Dave Glomp appreciates Mayor Paul Soglin’s attention to the city’s fiscal health and his regular calls to limit borrowing.
But there’s one area where Glomp says the city can’t afford to be frugal: public safety. A Meadowood neighborhood resident since 1971, Glomp has been one of the city’s consistent law-and-order cheerleaders. For him, policing is the bedrock that all city services are built upon.
“I applaud the mayor for his fiscal restraint — he probably wouldn’t like the word conservatism,” says Glomp. “But I’m a realist when it comes to public safety. I believe in my neighborhood, my city. I want it to prosper and grow, but it won’t if people don’t feel safe. That’s the bottom line.”
Eric Upchurch II, an activist with the Young Gifted and Black Coalition, has a different take.
“Police don’t determine safety. They’re a reactive force,” says Upchurch. “They’re a symptom of our lack of safety. The degree to which you require police provides an indicator of how unsafe you are.”
If more resources were spent on addressing racial and economic disparities, homelessness, education, poverty and other social needs, it would decrease the demands on police, he argues. “If we’re spending more money on police, we’re spending more money on the reaction instead of the prevention.”
This year, the city of Madison faces another tight budget, with growing expenses and stagnant or declining revenues. The mayor is looking at all options and asked every department, including the police, to consider cutting budgets by 2.5% and delaying already approved projects in order to keep property taxes from growing by more than 3% next year.
Soglin specifically asked the police department to consider delaying the planned midtown station and canceling its officer academy in 2017.
Timothy Hughes
Mayor Soglin has asked the police department to consider delaying the midtown police station, canceling the 2017 academy and cutting its operating budget by 2.5%.
Chief Mike Koval is against these suggested cuts. “We’re in a unique service-based industry where well over 90% of our budget is already inextricably tied to salary, benefits and contractual obligations...that literally offer me no wiggle room,” he says. “When you say 2.5% out of an almost $68 million budget, that means [eliminating] $1.7 million.”
In a phone interview, the mayor was circumspect about what cuts he is leaning toward making, saying he simply wants to consider all options. His budget will be finalized in early October, after which the council will have a few weeks to tweak and approve it.
The council and mayor have a contentious relationship that has been most strained around budget time.
Many council members are bracing for a battle over public safety issues this fall, although it’s unclear who the fight might be with: the mayor or the police chief.
“I hope there’s not a fight,” says Ald. Matt Phair. “I hope we can work through things more collaboratively. But with this mayor, I’ve learned to expect the unexpected, not so much with what he puts in his budget but how the process plays out and the tactics he uses.
“It seems like we get down the road through the process and he surprises us with strong ideas and draws these lines in the sand.”
As is typical, city officials sounded a gloomy note when kicking off the budget process earlier this year.
“Every year we say it’s the worst budget ever,” says Ald. Mark Clear. “Even though it’s kind of a cliche, it’s also kind of true, because every year our expenditures go up faster than we can pay for them.”
In a July 17 presentation to the Common Council, city finance director David Schmiedicke laid out the bleak news: revenues are not keeping pace with expenses. The goal is to keep the city’s operating budget just under $300 million.
The city is looking at a $3 million to $5 million gap — meaning, its projected revenues are that much lower than the expenses it expects to incur.
The city is restricted in how much money it can raise through taxes because the state has imposed strict levy limits. The Legislature also took away the city’s power to determine how 70% of its room tax revenue can be spent. That money is now turned over to a special board made up of representatives from the tourism industry to spend.
In a June 6 memo to department heads, Soglin blames state government for much of the city’s financial woes, noting that the Legislature has passed 125 laws since 2011 that limit the powers of municipalities. His mandate to department heads was this: “We must do all we can to protect existing service levels and avoid layoffs.”
All city departments were asked to either cut operating budgets by 2.5% of 2016 levels (provided the cuts don’t involve layoffs) or create “a plan for efficiency investments in technology or other process improvement efforts with a payback of three years or less.”
In an April 4 memo, the mayor asked department heads to not propose any new projects in the capital budget, which is a borrowing plan for new buildings, roads, sewer lines and equipment. He also asked that they “seek to remove projects or reduce anticipated costs” for projects approved in earlier budgets.
Because debt payments come out of the operating budget when cities have a lot of debt, they have less money to spend on salaries and services.
Since beginning his third term in office in 2011, Soglin has repeatedly grumbled about excessive debt. He has routinely accused his predecessor, Dave Cieslewicz, as well as the Common Council, of reckless borrowing.
In 2011, about 12.5% of the operating budget was going toward debt payments. It’s now close to 15% and the current projections have it hitting 18% in 2019.
Soglin continues to blame Cieslewicz and the council for this growing debt, saying “much of it has been dictated by prior decisions or lack of prior decisions.”
Schmiedicke says that one thing driving the high borrowing is that much of Madison’s infrastructure was built about 50 years ago and now needs to be rebuilt or replaced.
“A lot of it was built in the 1960s when we had a rapidly expanding city,” he says. The renovation of the Central Library added about $20 million in debt to the city and the upcoming renovation of the Madison Municipal Building, set to begin in January, will add another $30 million.
The city’s total debt currently stands at $596.3 million, roughly $2,395 for every resident.
Carolyn Fath
Chief Koval: “We’re in a unique service-based industry where well over 90% of our budget is already inextricably tied to salary, benefits and contractual obligations.”
The operating budget Koval submitted to the mayor proposes cost-saving investments, primarily new record-keeping software, rather than a 2.5% cut in services. He says the department has yet to get feedback from the mayor’s office on the proposal.
The Madison Police Department, which this year accounts for about 23% of the city’s $289.5 million operating budget, is easily the largest city department, followed by the fire and the streets departments.
MPD currently has 461 commissioned officers and the equivalent of another 114 civilian employees. The department has grown faster than any other, adding more than 130 full-time positions since 1999.
But from the chief’s perspective, that’s not enough officers. The city’s growing population, the increasingly complex nature of the situations police deal with and the imminent annexation of the town of Madison, all increase demands on police, he argues. Soglin surprised alders last week by proposing the annexation, which was originally scheduled for 2022, be moved up to the end of the year. This would have major budget implications.
There are also a high number of officers at retirement age — the department has more than 90 officers who are over 50 years old. Among those officers, about 30 are at least 53 and have 25 years on the force, meaning they could retire immediately with full benefits. “They could literally lay a letter of resignation at my door today,” says Koval.
And he says the national environment — with growing concern over officer-involved killings (including several in Madison), protests and calls for reform — is making policing an undesirable profession. “In the last three weeks, I’ve had two people resign with less than three years experience,” Koval says. “I’ve been told there are others considering it.”
Even if nobody retires soon, Koval says the staffing levels at the police department are lower than what the city needs.
According to the U.S. Justice Department, the average staffing level for cities in the Midwest is 2.1 officers for every 1,000 residents.* The Madison Police Department has a ratio of 1.87 officers for every 1,000 residents.
Koval would like to see the ratio grow to two officers for every 1,000 residents in the next four years. Adding 10 positions a year over the next four years would reach that goal.
Former Ald. Brenda Konkel is skeptical of the calculation, noting that Madison has other police agencies working within its borders — the Capitol Police and UW Police — that aren’t included.
She says much of what the police do could be considered public relations, such as playing euchre at senior centers or basketball with high schoolers. “It’s like they have a PR machine at work, trying to improve their image,” she says. “And other departments can’t [afford] paper.”
One critic calls some elements of community policing, such as playing euchre with senior citizens, a departmental “PR machine.”
“No other departments in the city are growing at the same rate [as MPD]. And if you compare it to nonprofits, it’s ludicrous,” she adds. “You’re not giving Rape Crisis Center more funding. Everybody across the board has to serve more people, but they are not getting the same increases in staff.”
Ald. Paul Skidmore counters that the police rarely lack things to do. “I do security downtown and there are times I just simply can’t call PD for help because there’s only two officers on duty at certain times of the day because of shift time,” he says. “We’re not flush with people. There are not officers driving around looking for things to do.”
Koval agrees that violent crime has declined since he joined the force in 1983. But he says the work has become vastly more complicated. To illustrate, he pulls a dose of the opioid-overdose remedy Narcan out of his shirt pocket, and notes that officers routinely save lives with it. The profession requires much more training and individual calls take much longer.
“When we get a mental health episodic break that can be a minimum five hours, but more likely eight hours before that’s resolved,” he says.
Konkel says those issues could be dealt with in better ways. “They end up dealing with all those things because everyone else is underfunded,” she says.
Getting the force up to the chief’s desired size won’t happen any time soon if the department cancels its 2017 academy, as the mayor asked Koval to consider. Canceling the academy would save the city almost $400,000. The mayor has also asked the department to stop applying for federal grants to hire new officers, because these require scarce matching city funds.
Since there’s an academy starting next month, with a graduation date slated for June 2017, cancelling next year’s academy wouldn’t have an impact until the summer of 2018. But Koval fears it will be harder for the city to “catch up” if the department dwindles.
The proposed annexation of the town of Madison poses another staffing challenge. The MPD estimates it will need 18 officers to serve the area. Many of these could come from the town’s police force, but they would all have to go through at least an accelerated city academy. Until then, the city’s current police force will have more area to patrol with the same number of officers.
Soglin says he hasn’t made any decisions about any cuts, but wants to explore options. Asked if the police department is more vital than other agencies, he says merely, “Every city service is important.”
This wouldn’t be the first time the council has wrangled over how much to fund the police. Staffing levels have been debated for at least the past two decades. And Soglin has previously floated delaying construction of the planned midtown police station, which is estimated to cost $10.8 million. Staffing would increase operating expenses.
Although the council has kept the project on track, Soglin is again contemplating delaying it. While many alders say they’re committed to the current timeline, support for it might not be as deep as it has been. Ald. Ledell Zellers is also troubled by ballooning debt. While she hasn’t made any decisions, she adds “there are a number of things we should take a second look at. The police station is one of them.”
Koval says it would be a mistake to delay the project, since the demands on the west district continue to grow as the population swells and the city braces for the annexation of the town of Madison. The west district serves about 85,000 residents and is the largest of the department’s five precincts.
Koval repeats what he admits is a familiar talking point: “If the west district were severed off from the rest of Madison, it would be the fifth largest city in Wisconsin.”
Several other public safety issues are likely to be debated this fall.
Skidmore will revive a $400,000 pilot proposal to put body cams on some officers. A new fire department training center, scheduled for Femrite Drive, could also be delayed, although Ald. Denise DeMarb says she’ll fight for it if Soglin doesn’t fund it. She won the battle for it last year.
Alds. Maurice Cheeks and Phair have proposed several anti-violence initiatives, a variety of intervention and diversion programs, that would be funded next year at a cost of $750,000. Phair says the city needs to address racial disparities, homelessness and violence.
Although Soglin initially supported these, he said last week that he doesn’t expect to fund all of them.
“Some of them are solid proposals,” he says. “Some of them are rather shaky proposals that are well intentioned but fatally flawed.” He would not elaborate.
Soglin’s ambiguity frustrates Phair. He notes the mayor’s silence on a number of issues, including the planned $400,000 study of the police department, which Koval bitterly objected to.
“I’d like to know where the mayor stands and where he would draw a line in the sand, but he won’t say any of that,” Phair says. “He plays a lot of games and waits and waits to see where the political winds are and goes with that.”
Ald. David Ahrens has a similar opinion. “I’d like [Soglin] to weigh in on the important city issues,” Ahrens says. “He’s said very little about police-community relations other than we need to get along. When you think about what he talks about, it’s mostly about panhandling and some food-related issues.”
It’s tough to say at the moment whether the council has a worse relationship with the mayor or the police chief.
Soglin seems to welcome acrimony with the council, frequently lecturing the body at meetings and blaming it for the city’s debt. He appears to relish battles with alders and picks fights he is unlikely to win — such as proposing time limits for sitting on public benches or trying to keep a State Street french fry restaurant from getting a beer license.
But some say that Koval has strategically targeted the council, by trying to rile up residents on behalf of the police department. In June, Koval aggressively pushed back against the consultant study of the MPD. He first wrote a blog post criticizing the study and admonishing council members. “You are being watched,” he wrote. “And be on notice: this is a pre-emptive first strike from me to you.”
At a council meeting days later, he pushed back even more forcefully, yelling at alders and threatening to walk out.
Clear says those moments will be hard to forget when the council debates police funding.
“Everything the chief has done over the last couple of months, all of his statements and behaviors are geared to ginning up support for additional officers,” he says.
He says the tactic definitely got residents fired up, as council members have been bombarded with emails about the police department — both for and against — ever since. “Usually issues like this blow up and then die down,” he says. “This one has tremendous staying power.”
Clear regrets that emotions will be hard to separate from the facts. “It’s going to be very difficult to take a very data-based, empirical look at that because it’s been so inflamed over the last couple months,” he says. “I’m not sure if the council or community can make a rational decision about it.”
Editor's note: This article was amended to show the correct average ratio of police officers for every 1,000 residents. The average ratio of officers to residents in the Midwest is 2.1, as of 2014. The 2.6 per 1,000 residents average previously cited is the number of total police department employees (including civilians) per every 1,000 residents.
