Niles officials cut budget for fire, police departments

Niles safety forces face 10 percent budget cuts; no purchases are planned for cruisers or firetrucks.

BY JORDAN COHEN

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

NILES — Budgets for the city’s fire and police departments for 2010 have been cut by 10 percent, and the mayor has made it clear there will be no major purchases for the safety forces or any other department next year.

“Our income-tax revenue is down $500,000 this year and $500,000 last year, so we’ve got to say no,” Mayor Ralph Infante told Fire Chief Gary Brown during budget hearings Wednesday.

“You’ve got to face the inevitable — we have to buy a new firetruck,” Brown said, noting that two of his trucks are more than 20 years old, and their constant repairs have taken up more than half of the department’s maintenance budget.

The fire chief said he could use parts from the two older vehicles to build a new truck if the city would allow him to buy a new chassis for $65,000, a substantial savings for the city since a new truck would cost more than $400,000. Infante was sympathetic, but declined the request.

“We’ll have to see what happens when the auditor balances the [2009] books next February and see what we have carried over,” the mayor said.

The projected budget for the fire department in 2010 is more than $2.1 million, a drop of nearly $700,000 from the 2009 allocations. Brown admitted he wasn’t happy with the outcome.

For the police department, the result was nearly the same since the 10 percent cuts reduced the budget from nearly $3.7 million this year to $3.3 million for 2010.

“I just want to remind you that we have five 1998s [cruisers] on the road and they require maintenance,” said police Chief Bruce Simeone who unsuccessfully tried to get the city to purchase new police cars late last year.

Simeone, however, was able to persuade Infante, Auditor Charles Nader and Councilman Steve Papalas, head of the finance committee, to approve $62,000 for purchases such as cruiser light bars and in-car cameras along with weapons and ammunition that will be required when two new police officers are hired next year. A federal grant is covering the cost of the new hires.

“I appreciate it,” a relieved Simeone told the budget commission.

The sewer department also faces cuts of nearly 11 percent. Budgets for the water and light departments have been reduced by 4 percent and 3 percent respectively. Nader cautioned that the cuts could be deeper because some of the figures, such as power usage and engineering fees, will not be determined until early next year.

Two of the largest budgetary items — wages and benefits — will be unchanged in 2010. The city successfully negotiated wage freezes with all of its departments last September.