Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – Protesters last year vowed to challenge Springfield’s police budget, saying the department does a disservice to the people, and that some or most of the money would be better spent elsewhere. But when police chief Ken Scarlette (pictured, third from left) and fire chief Ed Canny made their budget presentations to aldermen Thursday, nobody even signed up to speak. Perhaps they are waiting until the Feb. 18 public hearing.

Scarlette said the force has 249 sworn officers, twenty short of the approved maximum, but he is making progress. “We have individuals at various levels of training,” he said, “from at the academy right now ;some just got back (from the academy), and we are swearing them in. Some are in the field training program.”

Fire chief Ed Canny said the city is finally getting a handle on one notorious expense: “Our overtime is finally trending in the right direction,” said Canny. “It is $600,000 less than what we had budgeted.”

Canny credited the council’s leadership and direction for the improvement, and Mayor Misty Buscher said other mayors have asked her how the Adams Street fire last summer kept from burning down the entire block. She said Canny and his leadership team are the reason.

As proposed by the chiefs, the police budget is $74 million, the fire budget $55 million. That would be an increase of 1.3 percent for the police and 0.8 percent for fire.

The budget year begins March 1.