Board of Supervisors vote 9-2 to approve $25.3 million budget supplemental for police overtime

(SAN FRANCISCO) After heated debates at both the Budget Committee meeting and the full board meeting, the Board of Supervisors approved a $25.3 million budget supplemental for police overtime to fill in the gap of staffing shortage.

The board approved the budget by a vote of 9-2, with District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston and District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton voting in dissent.

Like other police departments in the nation, the San Francisco Police Department is short of over 500 sworn officers. Mayor London Breed proposed a $27 million supplemental budget for the Police Department to pay for overtime to the officers to backfill the minimum police services for the City.

The first reading approval of the budget supplemental by the Board was almost reduced by $3 million.

District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safai introduced a proposal to add back $3 million to the Police Department for budget supplemental. But he failed to move his proposal forward by lacking of support from any supervisors.

In the Budget and Appropriations Committee meeting held on March 15, there were heated arguments between the Police Department and the Supervisors on the Budget Committee.

Police Chief Bill Scott and Assistant Chief David Lazar presented data at the meeting to show that currently the Police Department has been having staffing shortages at all 10 police stations. During the past year, most of the overtime was spent in backfill to maintain the minimum police service for the City, according to Scott and Lazar. The second largest overtime spending was on "Safe Shopper".

District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen complained that the Police Department put the priority on protecting the high end stores and their customers in Union Square instead of residents in other districts.

Chief Scott explained that the police needed to handle the large scale of the retails robberies since last year at Union Square. "We are not protecting the high end stores, but their

employees who make minimum wages. They are always the victims to be robbed when they

get off from their work at night," Assistant Police Chief Lazar responded.

Lazar also reported that the police response time has been up to 8.5 minutes for A priority 911 calls due to the staffing shortage. "It is a very long time," said Lazar.

Ronen, who represents Mission and Portola neighborhoods, was angry that there were not enough police officers assigned to the Mission Station. Shootings, murders and violent crime occurred in the Mission District throughout the past year. She promised she would vote to support the supplemental budget if more police officers would be assigned to the Mission Station.

The Budget and Appropriations Committee Chair and District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan decided on March 15 to send the $25.3 million budget supplemental proposal to the full board for vote on March 21.

"I believe that a supplemental for any city department should bring to the question about mismanagement of city government and public dollars," said Chan when she moved to vote in support of the budget supplemental on March 21. "We know that police and ambassadors are not the only solution to public safety. They are only part of the solution."

"We also need to make sure the city provides resources and support to our firefighters, EMT, 911 dispatchers, nurses and street cleaners." Chan stated. "There seems to be a direction from our Mayor to our Police Department to invest, more investment to protect the designers' bags than our Asian elders."

District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton said the police budget supplemental would not add one more police officer to the department. "People said I do not support public safety," Walton said that he believed in different options to improve public safety by hiring community ambassadors and more bilingual officers patrolling San Bruno Avenue in the Portola neighborhood.

District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston argued that the Police Department has overspent money on overtime. He also said that the Police Department which continued to pay overtime for the officers without pre-approved by the board was a violation of Administration Code.

"Rather than seeking approval while running up these massive costs in the fall of 2022, SFPD continued overspending and violated the Administrative Code,” Preston said.

Chief Scott argued that the Police Department had been in conversation for sometime with the Mayor's Office about the supplemental budget for police overtime.

District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio supported funding the Police Department with extra budget for overtime. "The police station serving the Sunset has lost half of its officers since 2020. On any given night, only seven officers are patrolling an area that has a population of 130,000. Those seven officers cover a huge geographic area from Twin Peaks to the ocean and Golden Gate Park to Daly City," Engardio said.

"Parents are on edge after recent violence at Stonestown Mall where mobs of teenagers attacked other teenagers. If kids can’t safely meet friends after school at the mall, it’s yet another decline in quality of life in San Francisco and failure of our city to function as it should," Engardio stated.