Council faces 'horrific' choices to balance city budget

Facing a $28.9 million budget shortfall next year, City Manager Penelope Culbreth-Graft unveiled a 2010 spending plan Friday that calls for sweeping changes in Colorado Springs, including closing cultural and recreational facilities, cutting 63,000 hours of bus service and laying off 23 police officers and 22 firefighters.

“There’s only one word to describe what could happen out of this budget, and that’s devastating,” said Paul Butcher, director of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services.

Culbreth-Graft’s proposed $209.9 million general-fund budget, down 8 percent from the revised 2009 operating budget, will be formally presented to the City Council next week.

“The City Council will have a task that I have never seen a council have to deal with in my 32 years of experience that will (involve) some of the most egregious and horrific cuts that this city has ever had to experience,” a somber-looking Culbreth-Graft said.

“While the council has grappled with extremely difficult issues for the last two fiscal years, this one will be unparalleled to the pain and the agony in which they had to experience in the previous years,” she said.

The proposal requires the layoffs of 171 employees, although that number is likely to shrink because the city is offering workers an early retirement program. So far, 89 employees have signed up for the program, but they still have time to change their minds.

Culbreth-Graft said the preliminary budget has the “most significant impacts” on three areas of city government: transit, parks and rec, and public safety.

At the Police Department, 65 positions would be eliminated, resulting in the layoffs of 23 uniformed officers and six civilian employees in supporting roles.

The department would eliminate the Special Enforcement Unit, which conducts narcotics and prostitution enforcement in targeted areas, such as downtown and South Nevada Avenue, and the Juvenile Offender Unit, which works with some of the most serious juvenile delinquents. The department’s two police helicopters also would be sold.

“I’m confident that no matter how few resources we’re given to work with, we’re going to do our best to serve with integrity and to prioritize to keep the community as safe as possible,” Police Chief Richard Myers said.

The chief said the department plans to focus its efforts on the most serious crimes and probably only document minor calls for service, such as noise complaints.

“Overall, we’re concerned about this growing gap between what the community expects and thinks we can provide and what our capacity really is,” he said.

The Fire Department, which is proposing to eliminate two medical squads, would have 107 firefighters on duty every day for emergency response, eight fewer than this year.

“Our response times are going to grow,” fire Chief Steven Cox said. “That’s the impact of these budget cuts.”

Cox, a Colorado Springs native, also called the proposed cuts devastating.

“You’re really involved in a process of deconstructing the city. It’s no fun,” he said.

The city would shutter 18 of 21 cultural and recreational facilities, including six community centers and the Pioneers Museum.

Matt Mayberry, director of the Pioneers Museum, said he finds the prospect of closing a community resource on this scale mind-boggling and with little precedent.

“There are other institutions that are going through similar problems right now, but none that I can find of our scope, the size of our collection,” he said.

Dewey Blanton, spokesperson for the Washington-D.C.-based American Association of Museums, agrees. He said the economic downtown has forced the closure of a few newer, smaller museums, but nothing with the collections and historic weight of the Pioneers Museum.

“We’ve seen a lot of museums taking steps to head that off at the pass, if you will, with budget cuts and furloughs, and exhibition delays and public education cuts,” said Blanton.

Only 13 of 141 parks would be fully maintained and irrigated. The rest would be on “life support,” said Butcher, the head of parks and rec. Mowing of medians and 189 miles of right-of-way would cease, putting the city at risk of violating its own weed-control codes.

At Mountain Metropolitan Transit, which cut about 50,000 hours of bus service this year, all city-funded fixed-route and paratransit services would be wiped out in 2010.

“All Saturday service, all Sunday service and all evening services would go away,” said Sherre Ritenour, transit services division manager, adding that routes to Schriever Air Force Base and Fort Carson also would be eliminated.

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