NEW ORLEANS -- At a City Council meeting Wednesday, police department brass laid out the financially challenges they’re facing, and how big of a budget gap it now faces.
New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Michael Harrison explained his original budget was $136.2 million. It was eventually reduced by more than $4 million and now they’ve found themselves in a hole.
Heading towards the end of the summer, Harrison told the City Council the department is facing a $2 million deficit. He explained it’s because of a number of budget pressures, like overtime.
“We’re on pace to spend more than $1 million dollars more in overtime in 2016 than we did in 2015,” said Harrison. “It’s primarily because we’ve had to expend more personnel on special event coverage this year.”
Harrison further explained because the weather has been good for events like Mardi Gras, French Quarter Fest, and Essence Fest, more people attended the events and stayed longer. During Independence Day weekend, 95 percent of hotels in the Central Business District were occupied.
“When you look back over things that happened in Paris and San Bernardino, and around the country, we’ve been really preparing and deploying to make sure we have adequate and proper safety coverage for the citizens and visitors of New Orleans and our special events,” said Harrison.
The second largest factor for the deficit is retirees. Twenty-eight officers retired this year. Some of them had accrued so much paid sick leave and vacation time it cost the department $800 thousand, said Harrison.
Earlier this year the department also turned over 911 dispatch operations to the to the Orleans Parish Communications District. This transition cost an unexpected $400 thousand.
However, city officials disputed a deficit Thursday evening.
In a statement, officials from the Mayor's office wrote:
Yesterday, the NOPD provided a mid-year budget update to the City Council Criminal Justice Committee outlining higher than projected expenditures including additional overtime for special events and crimefighting, terminal leave, merit pay increases and costs related to OPCD/911 consolidation. For each of these factors outlined by NOPD Superintendent Michael Harrison, Mayor Landrieu authorized the additional NOPD expenditures because public safety is our #1 priority. Taking into account the entirety of the City's budget, the administration fully expects to have a completely balanced budget, as has been the case since Mayor Landrieu took office. There is no deficit, period.