Pittsburgh City Council is set to vote Monday on a 2021 budget that doesn’t make any of the cuts to police funding that some residents have repeatedly requested.

The $564 million spending plan introduced Nov. 9 by Mayor Bill Peduto doesn’t increase taxes. However, if federal coronavirus relief packages are not approved, more than 630 jobs — nearly $26 million — in cuts will need to be made in July to keep the city afloat, officials said.

Council has heard from the city’s department heads and residents repeatedly over the course of the last month, with people like Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich advising that if the cuts are made in July it would be “disastrous” to the city.

Peduto has been vocal about the need for federal aid to come through and council has shifted funding around in the budget to best meet the city’s needs.

On Monday, a measure spearheaded by Councilman Corey O’Connor was approved that will shift $4.1 million in bond money from the controversial Mon-Oakland Connector project to housing aid and other programs run by the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority.

Council has also taken $5.3 million earmarked for a Stop the Violence Fund from the police department’s budget and moved it to the public safety section of the spending plan.

The move doesn’t impact the fund, established earlier this year as part of police reforms led by councilmen Ricky Burgess and R. Daniel Lavelle.

The fund is seed money aimed at establishing programs to prevent crime and creating social services programming so people can get treatment for their problems and avoid the criminal justice system.

Shifting where the funding is listed in the budget doesn’t make cuts to the police department, however, and dozens of residents, community activists and the progressive Pittsburgh Budget and Policy Center have called for the city to cut funding to the police department.

Councilwoman Deb Gross proposed council cut the number of positions allotted to the department, as about 200 officers are eligible for retirement and the cuts could be made sooner than later, she said during a council committee meeting Wednesday.

The move didn’t have the support of other council members.

Councilman Ricky Burgess said although he’s a proponent of police reform and making cuts where it can, this isn’t the way to do it.

“If we could cut the police, I would have done so” years ago, Burgess said.

The “only responsible way” is to make the cuts gradually, through attrition, while at the same time establishing preventative programs with the money that’s saved, Burgess said.

“Let the older officers retire with dignity at their own pace,” he said.

Gross lobbied to use cash from the police budget to fill open positions in other departments, including planning, permits, licenses and inspections and parks and recreation. Instead, those positions will remain unfilled until the city’s financial situation improves.

The city’s Parks and Recreation department has distributed 250,000 meals during the pandemic and could distribute more if there was more staffing, she said.

“We can get volunteers to deliver food,” Burgess said.

Council members agreed the budget process itself may change next year, to provide residents with more involvement and council better ways to work out the intricacies of how to prioritize how programs are funded.

It is time to “reassess the process,” Councilwoman Erika Strassburger said.

“This is something for next year,” she said.

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