Three Sworn Officers Cut from Hercules Police Force

The intensified budget crunch process has forced the city to reduce some of its most publicly supported programs.

Three out of 26 sworn Hercules police officers were given layoff notices Friday with two more officers likely to receive notices soon, acting Hercules Police Chief Bill Goswick said.

“Right now, morale is still okay” in the police force, Goswick said. If layoffs continue, spirits will likely drop and residents could begin to see changes in services, including response time, he said.

“We don’t want to end up in a position where we’re completely reactive and not proactive,” Goswick said.

The officer cutbacks were part of an attempt by all city departments to reduce expenditures and, by late June, close a $6 million general fund , which was identified by an outside auditing firm in April.

In a first round of , the city sent pink slips to the equivalent of 25 full time  on April 15 and the police department let go of a maintenance technician, office assistant and a parking enforcement officer, but no sworn police officer positions were cut.

After roughly two months of layoffs and program cuts, the city has brought the budget gap down to $3.12 million but still has far to go to align revenues with expenditures for fiscal year 2011-2012 and make an anticipated annual $1.5 million Hercules Redevelopment Agency debt service payment, city Finance Director Liz Warmerdam said Friday.

Negotiations on salaries and benefits with employee unions, including the Hercules Police Officers Association, will be vital to preserving city employee positions, said Warmerdam, who is preparing a “Doomsday” budget in case no employee concessions are made.

The Doomsday budget would rely solely on staff and program cuts and would bring the police force down to 17 sworn officers and decimate the Parks and Recreation department, eliminating the Library, Senior and Teen and Swim centers, Warmerdam said. "It's the worse-case scenario. Nobody wants to get there," Warmerdam said Friday about the bleak budget.

Warmerdam and interim City Manager Fred Deltorchio are scheduled for union negotiation meetings next week.