CINCINNATI — It's good news and bad news regarding Cincinnati's budget for the rest of 2024. The city is taking in more tax revenue than projected, with an additional $21 million coming in, but overtime costs continue to be a challenge.
City leaders point to attrition as one of the big drivers for overtime. While classes graduated from both the police and fire academy in December and January, city council indicated the Cincinnati Police Department is not near ideal staffing.
"Police is nowhere close to the 1,059 number," said Andrew Dumas, the city's budget director.
That number is considered fully staffed. Cincinnati Fraternal Order of Police president Ken Kober tells WCPO the department started the year with 898 officers. The January graduating class brought their numbers up to 940.
"But we've had 15 or so retirements already since Jan. 1, so the numbers just keep on dwindling, as soon as you get a class that graduates, you have another 25 or 30 that retire behind them," said Kober.
The city is trying to fill those gaps, and because of that, there's plenty of overtime. The latest projection from the city says it will need $6.5 million, which will mostly pay for overtime costs for the police and fire departments.
"I know we are on a very, very heavy recruiting issue in the city when it comes to police and fire, but our staffing issues are just something that continuously calls that deep dive into the overtime," said Scotty Johnson, Cincinnati City Council member.
The latest budget report also mentions a potential "budget deficit," with both the police and fire union contracts expiring or already expiring, with negotiations expected in May. The report noted, "supplemental appropriations may be required."
WCPO asked council member Reggie Harris, chairperson of the budget and finance committee, if cuts should be expected for the next fiscal year that begins July 1.
"So I think it's too early to tell," Harris said. "Having some savings, some staffing does allow us some flexibility. However, in an ideal world, those positions will be filled."
The budget projection also notes "budget transfers may be necessary to move funds from divisions and programs with savings to others within the respective departments that have budget needs."
WCPO asked Harris about potential solutions to solving overtime and recruiting issues.
"Building more housing and having housing supply being an attractive city to move to is recruitment tool number one right you want to move to a cool city that's growing," said Harris. "Now, we're recruiting people to then to not only move to the city, but become city employees and so we can help with keeping pace with new hires with our attrition rates."
