NIAGARA FALLS Public safety increasing $1.4M

Rick Forgione

Oct. 9, 2008 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- The cost of providing public safety in Niagara Falls is going to be much higher next year.

Combined, the police and fire department's operating budgets will eat up $29 million, more than one-third of Mayor Paul Dyster's entire proposed spending plan for 2009, and a $1.4 million increase from this year.

Police Superintendent John Chella and Fire Chief William MacKay took turns presenting their department budgets Wednesday to the City Council during the first in a series of worksessions. Both plans are being hit with "uncontrollable costs," such as increases in fuel, utilities, insurance and contractual salaries.

The proposed police budget is $16,112,104, up $533,842 from this year's spending. However, an estimated loss in revenue of $450,000 will result in a total cost difference of $983,842, City Controller Maria Brown said.

Approximately $400,000 of the loss is coming from salary reimbursement reductions from the state's Office of Court Administration for seven Falls police officers currently assigned to court security. Once the new municipal safety complex opens next May on Main Street, the OCA will be staffing its own security and those seven positions will revert back onto the city's payroll.

The city had the option of eliminating the positions, but decided to fund them for the final seven months of 2009. Chella said three of the seven officers will be stationed at the new building, but be doing police work. The other four officers will be patrolling the streets.

"This will help, but it doesn't fulfill all of the needs," Chella said, adding the department still has four vacant officer positions.

Overall, crime is up 6.7 percent from this time last year, mostly due to a jump in burglaries and larcenies. Chella said the department will use what's left of money from grants to try and reduce that amount before the end of the year. Despite the cost of service increasing, he credited Falls Police Administrative Captain John DeMarco with "putting together what I believe is a very realistic budget."

The remaining $50,000 reduction in anticipated revenue will come from a drop in parking fines, which is being blamed on the installation of paid meters downtown. The meters, part of a free trial program provided by Photo Violation Technologies, provided a shot of revenue for the parking lines of the budget, but cut into the amount of fines collected because no mechanism was in place to enforce violations.

"The meters looked good on paper, but in reality it didn't work," DeMarco said.

During his budget presentation, MacKay told council members he was not requesting any additional staff members for 2009, but spending is proposed at $12.9 million, an increase of $464,313. That's largely in part to $109,600 in additional Medicare costs. Also contributing was $59,663 extra in firefighters' salaries and $8,000 for administrators.

A change in accounting for department overtime also shifted $222,000 from a contingency account back into the fire lines, MacKay pointed out.

Dyster presented his proposed $80.2 million spending plan to the council on Oct. 1. It includes an overall spending increase of about $3.69 million, but uses surplus state aid to set tax increases of less than 1 percent for homeowners and businesses.

Council members will take the next week reviewing each department's budget before proposing changes in November. A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for 7 p.m. Oct. 27 at City Hall.

The next budget worksession will be at 4 p.m. next Wednesday.

Contact reporter Rick Forgione at 282-2311, ext. 2257.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0348-28640989