Chair Lee on $6M stabilization sufficiency and lease costs
Lee asks if $6M is sufficient for stabilization. Shahada confirms it covers avoiding nine vacancy cuts, reducing forfeiture reliance, and hiring five entry-level investigators. Lee then asks about the total lease cost; Shahada reports approximately $18.5M, consuming the vast majority of city-funded OTPS alongside one integrity monitorship, leaving only a few hundred thousand dollars to operate the agency.
And the $6 million to stabilize the budget for the next fiscal year, is that sufficient?
What's the ideal number?
That's the stabilization number.
We are cognizant of the financial and budgetary condition that the city as a whole is facing, and so we've really tried to focus on what is necessary to keep our core operations going and not to ask for more than that at this time.
And so that's where we have come up with the $6 million number.
It would allow us to not have to defund nine vacancies and also
start to get on a path where we're not over relying on forfeiture funds for our basic operations as well as You know a minimal request for five entry-level confidential investigators to
Start helping stabilize our investigative squads
Okay.
And just lastly, before I pass it to the chair, in terms of the lease,
I know that you said that the move saved approximately $157,700 annually, but what's the total?
Portion of the department's budget for the lease.
Can you update us on that cost?
Yeah, I don't know the exact percentage because I'm not very good at math, but it's about $18.5 million is the number on the lease.
So it's the vast majority of our OTPs, city tax levy OTPs is spent on the lease and one integrity monitorship for the next year.
After that, I think we have about just a few hundred thousand dollars left
to operate the agency, which is why we have had to repurpose forfeiture funds to allow us to fulfill our mission.