SANTA ANA : 4-Day Week Voted for Police Officers

The City Council approved a new work schedule for police officers this week but turned down a proposal to raise taxes to pay for the $1.3-million change.

The council voted, 4 to 3, for the plan, which would allow officers to work four 10-hour shifts weekly instead of five eight-hour shifts. According to a city staff report, the police proposal will mean that the city will have to hire 15 more officers.

The plan is scheduled to take effect by July 1, but only if the city budget is approved by two-thirds of the council before then. Last year, the budget was approved in September.

City officials had proposed paying for the new work schedule through an assessment district, which would have increased taxes about $35 annually for the average homeowner. The assessment district would raise about $3 million a year, which the city also planned to use to pay for maintenance of street lights and median landscaping. The city’s general fund now pays for this maintenance.

However, council members rejected this new district, 7 to 0.

Mayor Daniel H. Young and council members Daniel E. Griset and Patricia A. McGuigan voted against the police schedule.

Young said he supported increasing the police force but not without a way to pay for more manpower. “I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a motion to spend $1.3 million and not know where the money was coming from,” he said.

Santa Ana Police Benevolent Assn. President Sgt. Don Blankenship was pleased by the council’s action because, he said, the schedule would put the department at full strength for the first time since 1975.

“It will effectively force them to hire the additional bodies to handle the crime,” said Blankenship, who heads the union representing 351 officers.