Gimenez wants to hire more police officers

While Mayor Carlos Gimenez vowed to trim county spending, he promised to protect two key parts of public safety: He said he would not lay off police officers or close fire stations. He received a Promise Kept in his first year of office.

Even though Gimenez avoided laying off police officers, there were hundreds of vacancies and some pain in the department, which you can read about in our previous update below.

In July, Gimenez unveiled his $5.9 billion budget proposal for the next fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1. Gimenez said in his budget message that his proposal would "avoid further layoffs,” and that includes police officers. (The current fiscal year's budget included laying off 127 employees, although none were police officers.)

The mayor's proposal for the upcoming 2012-13 year eliminates 612 positions countywide — the net total of cutting vacant jobs and creating 106 new ones.

The budget includes eliminating 56 empty positions in the police department and hiring an additional 50 police officers.

No fire stations will close, said Suzy Trutie, a county spokeswoman.

County commissioners will finalize the budget Sept. 20, so we will revisit this promise after that meeting. For now Gimenez gets a Promise Kept.