Portland City Councilor suggests staffing up Police and Fire to cut down overtime amid budget crunch

Yahoo

19-02-2025

PORTLAND, Ore. () — Portland City Council members are already coming up with ideas on how to balance the books ahead of a budget work session on Tuesday.
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The meeting won't include finalized decisions on budget issues but rather it is designed to teach the new city council members how to put a budget together.
However, since the City of Portland is facing a , conversations among city leaders addressing that have already begun. KOIN 6 talked to city leaders on Tuesday afternoon, right before the meeting was set to begin.
Last month, union representatives from the Portland Police Bureau and Portland Fire and Rescue both sounded the alarm that they couldn't take any more cuts in their departments. Now Portland City Council for District 1 Loretta Smith has put forward the idea of staffing up both to cut down on overtime.
'Trying to figure out how we can get our overtime costs down and make sure that we close that $100 million gap,' said Smith, whose position echoed that of former Mayor Ted Wheeler to not cut back on public safety funding.
Last month, a budget memo put forth by city financial officials suggested 5%-8% cuts to PPB and PF&R — which could slash both budgets by millions of dollars.
'We have $50 million in overtime costs in this last year, and the way we can beat that is to do like our 911 system did. They overfilled all of their vacant positions so that they wouldn't have all the overtime that they have,' Smith said.
According to PPB, the department spent about $21.75 million on overtime pay last fiscal year. City wage data also shows that $24.6 million of overtime was paid to PF&R.
The wage data also shows 12 PPB members made more than $100,000 in overtime alone. In addition, 14 PF&R lieutenants and firefighters earned more than $100,000, as well.
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PPB Sgt. Aaron Schmautz, the Portland Police Association president, told KOIN 6 News in a recent episode of that should the department face millions of dollars in cuts, it could inhibit existing staff's ability to respond to cases such as human trafficking and domestic violence. He was supportive of the idea of keeping staff levels high to bring overtime costs down.
'We cannot do this again, there is no fat to trim in the police bureau,' Schmautz said last month.
Isaac McClenan, president of the Portland Firefighters Association, concurred, 'A 5% or an 8% cut to fire means only one thing, we're closing fire stations.'
Smith said she plans to introduce an ordinance on Wednesday to better manage unassigned city funds.
KOIN 6 asked Portland City Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney for her response to agencies left on high alert as budget-balancing discussions continue.
'I know all of our bureaus and our city workforce are really concerned with what the future holds for them. Our commitment is to make sure that we are providing basic services to Portlanders, and we will make sure that that is our North Star as we move forward in this process,' Pirtle Guiney said.
Officials said the city administrator's budget is expected by the end of the month.
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KOIN 6 reached out to representatives from PPB and PF&R for comment about the budget and overtime costs. Their statements are below.
From Mike Benner, PPB spokesperson:
'Overtime is an issue we are aware of and recognize and are having internal discussions about. Over the last several years, we've lost a significant number of officers, approximately 300. In order to provide a minimum level of service, we need to utilize overtime. In addition, we use OT to run specialized missions that address stolen vehicles, retail theft, human trafficking, etc. These are missions that go along way in addressing criminal behavior in our community. In addition, officers can work OT at a Blazers or Timbers game, for example. The OT reflected in the paychecks is reimbursed from the outside. And finally, PPB has a robust wellness program where we emphasize self care and make sure officers are taking care of themselves.'
From Rick Graves, PF&R spokesperson:
'Through hiring 23 additional bodies over the past few years we are course correcting this OT quickly and have the evidence to show this that our usage of OT in similar time periods prior to have these bodies to fill the boots and now with these new hires and our OT is reduced as we are not as dependent upon someone working OT to make sure the boots are filled through a shift. I believe the last figure I saw is we were down 19% from 2024 to the same period of time in 2025. It may be helpful for you to know that there are multiple ways folks earn overtime but much of this is acquired via 'backfill' or filling a vacancy at a fire station but we also have members that are involved in committees and parts of projects where OT is authorized and utilized but this is a very small percentage of the total expense as most is simply to fill for those FF on leave. Essentially we need more FF to reduce OT.'
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