The Board of Estimates approved an amendment to next year's operating budget that would add eight Madison police officers Monday.
Ald. Joseph Clausius, District 17, said the Madison Police Department determined the minimum number of officers necessary and originally requested 20 positions.
""This is a reasonable compromise at this amount,"" Clausius said.
MPD Chief Noble Wray said the addition of the officers will make the department ""more efficient.""
Wray said when there is a reduced number of officers, the officers tend to align themselves in areas, making themselves available for back-up calls. When there are more officers patrolling they tend to be more proactive by getting out of their sqad cars, Wray said.
The four of the eight additional officers will offset the promotion of four detectives, Wray said. This is mostly due to two staffing studies which suggested the department needed to increase the number of detectives.
Mayor Dave Cieslewicz said aside from an amendment he sponsored, this is the only other spending amendment he supports.
The board voted on this amendment as two separate issues—one amendment for the four officers and the other amendment regarding the four officers replacing the detectives. The board approved both of these with a 3-3 vote with Cieslewicz breaking the tie.
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, was one of several alders sponsoring an amendment to restore overtime funding associated with the August UW-Madison student move out. This amendment, totaling $25,000, was approved and added to the operating budget.
After several amendment approvals Cieslewicz said he was ""pleading"" with the board to not approve any more amendments, which would further raise taxes.
""You need to have some fiscal discipline,"" Cieslewicz said to the board.
One of the amendments not approved was an amendment Ald. Bridget Maniaci, District 2, sponsored which would have provided pension benefits and health insurance coverage for alders effective for the Common Council members elected in the 2011 election.
With the exception of Ald. Jed Sanborn, District 1, the board recommended the operating budget with the approved amendments.
The budget will now move on to the Common Council for approval.
