Grant helps Vancouver avoid job losses but budget woes still felt
By Andrea Damewood
Published: August 24, 2010, 12:00am
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Vancouver Police Chief Cliff Cook will hand out 21 layoff letters today — but their unemployment should only last about one minute, he said.
A federal grant, attrition and retirements will save the jobs on the chopping block as the city cuts $10 million from its 2011 budget. Today, the officers will be notified that they will be laid off at 11:59 a.m. Dec. 31 and then rehired at midnight, allowing the city to begin using a $2.58 million Community Oriented Policing Services grant from the Department of Justice, he explained to the city council Monday night.
“I have the pleasure to assure them their jobs are safe,” Cook said. “But the department is still shrinking.”
Make no mistake, he pointed out, though no actual layoffs will occur, the department will still be 11 people smaller than it was before. Over the last 2.5 years, the Vancouver Police Department has lost 24 uniformed staff members, he said.
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The city was originally awarded the COPS grant to hire 10 new officers, but as the deficit grew, police administration worked with the Justice Department to change the grant to allow them to keep officers. That modification was announced in late July, and the city council unanimously approved the grant Monday night.
The COPS grant will pay for entry level salaries for the 10 cops for three years; the city must cover step wage increases. The grant also stipulates that Vancouver retain the 10 positions for a year after the grant expires, or pay the federal government back the full grant amount of $2.58 million.
Other departments
Dozens of layoffs are still a certainty for other departments across the city, and it’s unknown at this point if firefighters will be among those let go.
Fire Chief Don Bivins had announced 18 layoffs as part of his department’s losses, but said that the number of people to go would be affected by how many people left the department or took advantage of the city’s retirement incentives.
On Monday night, Fire Capt. Chris Moen said those who put their names in for retirement have 45 days to change their minds, and so final numbers won’t be known until the end of that time period. He said he did not know how many people applied for the early retirement.
