H.B. approves budget boost for 4 more police officers

The Huntington Beach Police Department is slowly heading back to its pre-recession staffing levels.

The City Council voted 4 to 2 on Monday night to increase the Police Department’s budget by $685,000 to fund four more officers in the 2015-16 fiscal year. Councilman Billy O’Connell left the meeting before the item was discussed.

The council’s decision would bring the total number of funded officers to 222. The department had 237 officers before the economic downturn in 2008-09.

The city is able to pay for one additional officer by using funding it receives from the state to help low-income families. That money must be used for a homeless-liaison officer, Police Chief Robert Handy said.

The three other officers are to be funded by additional revenue the city expects from increased parking meter rates and stiffer fines approved in October and through other sources, Handy said.

Council members Erik Peterson and Mike Posey, who voted against the fee increases in October, also dissented on the additional police funding, saying it wouldn’t be wise to rely on potential revenue from increased fees and fines.

“We should see what that increase is before we start spending it,” Peterson said. “We’re basically spending the money before we have it, hoping it will be enough.”

However, Peterson and Posey agreed on spending the state funding to help address homelessness in the city.

In October, Finance Director Lori Ann Farrell Harrison told council members that the city expects to make about $380,000 in parking meter revenue, about $282,000 from parking citations and about $85,000 from fines for other municipal code violations.

“I am very confident that our director of finance did a great job finding the finances for these four officers, and I have confidence that that’s not going to be an issue,” Mayor Jim Katapodis said.