Lean budget costs police positions
With Hermosa’s revenues falling and the state’s financial crisis continuing, the City Council approved mid-year budget adjustments that include freezing three more vacant positions for police officers, leaving the 39-member force a total of five officers short. Sgt. Jaime Ramirez, president of the Hermosa Beach Police Officers Association, and Sgt. Kevin Averill, an association member, pleaded unsuccessfully for the council to forestall the hiring freeze for the three officer positions. They noted that two other officer positions remain frozen in a previous belt-tightening move. After the meeting, Ramirez and Averill said the association is considering gathering signatures for a ballot measure that would require the council to staff the department at minimum “safe levels” for the community. The council left vacant four non-police positions as well, those of the community resources director, a planning associate, a recreation supervisor and an account clerk. All the freezes together cover half of a $1.2 million shortfall that was caused by decreases in sales tax revenues, taxes paid by hotel visitors and fees paid for building permits. Most of the remainder of the revenue shortfall…
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