Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey doesn't plan to let over 700 police officers get laid off from his force without a fight.
"Whatever the politicians in Harrisburg need to do, they just need to do it," Ramsey said Wednesday after holding a meeting with those potentially affected. "These are people's lives we're talking about -- not just the people being laid off -- but we're talking about the people here in Philadelphia."
The Philadelphia Police department stands to lose 739 sworn officers and 43 support staff should City Hall be forced to implement it's impending Plan C "doomsday" budget. That would equate to almost 1,000 officers being taken off the streets in the last year. The city has already trimmed 200 officers from the force.
"This city cannot lose a thousand police men," Ramsey said. "It makes no sense at all, it just cannot happen -- period."
Ramsey said the police force will support the marooned officers and staff by holding fundraisers. "We're going to do everything we can to support the men and women of this department should they be laid off," he said.
The police department is just one of almost a dozen city departments affected by the looming crisis. Over a hundred firefighter and EMS positions will be gone, the city's parks, recreation and library systems will cease to exist and weekly trash collection will drop to only twice-a-month.
The city is waiting for passage of Pa. House Bill 1828, which would allow for a temporary increase in sales tax and deferred payments to pension plans. But the bill has been held up in Harrisburg for weeks due to unrelated issues with the Commonwealth budget.
"The politics of this situation though, I think, have clouded a clear path to action and it is just painful that we would be in this circumstance through no fault of our own," Nutter said.
If the bill isn't passed by Friday, layoff notices will go out to some 3,000 city employees. "People are thinking, right now in the workplace, at their workstation, at this moment as you and I are having this discussion -- 20 plus thousand people are wondering 'Am I going to get a layoff notice on Friday,'" Nutter said.
The mayor emailed staffers Wednesday evening asking those who receive a pink slip to stay on the job until the October 2 deadline, according the Daily News' Catherine Lucey. He vowed to work until the last possible second to ensure the layoffs don't ever take effect.
Nutter will be back in Harrisburg Thursday to place pressure on the State Senate, but he's not getting his hopes up.
"I do not know what is going to happen tomorrow [Thursday] or Friday," the mayor said.
While the mayor's unsure about what state policians will do, Ramsey has an idea: "Pass the damn law."
