In first meeting after lawsuit, KCPD and City Council begin poring over police budget
In the first meeting since a Jackson County judge ruled the Kansas City Council overstepped and violated state law when attempting to reallocate millions in police funds, the council and the police leaders gathered Thursday to discuss budget priorities and how to improve public safety.
The two sides agreed that the city’s police force serves to protect the entire city but more must be done to hire more police officers, pay them more and find ways to better prioritize police spending.
Bishop Mark Tolbert, police board president, said it was essential that the two sides met to avoid issues that led to their lawsuit against the City Council.
“We want to get ahead of next year’s budget,” Tolbert said. “Our main goal as police commissioners and City Council is to protect our city and keep our city safe and to have a police force that serves our entire city.”
The police board recently approved a proposed $281 million budget that includes pay increases for officers and calls for money to pay for new police academy classes.
The police budget now goes to the city manager’s office for a round of adjustments. City leaders also have the ability to reduce the police department’s allocation to the state-required minimum of 20% of the the city’s general fund.
Police commissioners sued city leaders earlier this year after the council approved a measure that would have cut the police budget to 20% of the city’s general fund after the year’s budget had been agreed upon.
The lawsuit was in response to the City Council’s approval of two ordinances orchestrated by Mayor Quinton Lucas that sought to reduce the police department’s budget by $42.3 million. It placed that money, roughly 18% of the department’s $239 million budget, in a separate fund and its use would be the matter for City Manager Brian Platt and police commissioners to negotiate.
The two sides did not discuss the lawsuit during Thursday’s joint meeting.
Thursday’s meeting focused on the desire to hire additional police officers, provide pay raises and adjust pay scales, and finding ways the department could save money.
“We have to fix the pay or people are going to go to other places,” Kansas City Police Chief Rick Smith said.
The board and council members did not discuss Smith leaving the department next year. Police commissioners said last week that Smith will retire sometime next spring, earlier than what he told them privately. Calls for Smith to step down were renewed following the guilty verdict against former police detective Eric DeValkenaere in the shooting death of Cameron Lamb.
The proposed police budget would guarantee that $135 million be dedicated to cover pay increases for sworn police officers and civilian employees. None of those funds are allowed to be used to pay for settlement claims which had been the practice in the past. Lucas said he was glad to see that change in the budget.
Lucas raised concerns over spending on lawsuits, saying that it seems the department is underestimating the costs of the lawsuits.
The police department paid out $5.8 million in claims over the past year, which substantially exceeded the budgeted amount. Those settlements included use of force allegations, vehicular crashes involving officers and other legal matters, according to police records.
Next year, Missouri Republican lawmakers are expected to push legislation to require Kansas City to commit at least a quarter of the fund to the department each year. Lucas has said the city already funds the department around 25%, which is more than required.
Councilwoman Heather Hall, who represents the First District, which includes the Northland, said the budget should reflect the city’s immediate needs and that council members should be aware of how long it takes for the department to fill officer positions. She said the current number of officers isn’t acceptable considering the number of people in the city and how it’s spread out.
“The very most basic things our citizens pay for with their tax dollars are to be safe and to have clean streets and have their trash picked up and have their snow removed,” Hall said. “And if we don’t have a safe place, it doesn’t matter whether we remove their snow because they’re not living there anymore.”
Councilwoman Melissa Robinson, Third District, said she wanted to learn more about the board’s overall priorities and how they can work together. She also pressed concerns about how to ensure the right number of officers are patrolling areas of the city, whether the budget reflects support for the traumas officers experience, and about excessive force.
Robinson said working to get the number of lawsuits down is imperative.
