10 months ago
STOCKTON, CA- Residents of another major city in Northern California faced a financial bombshell Tuesday night.
Stockton's city manager unveiled a plan at the city council meeting to close a $31 million deficit that includes laying off dozens of police officers and firefighters.
A woman by the name of Andrea who lives in north Stockton said crime is a problem on her street. From vandalism to break-ins and drunken brawls, she said her neighborhood needs more cops not less.
"There's a lot of crazy things that happen on this road and cops take forever to respond and I don't think it's due to them not wanting to respond. I just think it's the fact that they're so behind," she said.
But response times could get longer the city approves the plan to lay off 100 police officers because of budget cuts.
"It's crazy. That's crazy too me," Andrea responded.
Steve Leonesio heads Stockton's police officers union. He said the proposed cuts will jeopardize public safety.
"The city paid for a study back in 1997 that said we should have about 600 officers. Right now we have 400 and they're looking to cut approximately 100 more to bring us down to 300. That's half of what the paid study says the city needs for a town of this size," said Leonesio.
The city manager who proposed the cuts would not take questions from reporters at Tuesday night's meeting. He said he couldn't miss an award ceremony that took place at the start of the meeting.
His plan also calls for a drastic reduction in trimming city trees infected with mistletoe. Library hours would be heavily reduced and the 4th of July fireworks show would be canceled.
The department that would take the biggest hit is the fire department. They already agreed to $10 million in salary cuts last December. Their union leader, David Macedo said they've given up enough.
"We have no room for wiggle. We gave back a significant amount of money. My guys are hurting just like everybody else in this economy right now. They're hurting. They're living paycheck to paycheck and we can't give back anymore."
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