Monday, Aug. 21, 2006 | The mayor, city attorney, City Council and citizens of San Diego were appalled by the cost of the Kroll investigation. Was it really necessary to spend $20 million on such an investigation? Was the city overcharged? The mayor has retained a company to do a comprehensive study of compensation for city employees. What will the final cost of this study be and is it necessary?
Mayor Sanders has allotted $250,000 for a comparison of take-home pay for city employees as compared to other municipalities. However, the hidden costs of this survey will far surpass the price of the Kroll report.
The SDPD is already down nearly 200 officers and the attrition rate is 17 per month. That is another 200 officers down by this time next year. That equates to $100 million in training expenses to stay status quo, woefully understaffed.
There is no way to accurately factor in the cost of injury and property damage that will result from the lack of adequate police coverage. How about the increased stress and injuries to the officers trying to do their job with insufficient cover? SDPD has disbanded several proactive units and assignments and have pulled out of multi-agency tasks forces in order to supplement staffing levels. They have run out of officers to reassign. The current shifting of manpower to offset the understaffing issues is nothing more than rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic!
It is no secret the SDPD is underpaid and understaffed. Everyone is entitled to make their own decisions but I believe for the mayor to sit idle as over $100 million (in addition to the $40-plus million that left last year) walks out the door, leaving in its wake a vacuum that will threaten the safety of the citizens of San Diego while he awaits a report that will only confirm what he has already said publicly is nothing short of a breach of his public trust and duty to protect the citizens!