By Maggie DeGroot
The Daily Cardinal
Representatives from over 30 citywide departments deliberated for their fair share of Mayor Dave Cieslewicz's 2010 Executive Operating Budget during the second half of the Board of Estimates meeting Tuesday night.
Much of the meeting focused on funding of public safety measures within the budget. Members of the Madison Police Department, including Chief of Police Noble Wray and Assistant Chief John Davenport, were present to discuss the possibility of adding more police officers to the department.
The MPD said they would like to include the authorization to add 11 police officers. Four of the 11 positions would be combined with existing crime prevention and gang officers. The gang officers would potentially be used to create a new Crime Prevention and Gang Unit in the city.
Currently the city of Madison has only two gang officers. Wray said that for a city of Madison's size, it is necessary for the addition of more crime and gang prevention officers.
Madison Fire Chief Debra Amesqua was also present and offered her opinion about the fire department's budget for 2010. Amesqua highlighted budget goals such as maintaining the opening of Station No. 12 by keeping a staffing level of 72 people. The new addition of Station No. 12 generated new positions for part of 2009, including nine firefighters, five lieutenants and four apparatus engineers.
The budget for the fire department also included funding for a spring 2009 recruit class. The prospective class of 20 people would help to fill in for vacancies and the number of anticipated retirements, according to Amesqua.
Additional highlights from the meeting involved discussions from such departments like Parking Utility, Traffic Engineering and the City Clerk's office.
The clerk's department emphasized issues dealing with liquor licenses.
These concerns centered on how to make sure client's licenses are valid. To do so, one or more hourly employees hired to perform compliance inspections of alcohol-licensed establishments throughout Madison were requested.
Joel Plant, executive assistant to the mayor, also said that civilian inspectors are necessary to check on the validity of alcohol-licensed establishments. Plant insisted that by enforcing this, the city would be able to crack down on establishments with faulty licenses.
