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AGENCY TESTIMONY
OTPS budget cuts and use of forfeiture funds
0:20:40
ยท
71 sec
Commissioner Strauber explains the impact of Other Than Personal Services (OTPS) budget cuts on DOI and the agency's reliance on forfeiture funds to cover essential expenses.
- DOI's OTPS budget was cut by approximately $4 million due to pegs in fiscal year 2024
- The current OTPS budget primarily covers rent and monitorship expenses
- DOI uses forfeiture funding to cover standard law enforcement expenses like cars, technology, and training
- The commissioner warns that forfeiture funds are limited and the city should be prepared to fund these operating expenses in the future
Jocelyn E. Strauber
0:20:40
DOI's baseline OTPS funding was cut by approximately 4,000,000 due to pegs in fiscal year twenty twenty four.
0:20:48
DOI's OTS budget does not cover standard law enforcement agency expenses such as cars, technology, and training.
0:20:57
We have used forfeiture funding to cover those expenses and while that is a permissible use of forfeiture funds, the funds are limited and the city should be prepared to fund our operating expenses in the future.
0:21:11
DOI rarely seeks capital funding from OMB but delays in that funding also have required us to use forfeiture funds for critical agency needs.
0:21:20
For example, we decided in 2023 to obtain a new case management system to replace an aging system that lacked key functionalities including readily accessible records and case files, streamlined export capability for production of discovery, and the ability to easily generate statistical information.
0:21:40
We submitted a request to OMB in 2023 for capital funding for this basic operational law enforcement need, a request that met all the capital funding requirements.