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By Jorge Casuso

March 12 -- The Santa Monica Police and Fire Departments on Tuesday asked the City Council to boost their annual budgets by a total of more than $8 million a year to meet a growing demand for emergency services.

After comprehensive analysis of “anticipated staffing needs,” Police Chief Tim Jackman said he needed “31 sworn officers and 14 civilians in order to optimally serve the community.” Fire Chief Jim Hone said he needed to add 22 members to his department to meet a dramatic increase in emergency calls.

The added police personnel would cost the City estimated total of $6.4 million, while the increase in fire personnel would cost $3.6 million.

The council seemed receptive to the increases.

“The needs outlined by the two chiefs need to be our highest priorities,” said Council member Ken Genser.

“I agree,” said Mayor Herb Katz. “I think it has to be the highest priorities. If we don’t have a safe community, everything falls apart.”

City Manager Lamont Ewell said he would present a budget to the council in May that reflects the council’s priorities. But he warned that the City has limited resources.

“We need to be very cautious,” Ewell said.

The Police Department’s funding increase, Jackman said, “takes into consideration community priorities, new time-intensive requirements imposed on local law enforcement by Federal and State agencies and staffing of a new community policing program.”

The staffing increase would help the department meet the City’s five-year strategic plan, which calls for tackling traffic, curbing youth crime and addressing the longstanding homeless problem, Jackman said.

“New community policing philosophies, in addition to prioritization of other key issues such as traffic, homelessness and youth and gang violence have driven the need for an increase in staffing,” Jackman wrote in his report to the council.

According to Jackman, the department’s staffing levels “have been relatively flat for the prior six years.”

The added police personnel would cost the City an estimated $4.9 million a year over the next five years and a $1.5 million one-time expense, for an estimated total of $6.4 million, Jackman said.

The Fire Department’s request, which would be the department’s first addition of personnel in 25 years, would cost the City $3.3 million a year, in addition to a one-time expense of $300,000, according to Hone.

Noting that the number of emergency responses and training requirements have “dramatically increased, “ the fire department asked the council to authorize the addition of 16 safety and six non-safety personnel over a five-year period.

The department currently has 30 Fire Suppression and Rescue Division personnel who responded to 11, 901 emergency calls in the past year, according to Hone’s staff report. By comparison, Beverly Hills had 25 emergency personnel responding to 5,645 calls and Culver City had 18 for 4,453 calls.

During the past 13 years the Fire Department has seen a 72 percent increase in emergency calls without any increase in Fire Suppression and Rescue staffing, Hone said. Fifteen percent of the calls relate to homeless persons.

Hone said the additional funds would be used to hire six firefighters for the Hazardous Materials Response Team, six firefighters for Urban Search and Rescue Team, three command support firefighters and one fire captain assigned to the administration division.