Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg is urging the city council to reject the city manager's plan to add new police positions to the city budget.
City Manager Howard Chan's plan would add ten new sworn officer positions to the current city budget. Chan says it would improve the department's transparency, equity and accountability especially since the department is facing intense public scrutiny. It would also add a total of $3.6 million to the department's over $157 million budget. Steinberg explains he supports adding the positions to the next budget, which starts July 1st. He says the money available now should be used to construct affordable housing, youth programs and participatory budgeting.