Cincinnati police officers overwhelmingly rejected the idea of furloughs to help balance the city's $20 million budget gap.
The city's 1,116 police officers were asked to take six unpaid days off. The Queen City Fraternal Order of Police held a two-day vote on the issue Friday afternoon.
At 4:50 p.m. Friday, Queen City FOP President Kathy Harrell announced that of 846 votes cast, 771 rejected the furloughs. Only 75 accepted the idea.
"It has been very clear over the last two years that there was a lot in this budget that could've been cut that was not. So my members feel there's all this other spending going on. There are all these programs, even as recently as June 17, that council is not willing to cut in order to save jobs," said Harrell.
Harrell says she asked City Manager Milton Dohoney for a guarantee that if the union approved the furlough, that there would be no layoffs. She says he could not promise that, so the union did not want to give in to any concessions is their jobs aren't secure anyway.
Now the police department has to find another way to cut $1.5 million from its budget.
There was talk a few weeks ago about laying off 100 police officers. Councilman Cecil Thomas says no one wants to see officers taken off the streets. "I would not want to see any officers laid off if possible. It's critical that we take public safety very seriously," said Thomas.
The firefighters union has also voted down furloughs.
The leadership from both unions will meet with the city manager next week to try to agree on another way to reduce their spending.
