CLEVELAND — Three weeks after Mayor Justin M. Bibb released his proposed budget for 2024, public safety dominated much of the conversation surrounding his plans during Day One of budget hearings at Cleveland City Hall on Tuesday.
For context, in 2023, the city budgeted for 1,498 police officers. The mayor's proposed budget for this year drops that number down to 1,350, still about 180 more officers than the city currently employs.
Bibb told councilmembers he wants to exceed that number, adding, "That's my goal. I want to throw the entire kitchen sink at the issue."
But some were critical of the decision to cut the number of budgeted positions, while also acknowledging the recent investments the city has put in place with the department.
"If we are investing in a marketing firm, if we are investing in other tools to help with recruitment, if we are increasing pay, providing bonuses, and doing all of these things that we and the administration need from this body for them to be successful, but yet we reduce the number of positions in our budget, I feel like we are waving the white flag. I truly do," Ward 10 Councilman Anthony T. Hairston said. "We are giving up before we are able to get started, because if you don't have anything meaningful to work toward, what are we working toward?"
Bibb pushed back on that characterization, saying he "couldn’t disagree more."
"I think everybody around this table recognizes the importance that we had to truly make some hard choices around being more competitive in terms of our police department," the mayor stated. "What I'm not going to do is have imaginary math while not having the investments we need to fix our near-term staffing challenges inside the division of police."
It was a difficult conversation for some in the room, including Ward 2 Councilman Kevin L. Bishop, who told the mayor he heard shots fired just hours before the meeting. It was the second shooting outside his home since Friday night.
"I go into my front room and my front window was shot out. There was a bullet laying on my floor," Bishop said. "Mr. Mayor, my question to you is, what is the city's strategy? And I know we've got ShotSpotter [technology, but what is the city's strategy?"
Bibb told Bishop he was sorry for what happened, before further answering, "As I have said often, nobody should live in fear of their safety. It's unconscionable and it's un-American, and I think we recognize all around this body that we have a problem with guns in Cleveland."
Bibb said the city plans to launch a crime gun intelligence center this summer, which he claims will help authorities identify where guns are coming from and help stop the flow of illegal firearms. City leaders have said previous budget amounts for police have been unrealistic given the difficulty across the country to hire officers, but some like Ward 17 Councilman Charles J. Slife pushed back on the struggle to hire.
"I want to refute the notion that there haven't been applicants," Slife said.
According to Slife, there were more than 900 applicants at the Cleveland Division of Police in 2022, but that pool produced only 11 cadets.
"Not for a lack of interest, but for a lack of information," Slife explained. "This Council, I don't think, fully understands why Cincinnati is able to put on a 50-person cadet class and Cleveland isn't, and why Toledo — which pays less — can put on a 27-cadet class but we cannot. ... I worry that if we don't become more aggressive on hiring, based on past data, it seems that we will continue to decrease the headcount under the argument that it's impractical for us to hire more than 180 a year."
Bibb agreed with Slife, saying he hears from people in the community who have applied for the job but didn’t get it. He also said he would like to see "more transparency on why certain folks aren't getting hired."
Budget hearings are expected to continue throughout the month, with a final approval deadline of April 1.