Tuesday evening, the Chula Vista City Council will address police and fire department understaffing issues when the city manager presents a “Public Safety Staffing Strategies” report. Emergency response time is affected by the low staffing levels.
In the meeting, the council will discuss funding options for bringing the departments’ staffing levels up. Chula Vista police and fire departments are among the lowest staffed in the state, but increasing personnel will cost millions of dollars that the city doesn’t have.
The police department said it needs to hire at least 40 officers to be adequately staffed and improve response times, which have repeatedly failed to meet the accepted standards. Adding those additional officers could cost the city about $10 million a year.
The fire department estimates it would cost nearly $18 million to boost staffing throughout the city.
In September, the council directed staff to look at the budget for next year and come up with some possible solutions.
The meeting starts at 5 p.m.
