As a twice-successful candidate for mayor, Suthers has consistently pledged to make public safety a top priority. To date, he has kept that promise.

His $331.1 million general fund budget proposal allocates $9.65 million to increase wages for firefighters, cops and civilian employees. An additional $4.4 million would fund the hiring of 20 police officers and eight firefighters.

Suthers promised he would add at least 120 sworn law enforcement officers and 32 firefighters before completing his second and final term in office in 2022. With this budget, he will be well on the way by the end of 2020 with 93 new officers and 24 firefighters. The budget also contains $1 million for a new Fire Department ladder truck.

With these additions to personnel, we respectfully suggest the police and fire departments try to avoid overtime spending. At least partly because of inadequate staffing, due in part to the community’s rapid growth, the Fire Department in September had to make budgetary sacrifices to cover a nearly $1 million budget shortfall for 2019. That shifting reduced what the department can spend on paramedic training and forced several key administrative personnel to work on fire crews.

As reported by Gazette reporter Conrad Swanson, other key elements of the budget proposal include:

? An increase of $1.45 million for parks watering and an additional $400,000 for park maintenance and recreational and cultural services,

? $1.3 million for the city’s information technology infrastructure, applications and cybersecurity improvements,

? $550,000 for fleet replacement,

? $500,000 for shelter bed operations for homeless people,