HPD has looked at its budget numbers and determined it needs to cut back on overtime until the end of the fiscal year:
The temporary reduction amounts to slightly less than 10 percent of the approximately $1 million per week that the department has been using to fund overtime pay, officials said.
The cuts are expected to run through June — the end of this fiscal year.
“It’s basically an end-of-the-year adjustment. It’s nothing new,” said Capt. Bruce Williams, an HPD spokesman.
HPD has spent about $38 million so far out of the $54 million allocated this year for the overtime pay.
“We’ve got about six weeks or so left” in the fiscal year, said Frank Michel, Mayor Bill White’s communication director. “You don’t want to cut off anything altogether, so you begin to monitor your spending.”
It’s refreshing to see a government entity so concerned about spending, but this is the one city department that should NOT be cutting back.
Surely something can be cut somewhere else so HPD doesn’t have to cut back on protecting Houstonians. Does the city still have a surplus it can use for the one of the most important reasons to have government at all?
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