If you’re concerned about service cutbacks at Regional Transit, the figure $172,015 should loom large.<\/p>\n
Why? Because $172,015 is how much it costs RT to contract for just one sworn Sacramento County sheriff’s deputy to provide transit security. The district pays for seven deputies and a sergeant – a Sheriff’s Department sergeant costs $189,384 – for a total of almost $1.4 million.<\/p>\n
Faced with the agonizing choice of slashing service 22 percent or cutting security, the Regional Transit board of directors on Tuesday took the advice of RT General Manager Mike Wiley and voted to cut service.<\/p>\n
On the surface, it might seem like a reasonable decision. In survey after survey, regular RT riders have reported feeling unsafe on trains and buses, particularly late at night. If the district cut its security force appreciably, it likely would lose riders and revenues.<\/p>\n
That said, RT’s board members could have avoided some of the service reductions – if they’d been willing to consider cost-effective options for keeping keep passengers safe.<\/p>\n
RT contracts with the Sacramento Police Department, too. City police cost the district $128,099 per officer, $44,000 less than a deputy. That’s a stunning cost differential.<\/p>\n
Most of the difference is in pension costs. Retirement for city police is capped at 90 percent of their last year’s salary. Sheriff’s deputy retirement pay is capped at 100 percent of pay. <\/p>\n
When convoluted final pension calculations are completed, many newly retiring deputies take home more in retirement pay than they earned on the job.<\/p>\n
Of course, the most economical security available to the transit district are non-sworn private guards. They cost just $65,000 a piece. But it was these guards that the RT board voted to cut on Monday night. Because late night train service is being curtailed to save money, the less expensive private guards who provide security at light-rail stations will be cut back, too.<\/p>\n
So, why not replace high-cost deputies with these lower cost private guards and preserve more transit service?<\/p>\n
Or, alternatively, as Sacramento City Council and RT board member Ray Tretheway asked at Monday night’s meeting, why not use community service officers for RT security? These non-sworn Police Department employees take cold crime reports and perform other kinds of tasks that don’t require the skills or training of a fully sworn officer. CSOs cost less than half what deputies cost. They are nearly $50,000 cheaper than police officers. They could provide a uniformed security presence on light-rail cars at night, which is what most riders want and need.<\/p>\n
Sadly, with the exception of Trethaway, none of the elected leaders on the RT board aggressively pursued such questions.<\/p>\n
RT is scrapping 28 of 91 weekday bus routes. All transit service that starts after 9 p.m. will be gone and weekend service decimated. For routes that remain, the wait for buses and trains will be longer.<\/p>\n
Excessive deputy costs are not the only or even the primary reason for RT’s budget crisis, but they highlight a key problem: Sacramento County employees, and sheriff’s deputies, in particular, have priced themselves beyond what is reasonable and what the public can afford.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If you’re concerned about service cutbacks at Regional Transit, the figure $172,015 should loom large. Why? Because $172,015 is how much it costs RT to contract for just one sworn Sacramento County sheriff’s deputy to provide transit security. The district pays for seven deputies and a sergeant – a Sheriff’s Department sergeant costs $189,384 – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4325,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-492077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4325"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492077\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}