02-05-09, Bruce Philpott Comments on Glendale’s Public Safety

As a retired Pasadena police chief, I am well aware of the important role public safety has in a community. But the concept of public safety does not stop at the doors of the police and fire departments. Public safety in any community, to be effective, must go beyond our safety institutions. Public safety is also manifest in our schools, churches, and organized social service organizations such as the YMCA, Boy Scouts and the many other programs that teach good citizenship and build character during the formative years.

Many studies have shown that the best investment in public safety is to invest resources in our youth. Under the premises that it is easier to teach a child than to repair an adult, public safety should begin by giving our youth structure and organized activities that promote responsible behavior.

The taxpayers get a better return on their public safety investment through prevention. By maintaining good parks and recreation programs and a healthy library system, the city of Glendale can play an important role in the development of productive adults coming from this generation of youth.

City staff said that if police and fire are not subject to reduction considerations to balance the budget, our Library and Parks and Recreation Departments would have to reduce their overall budgets by up to 30%. If parks are not maintained, the robust all-volunteer youth sports programs that are the heart of our AYSO, Little League and other programs would be in jeopardy. If they collapse, these kids will not experience the kind of activities that contribute to their healthy growth. If parents cannot bring their children to their local neighborhood branch library to encourage a life-long habit of reading, our next generation will be deprived of important formative development.

We can solve this budget problem in a more practical and responsible way and maintain all city services as we know them now. While the city’s population grew by only 5 percent in the last ten years, the city’s staff has grown by 31 percent. The city council should consider bringing the staffing level back to its 2002 level because that is the year employee numbers grew beyond sustainable levels. It could accomplish this by attrition over the course of three years and bring the budget back to a balanced and prudent level. The city needs to go on a diet. It was adequate for us then. It should be adequate for us now. We can not only keep our police and fire at current staffing levels, but we can also assure that our Libraries and Parks and Recreation services are also left in tact.

Bruce Philpott

Brcphilpott1@aol.com