- Allentown police, fire and EMS leaders spoke about their budget requests Wednesday
- Public safety costs make up almost 60% of the city’s general fund spending in Mayor Matt Tuerk’s proposed 2024 budget
- Tuerk also wants to use about $10 million in ARPA funding to rebuild police and fire stations
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Allentown's biggest budgetary spenders made their case for more funding Wednesday as council continued reviewing next year’s budget.
The chiefs of Allentown’s police and fire departments and its emergency medical services laid out their budgetary needs, which account for almost 60% of projected general fund expenses in Mayor Matt Tuerk’s 2024 proposed budget.
Police Chief Charles Roca is seeking $48.7 million for his department, an increase of about 5.8% over what Allentown City Council initially budgeted for police in 2023.
Roca said “the main driver” of those rising costs are “mandated wage increases” included in the city’s collective bargaining agreement with the police union.
“The mantra of doing more with less does not achieve cleaner, safer and healthier communities."Police Chief Charles Roca on proposed increases to APD's budget
The Allentown Police Department is also asking council to fund several new technical services positions dedicated to maintaining its cameras and technology.
Council members have asked city officials to explain how their departments would function with a 10% reduction to their budgets. Roca said that large a cut would “severely impact” the department’s ability to serve residents
In a memo to council, Roca said a potential double-digit budget cut would be “devastating” and lead to “an increase in crime and lawlessness.”
“The mantra of doing more with less does not achieve cleaner, safer and healthier communities,” Roca told council members Wednesday.
Roca said earlier this year the department was well short of its “full complement” of 233 officers. The mayor’s 2024 budget proposal does not include any new police positions, but total salaries for those employees are set to climb by more than $800,000.
Chief: Rebuild stations
The police chief again on Wednesday urged council members to allocate some of the city’s remaining pandemic-relief funds to a new police station.
Allentown received about $57 million from the American Rescue Plan Act, a $350 billion federal pandemic relief measure for state and local governments.
Much of that money has already been spent, and Mayor Tuerk is proposing to use the rest — about $10 million — to rebuild Central Fire Station and the Allentown Police Department’s patrol station at 10th and Hamilton streets.
The city’s remaining ARPA funds are expected to be at the center of debates Saturday morning when council looks to adopt the 2024 budget.
Residents have implored council members to use some of that money to support two community projects.
Ripple Community Incorporated is seeking $1.5 million for its project to convert Emmanuel United Church of Christ into affordable housing, while Community Action Lehigh Valley needs about $1.85 million to demolish the former Cleveland School at 424 N. Ninth St. and turn it into a youth center.
'Difficult to understand'
The Allentown Fire Department could welcome about 20 new firefighters into its ranks next year if council fully funds the mayor’s budget proposal.
A dozen of those firefighters would be paid for by a three-year grant, which could bring savings of about $1.5 million over the next two years by reducing the need for overtime, Fire Chief Efrain Agosto said.
The department is responding to many more incidents with less personnel and equipment than it did in 1975, Agosto told council members Wednesday.
Allentown had 156 firefighters and seven stations almost 50 years ago, when it responded to about 2,100 calls, he said.
The department now operates out of six stations and is budgeted to have 131 firefighters, while responding to more than 14,000 calls, Agosto said.
“It’s difficult to understand,” he said.
Mehmet Barzev, Allentown’s emergency medical services chief, said he wants to raise his department’s pay rates to be more competitive with other EMS agencies in the Lehigh Valley.
Allentown paramedics respond to up to a dozen calls per shift and “make considerably less” than at other agencies, where they’d get three or four calls, Barzev said.
"We always get them in the door, we interview them, we train them, we put a ton of money into them, and then we never see them again," he said.
Barzev is requesting about $6.7 million for the city’s emergency medical services, an increase of about 12.8% over 2023 funding. Much of that increase can be attributed to “unseen before” inflation, he said.
“A box of medical exam gloves is about triple what it would have cost 10 years ago,” Barzev said. “19,000 calls, 4 gloves a call; The math isn’t hard. We go through a lot of ... supplies.”
