s money, it has a duty to use that money to serve the people—not an employee’s union.”
-Donnell Rubay, “City budget crisis: cause, effect, possible solutions.” Benicia Herald. Sept.17, 2010.

In a Letter to the Editor (August 26), titled, ”BPOA endorses candidates for mayor and council” made remarks that that made me take notice, the spokeperson stated, “Benicia police officers are on the lower end of pay and benefit spectrum for the region and are concerned about recruitment and retension.”

Further, I became intrigued when council candidate Steve Young in the Benicia Herald article “Office seekers/holders discuss goals, crude by rail and council.” Sept. 15, mentioned “the desire to look at how to pay for such city services as police and fire.”

I don’t know what other small cities pay their officers and frankly, I don’t care what other cities pay. Benicia should only pay what it can afford to pay. More importantly, it was noteworthy that this was all brought up one week before the start of our official election season (Labor Day to Election Day). Curious timing. Was this meant to be the opening salvo by the BPOA for their entrance into our local election or maybe upcoming contract negoitations in June of 2017? Or even more intriguing, are the police ramping up with their slate of candidates, another run at a new police station at the cost of tens of millions of dollars to our city? Or put another way, more, bond indebtedness for the city of Benicia.

When I the secured documents from city hall ( City Manager and Human Resource Departments) what I learned and am still learning was astounding. As we as a city struggle to make ends meet to provide for– full city services for our people, the cost alone for our police and fire –, safety unions are an outrageous 51 percent of our general fund budget. Source: Human Resources Department. How much is in the General Fund budget? I’m glad you asked. According to the senior analyst of the Human Resources Department, it is $35 million. So half ouf our GFB—$17.5 million dollars- plus goes to pay for about 60 people (police and fire departments, staff and managers and capital and operating costs) Holy Cow! In a city of nearly 30,000 people, why is half the GFB going to so few? Key questions: Do our appointed and elected leaders know this? Our citizenry? Is this what candidate Steve Young meant in his comment?

I would like to share this city based data with the citizenry of Benicia. First let me warn you, you should be sitting down when reading the rest of this article.

Police Pay:

Salary ranges from a low of $34.50 an hour or $71,000 annually and up to a high of $41.93 per hour or $87,000 per year.

When you add up the salary and benefits package: health, dental, vision and overtime and retirement expenditures. The average “cost” for a Benicia police officers is *drum roll* $141,338 per year. Source: Human Resources Department . Note: How could anyone not appreciate these kinds of salaries and compensation packages?

When speaking with personnel from the city of Benica, at one point there was a high of 32 officers and at another time I was informed it was 27. So for the purpose of this article we will average this out as 30 police men and women. So the cost of of these officers per year for our city is …30 x $141,338 = $4,240,000. Note: The city is spending millions of dollars on these officers and they are still not satisfied, are you kidding me?

Police Overtime Pay:

One small digression: I wrote an article titled “Is OT pay in Benicia a cause for concern?” in the Oct. 7 edition of the Benicia Herald.
I want to show the community that OT has been a gaping wound (in need of surgery, not a cosmetic bandage) in our city for years.

Police Overtime History:

2004-2005— $281,985. 2006-2007—$406,405. 2008-2009—$207,715.
2005-2006—$336, 995. 2007-2008—$479,950. 2009-2010—$266,637.

Total costs for OT for this time period. = $1,979,787.00

Source: Finance Department. Rob Sousa, Finance Director.

It is important for the people to actually see the figures being spent,– or as some budget minded observers at city hall might say/squandered– on OT year after year. But the police are crying crocodile tears that they are not making enough money, and OT has been their cash cow for over a decade. Note: Overtime hourly pay (time-in-a half) for the employee at the low end of the salary spectrum = $51.75. At the high end = $62.88; Note: Now you are talking– real money!

— Overtime generally means extra work because of a need by the employer. I’ve been told the excessive overtime rate may be because, of gaps in the hiring of staff due to retirement or other factors. With that said, the raw numbers/ the money spent is still eye-popping. When you check the statistics of the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports–our city has one of the lowest crime rates in California.

Key questions: If the city of Benicia is short staffed what are the officers doing to earn this kind of overtime? Working double shifts? Working on their scheduled days off? What role can voluteer community policing play to alleviate short staffing and cut cost?What about the Benicia Emergency Response Team, what role could they play? Or, hiring contract workers at lower cost? As the city seeks to add to our revenue stream from outside sources, ( eveloping the Seeno Property; enhancing the Industrial Park), maybe we first need to audit our internal costs to see if we can earn additional revenue through stream-lining of expenditures. We hear the words fiscal responsiblity being bandied about by our candidates, what about police pay more precisely? When you factor in that the men and women in blue are consuming more than half of our General fund balance; Isn’t it time to wake-up from our slumber? The total cost of policing (and Fire) in our community needs to be addressed.

Is it time for innovative strategy’s going forward? If we eliminated overtime or cut it by two-thirds, what could the mayor, council and the city manager do with that new source of revenue? Note: this article is about the police if we add the Fire Dept. you will probably double the costs of OT to the city. Key question: The taxpayer’s money is there– is it just being mis-appropriated for the few at the expense of the many? Here is more recent police OT data for the community to seriously consider:

Fiscal Year 2009-2010 FY 2010-2011 FY2011-2012 FY2012-2013 FY 2013-2014 FY2014-2015
$334,316.00 $291,075.00 $228,875 $345,053 $345,981 $$484,287
Unauditied 2016
$495,757

Total overtime for this time period = $2,525.000.
Total amount spent on OT 2004-2005 to 2016 = $4,504,787. Average Yearly OT = $376,000.

So as the good reader can see and comprehend this is real money, our money, do we continue to spend it on 30 officers or should we spread the wealth for services for the people (seniors, the arts, schools, community outreach, our kids) and save some for a rainy day fund— down the road?

Then there is the public employee’s retirement system to also contemplate: The numbers are staggering, again this topic of costs of our police force is rarely ever talked about: A taboo topic. Key question: Are the police immune from constructive criticism about costs and expenditures?
PERS Contracts: Costs to the city: Public Employees Retirement System

City Payment to PERS FY 2009-2010 FY 2010-2011 FY 2011-2012 FY 2012-2013
Employer contribution $2,760,591 $2, 727,342 $3,063,881 $3,031,911

FY 2013-2014 FY 2014-2015 FY 2015-2016 FY 2016-2017
$3,046,528 $3,318,528 $2,983,251 N/A

Total city payments for this time period: $20,936,605.00. Source: City Manager’s office.

So as the citizenry can see the city of Benicia is overly generous to the police in this town, hourly salaries, yearly compensation, overtime readily avaiable and PERS contracts in the millions of dollars, for police retirement; the key questions for our city staff and elected leaders is how sustainable are these kinds of costs over the mid-term and long term? How do these kinds of costs/expenditures impact city finances and budgetary concerns going into a very uncertain economic period in our near term future ? Should there be a citizens group– Open Government Commission– might be appropriate to monitor contract negoiations/ over and beyond what happens behind closed doors between the safety unions and the city of Benicia to keep the citizens of Benicia informed? Remembering that the costs of these new contracts going forward will impact services for the rest of us for the next four years. These costs/expenditures are avaiable for all to see, but unfortunately they are rarely ever talked about or made known to the general public. Who at city hall will tackle the 800 pound blue elephant in the room at city hall?

BPOA vs. Fair Elections

Now we have learned that the Benicia Police Officer Association has formed a Political Action Committee, (Independent Expenditure Report-Form 497) and has raised $20,000 (each of the 27 officers gave $740) in support of Mark Hughes for Mayor. These public documents can be seen at the city clerk’s office or online. They are using this cash to inundate our town with fliers, posters and mailers to make sure that their slate of candidates (Mark Hughes, Lionel Largaespada and Christina Strawbridge) will have the best chance of buying this election. Personally, I resent the fact the police are telling me how to vote, when the bulk of these officers don’t even live in our city. Yes, they do work here, but their kids don’t go to school here, and, they cannot vote for their selected slate of candidates. Note: $20,000 is a huge amount of money in a small-town election. We see this at the state and national levels. Wake-up Benicia! It is happening to us, here and now. The only thing that can change this kind of cash register politics is information and an informed electorate and going to the voting booth and refuting this police PAC and their slate of candidates.

Key questions for the citizenry in this election: Will the police in future elections use their monetary muscle to disrupt our electoral politics? Or put another way, are “we the people” going to allow 27 police officers who are not happy about their pay to make a mockery of our local democratic process? Does this establish a dangerous precedent? In Benicia, is it one dollar, one vote or one person, one vote? Will the police, if victorious, with their slate of candidates use their victory as a sledgehammer to secure an even more lucrative employee union contract in 2017? Is Donnell Rubay correct in her assessment from her article, quoted above?

Our future, our city

What kind of future do we the people want here in Benicia? This election is very important. It will determine our direction going forward. Do we continue with the present balanced, cautious and smart representation we can trust, which provides a true sustainable course for our little city? Or will we veer off course, stumbling into the future and become something we are not andalways remembering that our small town and its unique historic character affords us a very high quality of life in a very fragile special place?