Kansas City Mayor Sly James defers fire department job cuts to chief Smokey Dyer

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Kansas City Mayor Sly James came out with his budget recommendations Thursday. A month ago the city manager, Troy Schulte, recommended cutting 105 firefighter jobs to save $7.6 million that would go to raises for many city employees.

On that controversial issue, James said he supports reducing the fire department budget, but said he would leave it to Kansas City Fire Chief Smokey Dyer to decide how to trim the budget.

The mayor is not recommending any specific job cuts on his own.

Council member John Sharp, who strongly supported keeping firefighter jobs, told 41 Action News after the meeting he supports the mayor’s recommendation to let the fire chief make decisions about budget cuts.

Schulte said the savings from the firefighter cuts would provide $5 million to pay for raises for police officers. But the police department would get that money only if it agrees to join the city's health insurance program, which police have refused to do for several years.

The police officers union representative, Brad Dumit, tells us the officers want to make sure their voice is heard in negotiations.

Mayor James did not mention the police issue during his budget presentation. But when asked about it later, he said negotiations are continuing and there may be a resolution by the next police board meeting at the end of February.

The meeting Thursday was so crowded with police officers that it was moved from the regular meeting room on the 10th floor upstairs to the larger City Council chambers on the 26th floor. Wednesday’s meeting was also crowded, but with firefighters.

After the mayor presented his plan to the council, most but not all of the council members stood to applaud; the crowd of police officers remained quiet.

On infrastructure, the city manager's budget would increase some spending on capital maintenance but would cut spending on streets and parks. On those issues, the mayor is calling for issuing $100 million in general bonds each year for the next 10 years to devote to a systematic rebuilding of depressed neighborhoods, six square blocks at a time.

The full council will now start debating the budget recommendations. Public hearings are currently underway as well.

A final budget will be approved in late March and the new fiscal year starts May 1, 2012.