Indy leaders mull long-term fix for Public Safety budget shortfall

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Friday, community leaders came together to try and solve the Public Safety Department’s budget crisis, and long-term was a word used by most of the city and county leaders.

There's a projected $30 million deficit for Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and the Marion County Sheriff's Department. A solution that goes beyond politics and will survive future administrations but at the same time fix the massive problem IMPD and the MSCD are facing without interfering with public safety.

“Shame on us, to some degree, for waiting until there was a budget crisis to be the stimulant,” said Public Safety Director Frank Straub, “but as Sheriff Layton said, him and I are a 100 percent committed that this will never happen again,”

A closed door meeting was set up Friday between City County Council members, Straub and Sheriff John Layton. They all brought ideas to the table on making IMPD and MCSD more efficient.

City-County Council member Mary Moriarity Adams said more cooperation might be key.

“They both serve and protect, so we're looking for ways to blend some of the functions the two departments so that we can save money,” she said.

The issues mentioned - training programs, lease agreements, and vehicles purchases – are all areas where officials believe money can be saved. Moriarity Adams said she hopes some of the city’s share of the local tax money found by the state this week will be used to meet the need. But even that full share wouldn’t completely erase the budget shortfall, and the problem goes beyond this fiscal year, she said.

"We know it to be another budget shortfall next year, and so it is long-term. And that was one thing we were discussing, that if policies are generated, that those policies be left alone regardless of changes in sheriffs, mayors and whomever,” she said.

While nothing concrete was announced Friday, the meeting seemed to bring leaders on the same side, at least for the moment.

“We did keep politics out in the hallway,” Layton said. “I believe that. I'm looking forward to working with the director of public safety and the City County Council to get the job done, to save the taxpayers money and at the same time keep them safe.”