Police Union Hopes Voter Poll Will Shift Direction of Budget Cuts

Facing unprecedented cuts in public safety jobs and programs, the Fairfax County police union hired a consultant and commissioned a poll of likely voters in hopes of using the results to convince county supervisors that residents would rather spend tax dollars on fighting gangs and keeping unsafe vehicles off the road than on parks and libraries.

With Fairfax facing a $650 million budget shortfall for the next fiscal year, County Executive Anthony H. Griffin has proposed eliminating nearly 200 police and fire jobs. Where positions are eliminated, more-experienced officers and firefighters would be shifted into other areas of their departments; reductions would come from not filling lower-level positions, officials said. Layoffs remain a possibility.

Next week, supervisors will review each county department's proposed budget, and they will determine the final cuts by April 20. Some last-minute changes could be made before the budget is adopted April 27.

The police union spent $30,000 to hire Victor A. Ajlouny, who has worked with police groups across the country, and Ajlouny brought in a pollster who last month surveyed 500 likely voters in the county. Marshall Thielen, president of the Fairfax officers union, said police were especially encouraged by the fact that 61 percent said there was a local issue they were especially concerned about, and within that group the top issue was crime, at 15 percent. Traffic was next at 8 percent, followed by illegal immigration at 3 percent.

Asked how they viewed the quality of police services in Fairfax, 91 percent said they were extremely satisfied or somewhat satisfied, almost as high as the 93 percent who said they were satisfied with fire and rescue services, the polls showed.

Thielen noted that the poll respondents were confirmed voters, and "when we talk about voters with the supervisors, their eyes open up."

When ranking spending priorities, more than 75 percent of those polled said they wanted to preserve the police department's sexual predator enforcement team -- slated for elimination -- and school resource officers who monitor youth gang activity, slated to be cut by half. Only 47 percent would preserve parks programs and 41 percent public libraries' efforts, Ajlouny said.

Board Chairman Sharon Bulova (D) said that in addition to meeting with the police and firefighters unions, she heard presentations from Police Chief David M. Rohrer and Fire Chief Ronald L. Mastin, who helped prioritize the most crucial services. Bulova said education and public safety are inevitably the two top concerns she hears from citizens, and she is trying to restore proposed cuts to both while being lobbied by groups from every corner of the county.

Supervisor Jeff C. McKay (D-Lee) said he didn't need a poll to know that residents want to preserve police and fire services. "We have to stand up and protect these agencies from the cuts," he said.