How to Cut San Francisco’s Fire Department

by Paul Hogarth via Beyond Chron

Mon, Jun 22, 2009 7:38AM

Monday, June 22, 2009 : An angry contingent of firefighters stormed City Hall last week, upset that the Board of Supervisors would “cut $82 million” out of the Police, Fire and Sheriff Departments. That number, however, is misleading – because it’s what the Supervisors want to take out of a budget proposal for next year that gives all three agencies a raise.

The real target for the Fire Department from current funding levels is $15 million. Which should not be hard to do, given that 64 firefighters in the top brass make more than $150,000 a year. The Firefighters Union will have to make concessions (like all other City workers have done), but Beyond Chron has identified at least $8.25 million in cuts to the Department that don’t require amending their contract. These target unnecessary spending, and many were recommended in prior City reports that Gavin Newsom ignored. Starting with these savings can encourage firefighters to support changes that will get us to $15 million – without jeopardizing public safety.

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For more information: http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?...

§Save the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office

by Daniel Macallair via Beyond Chron

Mon, Jun 22, 2009 7:36AM

Monday, June 22, 2009 : Few events better reflect the priorities of elected officials more vividly than a budget crisis. It is during a budget crisis that policy-makers are forced to choose between the interests of powerful or popular constituencies and the needs of the less powerful and most vulnerable citizens. Presently, this drama is being played out in San Francisco where social and legal services to the poor are being slashed while Police and Fire Department budgets are being protected.

This Faustian bargain is displayed in Mayor Newsom’s proposal $1.9 million cut to the Public Defender’s budget, while adding $18 million to the Police Department budget.

As social conditions deteriorate, many families struggling to survive will become more desperate. In some instances desperation leads to criminal acts, resulting in larger numbers of indigent defendants necessitating the need for public defender services. Unfortunately, under the proposed budget, the City will maintain the capacity to generate arrests but not to provide legal representation to defendants, a right guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

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