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Minneapolis Council approves budget cuts
by Art Hughes, Minnesota Public Radio
March 13, 2003

Minneapolis firefighters and supporters protest outside city hall Thursday morning, before the city council approved $20 million in budget cuts. The fire department will lay off at least 50 people. (MPR Photo/Art Hughes)

Pink slips will go out soon to firefighters following Thursday's city council vote to cut $20 million from the budget. Other departments will bring lay-off strategies to the council in the next two weeks. A total of more than 400 employees could lose their jobs.

Minneapolis, Minn. — At the last minute, council members shifted $1 million more than the mayor recommended into both the police and fire budgets. The money means each department can cut between 20 and 30 fewer jobs than previously thought. The council made their its decisions facing a room overfilling with firefighters and supporters protesting the plan to cut jobs.

Council President Paul Ostrow says the cuts are unpleasant, but it's the council's only choice in response to cuts from the state which he called drastic.

"It's very difficult to manage when you're looking at a $20 million cut from the state in this year's budget. It's extremely difficult. But this council said we're going to look at our issues long-term. We're not going into debt. We're not going to go bankrupt or put the city on the credit card. We're not going to bankrupt the property tax payers of this city," Ostrow said.

Ostrow says the changes mean many of the city's civil rights functions will now have to shift to the state, some planning and building permits will take longer and the city attorney will have to cut back on cases.

Council Member Sandy Colvin Roy supports sending the extra million dollars to the police and fire departments. But she says it will come out of public works projects that also help public safety.

"The last amount of cut means we won't be out there painting the lane markers. We'll be slower at responding to repair of street lights, traffic lights when they're broken down," Roy said.

The fire chief, who is the only department head so far to present lay off plans, originally said some 70 firefighters would lose their jobs. Firefighters responded with a campaign that included a rally in front of city hall before the council vote.

Daniel Casper has only been a firefighter since last summer. He says any cuts to the department compromise safety.

"We already feel like we're riding short of personnel. So any cut like this is we believe a threat to public safety and a threat to firefighter safety. And that takes precedence over balancing a budget," Casper said.

The council also voted to limit cuts to the police department's community policing, or SAFE program, to half. The police chief originally proposed to virtually eliminate the program. Council Member Lisa Goodman says the council's direct managing of the police department is necessary because she doesn't trust Chief Robert Olson to preserve the program.

"I feel compelled to vote for this today for no reason other than I don't feel we have the same situation with the director of the police department than we have with the directors of all the other departments," Goodman said.

Goodman adds she doubts the chief will be reappointed to his position next year.

The action to increase fire and police budgets angered Council Member Barret Lane, who worked with Mayor R.T. Rybak on the original budget-cutting plan. He says giving in at the last minute puts the city on the brink of a "budgetary abyss."

"I see this as a capitulation to ham-handed political pressure tactics. I see this as a return to the let's-make-a-deal model of budgeting that dominated the past and created huge problems for us -- problems that we'll live with for 10 years at least. And I feel this rejects all the work we did with respect to the five-year planning process," Lane said.

The comments were reminiscent of council divisions during the previous administration.

Council Member Natalie Johnson Lee says several council members wanted to offer an alternative to the plan drafted primarily by Lane, Ostrow and the mayor.

"I've seen closed door meetings, I've seen some council members left out, some council members included. You're witnessing a group of people -- some have information, some don't. That's why you got the last-minute amendments coming through here, people going back and forth, you've got folks upset," Lee said.

All department heads must come back to the council with layoff plans in the next several days.

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