PENDLETON — Pendleton City Manager Robb Corbett’s 2022-23 budget proposal boosts public safety and brings changes to city spending.

The proposal calls from adding two new positions for police officers for the upcoming fiscal year with plans to add two more positions the following year. Corbett said the last time the Pendleton Police Department saw an increase in positions was nearly a decade ago.

“We used to get 20 or 30 qualified applicants per job listing, now we are lucky to get four or five,” he said. “But with a mixture of increased calls, family medical leave and young people not interested in entering the profession, we commonly find ourselves understaffed.”

Corbett said he is hopeful increasing the department’s staff will help alleviate these problems.

Police Chief Charles Byram echoed Corbett’s ideas.

“Ultimately the impact will allow for police to be proactive,” he said. “An increase in officers would allow us to respond to situations faster and keep up with the workload.”

While the increase in patrolling officers will help the department, the other issue to address is retaining officers the city already has. The police department is short staffed, and Byram made no bones about not dropping standards.

“You have to have the right people with the right temperament for this job,” he explained, “we will not lower our standards just because we need a body.”

Corbett also is proposing a complete remodel of how Pendleton disburses funds between departments. He referred to this as a “cash carry over system” that allows departments to keep what they didn’t spend last year for the upcoming year.

“This system will hopefully end the use-it-or-lose-it mentality,” he said, “In the past, departments would spend the money before the end of the year, so it stayed in their department.”

Corbett said the move is about incentivizing departments to spend less and prevent frivolous overspending at the end of the year.