Colo. Officials Call Lower Staffing the 'New Normal'

Jan. 19--Police Chief Luis Velez reassigned four detectives and put them back on street patrol last summer to help deal with an officer shortage caused by more than 80 vacant city jobs.

City Public Works Director Earl Wilkinson says he's short two construction inspectors, half the number the department usually has to inspect contractor work around the city.

Fire Chief Chris Riley says he no longer has six "boomer" firefighters each day to fill in for ill, absent or injured firefighters in his 136-man department.

When City Council adopted its $77 million budget for 2013, it had to resolve a $5.5 million expected shortfall this year. One decision council made was to keep about 60 of those 82 vacant city jobs empty for another year. Council even "unfunded " many, meaning those jobs aren't likely to be filled for several years.

The city hopes to hire 10 new police officers this year as well as fill a dozen other key positions. But new City Manager Sam Azad said a smaller city staff -- down from 720 authorized positions to 660 workers -- isn't likely to change a great deal in the near future.

"Smaller is probably close to the new normal," Azad said in a recent interview.

Asked how fewer workers affect their departments, senior city staff responded with examples. Putting four detectives back into patrol cars last summer was one.

"We're down 22 officers and five civilian positions," said Sgt. Eric Gonzales, the department's new spokesman. "When you take detectives off investigations for patrol work, it has a ripple effect in resolving cases under investigation."

Riley said the fire department is short one deputy chief and six firefighters, although it still is authorized to have a total staff of 140. He normally has two deputy chiefs, but one of those jobs has been empty for two years.

Being short six firefighters means Riley has lost his daily pool of substitute crewmen to fill any gaps at the city's 10 engine companies.

"We make up for that by having people work more overtime," he said, noting the city spent $600,000 last year on firefighter overtime. It's only budgeted $500,000 this year.

Wilkinson said cutting the staff of city contract inspectors in half -- from four to two -- should be a concern.

"With only half the staff, this slows down response time for contractors and citizens significantly," he said in an email.

Pepper Whittlef, city transportation director, said fewer workers hasn't forced her department to eliminate any services.

"But general requests are taking much longer to fill," she said.

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Copyright 2013 - The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.