CHULA VISTA, Calif.—
Chula Vista leaders addressed residents' concerns Thursday night regarding their safety has the city cuts the police force budget.The city has budgeted for 240 officers and currently has 224 sworn officers, but an increasing deficit forced Chula Vista to make cutbacks.
About 25 people attended the meeting Thursday at Veterans Recreation Center on East Palomar Road and about half of which were city staff.
Sam Longanecker lives on the east side and had concerns about police accessibility.
"I would hope that even with the budget constraints, somehow we can have contact that's closer to us than the police station down near city hall," said Longanecker. "We're all interested in safety, so I just don't like that being the first victim."
Elroy Kihano showed up to share his thoughts on the new mass transit bus system that's being implemented next year. He supports the bus system, but is concerned about safety.
"If you're going to bring in a game changing mass transit solution that brings people into the city, where are you going to get the officers to do public safety?" stated Kihano.
He tried to speak during public comment but council members Steve Castaneda and Patricia Aguilar asked Kihano to wait until the end of the meeting. Moments later, they allowed a different member of the crowd to speak.
Kihano started yelling, saying he deserved to talk, and called the council's actions undemocratic. The council retracted and gave him the opportunity to speak, which he refused. He then walked out of the meeting.
Police Chief David Bejarano said his goal is to have at least 130-133 patrol officers. The city currently has 129 and is likely to lose more in May when early retirement kicks in.
"Next week, we are planning on shifting more people over to the patrol division," said Bejarano.
The city spends $573 per resident and there is less than one officer per resident, which is the lowest ratio of all the cities in the county, according to Cynthia Burke of SANDAG.
Despite not having as many officers as it would like, the police department has an overall low crime rate, the SANDAG study said.
According to Chief Bejarano, violent crimes are down 34 percent since 2006. Response times are sufficient, too. Bejarano said 85 percent of the time police are dispatched to immediate emergency calls, or Priority 1, within five minutes.
Gary Caporicci spent 900 hours reviewing the city's financial statements. According to his report, Chula Vista has $14 million available in its general fund, which is about 10 percent of its total expenditures. California's average in 2009 was 27 percent.
"$14 million is okay, but I would feel better with closer to 30-40 percent," said Caporicci.
That $14 million does not account for the millions of dollars in pensions.
"What we're looking forward to, and that's an accountant talking, is to actually put those liabilities on the balance sheet," said Caporicci. "I think going forward Chula Vista needs to continue, as their finance department and management has already, watch what they're doing."
