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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.
Scott Elliott is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He writes about education, city and suburban issues, politics, business, workforce and consumer issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2010 > August > 20
Friday, August 20, 2010
Editorial: Xenia police, fire are out of line
Nobody in Xenia is out to hurt police and firefighters. Nobody wants to make that city less safe. All sides in the debate about Xenia’s charter amendment that would require a minimum size for the safety forces also recognize the problems that have been created by a collapsing budget.
But Get Alarmed Citizens of Xenia, a political action committee associated with the police and firefighters’ unions, is proposing an impossible idea. It wants to write into the city’s charter a requirement that the police force never fall below 45 and the fire department never drop to fewer than 43.
The idea is crazy. Staffing levels of particular departments are not the sort of thing that belong in a city charter. No one would ever suggest that Ohio should mandate in its constitution how many state troopers are patrolling the highways. Or that the U.S. Constitution should spell out the number of FBI agents. City council is right to be rallying community leaders against the proposal.
Xenia is terribly cash-strapped, having been hammered by deep declines in tax revenue since the 2008 recession began. Unemployment has spiked to 12 percent. As a result, Xenia has closed a fire station and laid off nine firefighters and six police officers.
Supporters of the charter amendment admit that a 0.5-percent income tax the city council wants voters to approve this fall is desperately needed. If it passes, council has pledged to rehire the laid-off police and firefighters and open the closed firehouse.
But what happens if the income tax fails and the charter amendment setting staffing levels passes? The city estimates up to 29 layoffs elsewhere in the city bureaucracy might be needed to offset the cost of the required hiring.
And that’s just the problem that would be created today. Suppose Xenia’s population were to fall sharply in the future, necessitating fewer police and firefighters? The charter amendment would force Xenia to keep spending tax dollars in ways that make no sense, while limiting spending on other crucial services.
Once a charter amendment is approved, it cannot be changed by a vote of city council. Voters would have to repeal it. Managing by charter change is no way to run a city. Council and its professional managers have to have flexibility.
The city’s fiscal crisis is threatening to make it hard for its leaders to deploy enough police and firefighters so that everyone can sleep well at night. But the best way for Xenia voters to help the city maintain quality safety forces is to back the city’s income tax levy, not vote for a charter amendment that would tie city council’s hands.
Talks are under way between the city and the unions to come up with a plan that everyone can get behind. That’s a good sign. Part of the deal should include a pledge from Get Alarmed Citizens of Xenia to pull its charter amendment off the ballot.
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