Office of Public Safety Administration – BGA Policy 2027 Budget Snapshot

Fluctuations in the years since OPSA's establishment have largely balanced one another out over time: from 2021-2026, departmental appropriations have grown at a rate of 1.1% annually, which when adjusting for inflation through 2025 works out to an average decline of -2.5%, compared to citywide average budget growth of 7.4% annually for the same period.

The current proposal decreases OPSA's appropriations slightly, down -0.6% from the previous year.

Estimated Fringe Costs

City budgets do not break out "fringe" pension and benefit costs for non-grant positions by department, instead grouping them together as citywide expenses under the Finance General section of the budget. To better reflect the real cost of service for departmental operations, BGA Policy has included an estimate of pension and benefit costs for the years 2018-2026, using Department of Finance fringe memos from each relevant year. An estimated fringe cost for the 2027 proposal uses the average annual rate of increase for each of the inputs into the fringe formulae.

Based on the city's fringe formulae, the PSA fringe cost for nongrant employees averaged 12.3% from 2021-2026, compared to a citywide average of 26.8%.

Local Fund Actual Spend

Over the past four complete budget years for which local fund actuals/encumbrances data is available, OPSA spent on average 90.5% of its locally funded budget, compared to the citywide average 86.6% local fund spend.

Budgeted Positions & Vacancies

Overall, OPSA's budgeted headcount grew at an average annual rate of 1.3% from 2021-2026, compared to a citywide average annual change of 0.6%. The current proposal retains the same total headcount for OPSA as the previous year.

From January through September of 2026, the months for which full-time position vacancy data is currently available, OPSA averaged an 18% vacancy rate, compared to the citywide average of 11.2%.

48 of the department's budgeted full-time positions were persistent vacancies (defined as the number of positions within the same combination of title, subsection, section, division, department, and fund codes that remained vacant in all nine months of available data):