Santa Monica Lookout Letters and Opinions

Back to the Calculator, Please  

July 12, 2024

Dear Editor,

I was concerned about the inaccuracies in Cody Green's opinion piece about the City budget. I have a great deal of respect for our police department, and I think it is important to be accurate in information released about the department.

When numbers are used to make a point, it is important to select the right numbers. Unfortunately, the police union chair compares Santa Monica's budget to those of other cities where circumstances are very different.

Santa Monica's total general fund budget includes many amenities and
services other cities are unable to provide. For instance, Manhattan Beach doesn't have its own bus line, or a municipal cemetery.

Glendale has no Pier. Huntington Beach, Culver City, and Beverly Hills do not operate an airport.

Such exceptional expenses often are separated out in Santa Monica's budget as dedicated "enterprise funds," but Green's calculations lump them all, and even capital improvements to City facilities, into an inaccurately aggregated "general fund" against which the police union calculates appropriate expenditures on police.

The reality: Santa Monica police officers are very well compensated, as they should be. The police union enjoys a memorandum of understanding with the City that guarantees their pay will be no less than top two for the region.

More money into the police budget has not yet fully been reflected
in more officers on the street, as recruitment takes time, and our hiring standards are notably higher than those of other cities.

Back to the calculator, please. Compare Santa Monica's financial
commitment to policing based on our real, truly comparable general budget.

You'll come up with different results that more accurately reflect our
City's priorities.

Thank you,

Judy Abdo

Former Mayor of Santa Monica
 

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