Gilbert police will receive $2.3 million in emergency funding to help set the budget

PHOENIX – The Gilbert City Council voted unanimously to donate $2.3 million to the city’s Police Department at a meeting Tuesday.

These additional funds are needed to support the department for fiscal year 2024, which ends in June, Soelberg told the Gilbert City Council.

“We exceeded our budgeted overtime. We have not increased the cap on this overtime,” he said.

The department went over its allotted budget — and they knew they were going over their budget four months ago, Soelberg said. However, they decided to defer their request toward the end of the year to obtain a more accurate accounting of the department’s expenses.

Of the $2.3 million the department needs, $1.9 million will go toward personnel costs, Soelberg said.

Those costs are primarily due to staffing issues and job vacancies, he added.

“We’re doing much better than other agencies in the Valley,” Soelberg added. “We have a vacancy rate of about 4% between professional and sworn employees.”

The increased workload also plays a large role in the need to pay these personnel costs, Soelberg added. The Gilbert Police Department has seen an increase in youth violence cases, many of which have been reopened. In other cases, these are crimes that took place years ago but were only recently reported.

The requirement for a budget contingency reflects a trend that has existed for several years.

Last year, Gilbert PD needed $2.98 million to resolve its budget problems, while the year before it needed less than $2 million, Soelberg said.

Follow @KTAR923