Brentwood Police Chief Wants More Officers, But Not at the Cost of Raises

The Brentwood Board of Aldermen are working on finalizing the city's 2013 budget, and one consideration is whether or not to include additional police officers.

Chief of Police Steve Disbennett said he wanted three more patrol officers, but in a later meeting said he didn't want extra hires to come from funds slated for city employee raises.

"The employees of this city would not be happy with me, knowing that they lost a merit raise based on the fact that we hired employees," he said at the Nov. 15 Public Safety Committee meeting. He said merit raises and additional officers should be separate issues.

To back up his assertion for more officers, Disbennett compared Brentwood to Durango, CO. He said Durango has a population of 17,000 but has over 27,000 people in town on a regular basis.

"I think there’s been estimates of 30-40,000 people in this town at one time. I don’t know if that’s correct, but I think that should be factored," he said.

The Brentwood Board of Aldermen, at its Nov. 19 meeting, agreed to keep a 3 percent merit raise for city employees in the proposed 2013 Brentwood city budget.

The proposed budget includes a contribution (approx. $135,000) to the General Fund reserve, which is boosted by an excess (approx. $215,000) TIFF revenue surplus from Brentwood Square. Those numbers come from Ways and Means Committee Chairman, Alderman Tom Kramer.

The aldermen will take up the budget again at the Dec. 3 meeting. The quesiton of additional officers won't be answered until the 2013 budget passes, as a whole.

Also in Patch:

• Brentwood City Employees to Keep 3 Percent Merit Raise in New Budget