"With our current budget situation, we would have to eliminate our two school resource officers, as well as half of a midnight-shift patrol," said Rick Kitson, public information officer for the city.

School resource officers are sheriff's deputies the city contracts with to work directly with Cupertino schools. The current officers work with teens in the schools and with the probation department to help steer youth away from trouble.

"They are sort of an intervention strategy," Kitson said.

The two officers have created several different programs, including a Teen Academy where students learn about issues surrounding drugs, alcohol and sexual harassment. The officers also work directly with troubled youngsters, hopefully intervening before they commit a crime.

Kitson said the popular D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program currently available in Cupertino schools is also set to be cut. This program, mainly for elementary-level students, is taught by a sheriff's officer.

These cuts would significantly detract from the amount of youth/police involvement the city now provides.

But the largest cut to public safety would be a cut of the position of one of the three midnight patrol swing shift officers who patrol between the hours of 5 p.m. and 3 a.m.

John Hirokawa, captain of the Santa Clara County West Valley Substation, said these were the most important hours when dealing with crime.

Cutting the shift would free up $230,000 of revenue for the city.

However, Hirokawa said that this would not be a wise move.

"There would then be only two patrol cars in Cupertino at night," he said.

He explained that having only two cars patrolling the street could be dangerous if more than one crime happened in a night.

In an effort to save some of these public safety services, the city is considering doing what many cities in the country are doing, charging residents a small monthly fee to for its 911 services.

This is not a fee for service, so residents are not charged for 911 calls. It's simply an additional monthly charge on the phone bill.

"The fee would be one dollar per phone line each month," Kitson said.

Houses with one phone line would have a $1 fee per month, while a house with two phone lines would pay $2 and so forth.

Businesses, which often use "trunk" lines that carry many individual lines, would face the same fee, with each trunk line charged as one phone line. The city had place a $10,000 cap on the business 911 fee, but then removed the cap. The city's large corporations are saying this is an unreasonable cost to them because of what can amount to thousands of dollars when they would only use one line to make a rare 911 call.

When the state originally approved the idea of cities charging for 911, the money was intended for a different purpose.

"The 911 fee was originally passed by the state to provide for a state-of-the-art emergency-service network," said John Britton, a spokesman for SBC.

Britton said the fee was intended to better the 911 service and create a higher standard of communications. The improved service would have an automated number and position locator, which would help the emergency dispatcher to immediately find the caller.

"From our perspective, it would be more efficient for the council to go to the voters for more money rather than ask it to be paid by phone customers," he said. "However, we have been working with the council, and they have been very responsive and cooperative in dealing with the situation."

He said that the council was receptive to their suggestions and that the two entities would continue working toward a solution.

"SBC understands the importance of obtaining a quality 911 program," he said. "And we also understand the city's responsibility to provide public safety for their citizens.

"Either way, we sympathize with their position."

If the fee is approved by the council, it could generate about $300,000 in the first year, which would be put toward public safety programs.

The fee topic is set on the council agenda and should be decided upon soon.