The poll, answered by 461 cities, was conducted between Feb. 24 and March 3. Almost 26 percent of the cities said they will be less able to provide the same level of services because of the guard and reserve activations. Almost half of the cities, 46 percent, said they expect more employees to be called to active duty in the future.
Of the employees who are leaving for active duty in the Middle East:
- 64 percent of cities said police officers have been called
- 21 percent of cities said firefighters have been called
- 21 percent of cities said "other" staff have been called
- 6 percent of cities said administrative staff have been called
- 2 percent of cities said EMS personnel have been called.
Just Another Problem
"The reserve and guard call-ups come on top of fiscal problems in many states and localities as well as heightened responsibilities for homeland security," said NLC President John DeStefano Jr., mayor of New Haven, Conn.
Cities that expect to be hit the hardest by the deployments are those with populations of more than 100,000 residents. One-third, 32 percent, of those cities said they would not be able to provide the same level of services, while 71 percent said they expect more employees to be called to active duty in the future.
"Obviously, like a lot of other local governments, our budget is tight at the moment," said Fred Russell, deputy administrator for Augusta, Ga., a city of 199,775. "While four officers out of a police department of 716 may not sound significant, added to the 30 to 35 other vacancies in the department -- that starts to have an impact."
Because of the vacancies and the new responsibilities police departments have assumed since Sept. 11, 2001, Russell said the federal government should provide more assistance to cities.
"If an attack happens it will be my people who respond and stay on the scene until the federal authorities arrive. We're the ones who need the training and the equipment to do the best job we can, and that takes funding," said Russell.
Coping With Call Ups
In cities with a population less than 10,000, 24 percent said they are less able to provide services and 30 percent said they expect to lose more employees to future deployments. Just over 25 percent of cities with populations between 10,000 and 100,000 said they would be less able to provide services and 47 percent said they expect more employees to be called to active duty.
To cover the absences, city officials say they will increase overtime and hired temporary replacements.
"Our concern is that, during this tight budget year, we're going to have to suck it up and go on as best we can," said Ed Fennell, human resources director for Johnson City, Tenn., a city of 55,469 that has seven police officers out of a department of 161 who are either on alert or called to active duty.
The city's police department is made up of four platoons of about 15 officers. The police department works two 12-hour shifts and there are two platoons on duty during most of the day.
"In our police department, we are down about half a platoon, and that makes a difference," said Fennell, adding that 11 other employees from other city departments are also on active duty.
In Burlington, Wash., a city of about 7,000 that that lies between Vancouver, British Columbia, and Seattle, Wash., the loss of one police officer -- a Coast Guard reservist whose unit left two weeks ago for the Persian Gulf -- is significant in a police department with only 18 commissioned officers.
"At one point, we had three officers who retired plus the one in the reserves ... our department was down to 14 commissioned officers," said Jon Aarstad, Burlington's city administrator.
Burlington has since replaced two of the retired officers, and Aarstad said the city council has approved hiring a replacement for the reservist.
"But it still going to require overtime and creative scheduling to cover the remaining absences," he said. "But now with homeland security issues and our proximity to the Canadian border, our staff is subjected to a broader area of responsibility, that quite frankly, we are not able to meet."
As of February 26, 168,083 reserves and guards were stationed in the Middle East to support a possible war with Iraq. That number does not include the deployment of 500 guardsmen and reserves Utah, Maine, Mississippi, Florida and other states.
As many as 265,000 guards and reserves could be mobilized in the event of war.
Even in those cities that said the mobilizations would not affect their ability to provide services, the call ups are placing increased strains on already thin budgets as departments increase overtime to cover absent employees.
In Central Tennessee, Chattanooga -- a city of 155,554 -- has lost 15 police officers. In all, 80 of the city's 2,300 employees have been called to active duty. Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker said the city had been aggressively recruiting police officers to fill the vacancies.
"But this depletes our force," Corker said. "We honor these people for what they do to protect our country, but at the same time we are losing qualified people. We are having to pay more overtime to cover those absences and provide heightened security, all on a tight budget."
