D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray has ordered a sweeping freeze in city spending on contractual services, supplies and other areas not related to salaries to rein in a projected $70 million in overspending. The order, obtained by The Washington Examiner, exempts the D.C. Council, public charter schools and more than two dozen other agencies that operate outside the mayor’s control. The order applies to D.C. schools and the police and fire departments.
Gray signed the order Wednesday to “combat” overspending by city agencies that is projected to reach $70 million by the end of the current fiscal year on Sept. 30, according to the order. The District is legally required to have a balanced budget. The city is already operating under a hiring freeze to save an expected $15 million toward the $70 million it must cut.
“Given the point at which we find ourselves during this fiscal year and the looming spending pressures we are facing, now is the time to implement additional cost-saving measures to square this government with the realities of our financial situation,” Gray said Thursday evening.
A source in the mayor’s office told The Examiner that spending on key services will continue, but the order requires agencies to send requests for spending on specific items to the mayor’s office for approval. Some services that would be hit by the freeze — such as the Summer Youth Employment Program — are likely to receive categorical approval for spending so they can continue to operate, the source said.
The freeze will cut down on agencies’ spending on new items like uniforms, office supplies and other purchases that are often made by departments that have extra cash in their budget at the of the year, the source said.
But some agencies already appear to be stretched thin on supplies.
In a January e-mail to subordinates and command staff obtained by The Examiner, a lieutenant in the police department’s 1st District wrote, “I called reproduction this morning to inquire about obtaining toner for the Sergeant’s printer. The gentleman stated that we will be getting no toner in the near future. To make matters worse, there has been none ordered since September 2010.” The lieutenant goes on to order his staff to use a Xerox machine and not the printer in the lieutenant’s office, which is “making a painful noise and will probably be dying soon as well.”
Police union chief Kris Baumann said the order only adds another layer of bureaucracy to a city that’s defined by red tape.
“[Gray is] making police officers cut printing reports rather than changing how they do things and changing the culture,” Baumann said. “It’s now clear Mayor Gray’s love for bureaucracy is now having an impact on public safety.”
