Tacoma to lay off police, firefighters to fill budget gap
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TACOMA, Wash. -- The budget ax is coming down in Tacoma, and 217 city workers could soon be out of a job.
Those cuts include some police officers and members of the fire department.
Civic leaders knew the cuts were coming, but they say it's still a shock to see so many people losing their jobs.
Philipp and Amy Kagelmacher moved to Tacoma from Southern California last year so he could join the Tacoma Fire Department, and now his job is on the line.
"At the end of the day, you're scared to lose your job and start all over again," he said.
Kagelmacher's job was on the chopping block before, but a $7 million federal grand saved him and 36 other firefighters. Some of those jobs are safe this time around, but not Kagelmacher's. He's one of 17 firefighters who could soon be out of a job.
"It was the dream, yes. He's worked really hard to get here," Amy Kagelmacher said. "And now they want to cut him again. It sucks to lose your dream job."
Nothing is settled at this point, and Fire Chief James Duggin hopes the cuts don't hurt his team's focus.
"We tell them to hang tight," Duggin said. "We appreciate them focusing on what they need to, which is the work they do and the service to the community."
Twenty-six police positions are also being cut. Thirteen of those positions are vacant, but that means 13 officers will have to go.
The city is calling for 217 jobs to be cut, but vacancies and early retirements will cover some of the cuts, meaning 150-160 people will lose their jobs.
"I would not consider it heartless. I would consider it something that needs to be done," said city manager TC Broadnax.
Broadnax said the city has to fill a $60 million hole in the budget, but Kagelmacher hopes leaders find a way to fill it that doesn't include him sacrificing his young career.
"You thought you were finally there and the situation is almost the same again. It's frightening," he said.
Nothing is settled yet, and budget talks will continue for weeks. Broadnax said all jobs are safe through the end of the year.
Those cuts include some police officers and members of the fire department.
Civic leaders knew the cuts were coming, but they say it's still a shock to see so many people losing their jobs.
Philipp and Amy Kagelmacher moved to Tacoma from Southern California last year so he could join the Tacoma Fire Department, and now his job is on the line.
"At the end of the day, you're scared to lose your job and start all over again," he said.
Kagelmacher's job was on the chopping block before, but a $7 million federal grand saved him and 36 other firefighters. Some of those jobs are safe this time around, but not Kagelmacher's. He's one of 17 firefighters who could soon be out of a job.
"It was the dream, yes. He's worked really hard to get here," Amy Kagelmacher said. "And now they want to cut him again. It sucks to lose your dream job."
Nothing is settled at this point, and Fire Chief James Duggin hopes the cuts don't hurt his team's focus.
"We tell them to hang tight," Duggin said. "We appreciate them focusing on what they need to, which is the work they do and the service to the community."
Twenty-six police positions are also being cut. Thirteen of those positions are vacant, but that means 13 officers will have to go.
The city is calling for 217 jobs to be cut, but vacancies and early retirements will cover some of the cuts, meaning 150-160 people will lose their jobs.
"I would not consider it heartless. I would consider it something that needs to be done," said city manager TC Broadnax.
Broadnax said the city has to fill a $60 million hole in the budget, but Kagelmacher hopes leaders find a way to fill it that doesn't include him sacrificing his young career.
"You thought you were finally there and the situation is almost the same again. It's frightening," he said.
Nothing is settled yet, and budget talks will continue for weeks. Broadnax said all jobs are safe through the end of the year.
How abou they fire some city staff workers!... police and fire you should NEVER cut!
Cut the salaries of the Mayor on down the ladder before police and firefighters. Tacoma needs all the police and firefighters they can get..........this is purely bribery by the city!
Fire and police should be the LAST employees to be laid off. It's the city's responsibility to have these services. If I was a betting person, I bet there are other employees less important than this that could be cut. I'd also bet this is the same old scare tactic they use to garner sympathy and put a vote to the people in order to raise taxes.
 @ObsidianOne Like the govt has a clue on how to manage money.
Tacoma needs to take a lesson from Columbus, Ohio. They had the same problem and approached the citizenry and especially the business community to develop a redevelopment plan and increase certain taxes. Here's an article from Time Magazine about it.  http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,2125517,00.html Notice in the article how the first thing Columbus did was cut "back office" staff.
People have money for iphones, x-boxes, and guns but don't want to pay for essential services. Awesome electorate.
Every time there's a budget cut is always the school which we need to teach our childrens (these kids are our future), the fire & police department who keep us safe. I never learn oh lets look at the office staffs (i.e. planning, accounting, and other departments within the city and county). What about all these city official bonuses each year and pay raise? Why are they getting bonuse and pay raise when we are in budget crises.
Have anyone notice that if you go into the city or county offices, the employees takes their sweet time on assisting you and on top of that some of them are so mean and nasty?
If we make some of the services available online we should be able to get rid of some of these position and that should help the budget cut.
I agreed with BobDobbs these police, firefighters, and teachers should never have to worry about losing there job for budget cut.
The police and firefighters are two groups that should not have to worry about getting laid off from budget cuts. I can think of several departments that have overlapping duties that should be thinned out and steamlined. Also, there are a lot of government employees that make outrageous salaries for what they actually do.Â
Its a scare tactic for the city to scare the residents to cough up more money. As with any municipal budget, there is alot of BS money/projects thrown in. If they are really serious about this, publish the budget, the entire budget completely itemized, so the taxpayers can really see where their money is going.
 @The WA Mama Here: http://www.cityoftacoma.org/page.aspx?hid=1235
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Get rid of those stupid red light and speeding cameras...I'm sure that would say money on film developing, monitoring and maintenance....
This is very simple. Find every Tacoma employee making over 100k per year and lower their pay to 100k per year. That's still lots of money for all the slothful bureaucrats out there and would probably be enough savings to keep all of these people's jobs.
Lower to a reasonable $60,000 would be better. No one should be making $100, 000 a year off of the tax payers dime. @NorthwestEconomist
Just vote for some more hope and change,No problem!!
 @tthunderstorme Say no to Mitt
@Larry*X*K  Maybe we should ask Obama for the money. He seems to spend it in trillions. What's a few more trillion added to the bill for our children gonna hurt???? <sarcasm>
 @ObsidianOne You forget, it's Congress that authorizes the expenditures not the President. He could, of course, chose to be more frugal in the contracts but then the contractors go crying to Congress who then makes the expenditures mandatory.
@Larry*X*K @tthunderstorme Say no to Obama as well, we can't afford anymore of his type of change.
 @Crimsonkid  @tthunderstorme I say, say no to the Tea Party obstructionist in Congress.
Wonder what city council is thinking when it failed on the past medical marijuana issues. It's not easy to come up with ideas to bring in funding but they've had this opportunity for way to long. Now this is the way the cookie crumbles. Shame on you leaders of Tacoma. You all are now certified idiots.
I hope NONE of you are effected by this because the first thing you will notice is REPONSE times ... risking safety on both sides ....ADJUST SALARIES .... for openers .. Just wait until the mayor family waits for police or fiire response ..the issue will be "looked at again"
 @DISPATCH911 Not to mention the officer's and fireman (women too) who need the back up. My back up time was sometimes over 7 minutes out. One call I needed a unit, state came hauling butt and it took 12 minutes. Needed my back up in less than 5 at that time. But I got lucky, or I was smart or both..not sure, I just know I'm alive! Fire and police assist each other all of the time. Sometimes fire can't go into a scene for medical until LE clears it and makes sure it's safe for them to go in.
It's not just the public who will suffer from slow response, but the very people trying to respond also. T
@Yeah_and I am so aware :)  BUT the average person has no idea ... what it takes to put it all together .. I shutter to think of Officer AND Frefighter safety .... and on and on and on been there done that just like you
@Yeah_and @DISPATCH911 , my dad has been a cop all my life, one thing he always told me is, do not rely on 911 to take care of you, one day it may not be there... and here we are on our way
@Yeah_and @DISPATCH911 Thank you :)
 @DISPATCH911  @Yeah_and I know, but we are in a way educating? The average person I have found is much smarter and kinder than we all think. At least I still think that way. Most people are good and want to do what is right. There are the few that seem to speak the loudest that are not on the same page as the rest of us.
I always encourage people to ride along. They also get to see what dispatch has to go through too, that is not a job for me and I have a great deal of respect for my dispatchers. They put up with everything, same emotions, just not physically there. But it doesn't matter, they are still our lifeline.
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City government should serve the citizens similiar to Maslow's Hiarchy of Needs. The base of the pyramid in this case should be public safety. The first job of government should be to ensure a force that maintains a safe society,  provides for rapid responses to emergent situations, and provides life-saving care. Everything should build off of that. At the top of the list should be the things that really don't matter. It's time for the Tacoma city manager to re-prioritize the services the city is offering the citizens.
 @I Can't Believe This! So what would you cut?
 @Black31  @I Can't Believe This! Members of the Three Branches of Government, their pay and benefits would be the starting point.....