School Police Officers Eliminated in Proposed County Budget

The Montgomery County Council is struggling to resolve budget disputes before the new fiscal year begins July 1 but making nearly everyone unhappy along the way.

The latest struggle over budget priorities focuses on police officers in schools.

Parents, the schools and some council members want them, but nobody wants to pay for them.

The nine School Resource Officers split their time between 24 high schools.

At the most recent Montgomery County Council committee meetings on Friday, three council members suggested the school system pay for the program instead of the county.

Council Member Philip M. Andrews (D-Dist. 3) of Gaithersburg said the School Resources Officers program has not proven it is worthwhile. A 2007 survey of students found that only 5 percent of them said they felt an “increased sense of safety” by the police officers’ presence, he said.

Board of Education member Michael A. Durso (Dist. 5) of Silver Spring disagreed. He said the police officers prevent violence in the schools.

He would like for the county and school system to share the cost of the police officers.

The dispute is at the center of larger issues involving the fiscal 2012 budget proposal of County Executive Isaiah Leggett.

He recommends eliminating the last nine positions for police officers in schools, thereby saving the county more than $1 million a year.

The program started in 2003 with a $4 million grant used to hire 32 officers. Since then, they have been gradually reassigned amid budget shortfalls.   

Last year, Leggett succeeded in reducing the number of the School Resource Officers from 26 to nine.

“Even before the current economic downturn, the combination of a growing workforce, expanding services, and sharply receding local revenues created an untenable, long-term, structural deficit in the county budget,” Leggett said when he announced his budget last month.

The $1 million for the school police officers is only one small part of Leggett’s proposal that would trim $300 million from the county’s budget.  

Other parts of the $4.35 billion operating budget would reduce funding for the county planning department, the recreation department, staffing levels and employee compensation.

Only the Montgomery County Police Department would receive increased funding.

The county council is scheduled to approve a budget by late May.  

The recreation department’s budget would fall by 5.5 percent from 2011 levels under Leggett’s proposal.

Youth flag football, T-ball and special events for teenagers would be eliminated. The youth basketball programs would remain.

“I have made restoring fiscal prudence a major priority of my administration,” Leggett said.

However, he acknowledged that cutting the budget requires unpopular decisions.

“But these practices come with a short-term price and great pain for our community and county employees,” he said.

Leggett also proposed reducing the county planning department’s budget by $1 million, or 2.2 percent.

Some council members warn of an economic backlash by cutting the planning budget.

The planning department helps real estate developers acquire the permits and financing for housing, retail, office and industrial projects.

Examples include tentative plans for a second White Flint retail and housing development north of the current White Flint area.

Council President Valerie Ervin (D-Dist. 5) of Silver Spring has said she wants the planning department to be fully-funded because of the economic benefits it creates for the entire county.