Kevin Johnson landed one of the last major endorsements of the Sacramento mayoral race today.
The city firefighters’ union is backing Johnson in his run against Mayor Heather Fargo because Johnson is “going to reprioritize the city budget” to ease cuts on public safety, said union representative Chris Harvey.
Johnson said at a morning press conference that if elected, he would not cut the budgets for the police and fire departments.
He also said more of the city budget should be earmarked for police and fire. Fifty-one percent of the city’s discretionary general fund budget is spent on the two departments, while other cities of the same size spend more, Johnson said.
To fill a $58 million budget gap, the city cut most departments by 20 percent. The police department’s budget was cut by 8 percent and the fire department’s by 4 percent.
“For me, if you make public safety a top priority, that means some other things are going to be cut, and not our firefighters and not law enforcement,” Johnson said.
As part of the fire cuts, city firehouses are on rotating brownouts. Harvey said those brownouts led to two recent fires becoming more severe than they should have been.
“We don’t believe cuts should be made if the lives of Sacramento citizens are placed in jeopardy,” Harvey said.
When asked if money should be taken from other departments to ensure the fire budget is not slashed, Harvey said, “libraries are important, but they’re not life or death issues.”
West Coast 911 firefighter news source – Sac Bee
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