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About 10 police officers and 10 firefighters would be added with new Warren tax
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
About 10 additional police officers will be hired if Warren City Council puts a half-percent income-tax increase on the November ballot and the public approves it, but some 10 officers will be laid off without the tax, city officials said Tuesday.
Safety-Service Director Enzo Cantalamessa told council members and about 30 members of the public at a special meeting about the tax that eight to 12 police officers and eight to 12 firefighters would be added if the tax is approved.
The city would also use $1.3 million of the new revenue to reduce the shortfall in the operating budget and use $1 million to start and maintain a road-maintenance program, Cantalamessa said.
Police Chief Eric Merkel said he believes about 10 officers would have to be laid off without the tax, which would “require a major restructure.”
“We would definitely have to change the services we provide,” he added.
Merkel said his department operates with 57 officers, which is five more than three years ago, according to Vindicator files.
Merkel said Bureau of Justice statistics show that an American city with an average crime rate and population such as Warren has 74 police officers – and Warren’s crime rate is well above average.
Warren’s day-shift staffing of four officers is the same as Niles, which has a population less than half of Warren, Merkel said in a report he handed out to council.
Fire Chief Ken Nussle said his department has 49 firefighters now. That is two fewer than the city had after laying off 11 firefighters and 20 police officers Jan 1, 2009, because of the economic recession, according to Vindicator files.
Like Merkel, Nussle said some services were cut with the downward number of firefighters, such as giving fire safety information to children in the schools.
The city has primarily operated in recent years out of the Central Fire Station and rarely manned the Parkman Road and Atlantic Street stations, which he calculates has reduced response times by 60 to 90 seconds, on average.
“You have to ask yourself, ‘Do I want the fire department to respond in five minutes or four,’” he said.
The purpose of the meeting was to hear from the city administration and its department heads about the ways the additional $3.5 million to $4 million per year from the tax would be used and hear from the public.
Council finance committee chairman Eddie Colbert called another meeting for 5 p.m. Thursday to continue the discussion. Council gave a second reading to the proposed legislation Tuesday; a final reading and vote is scheduled for 3 p.m. Monday.