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Mayor Frey says the city has been "drastically undercounting the dollar figure necessary in the budget to complete those [police] overtime hours... for as long as I can remember." What he means is "the whole time I've been mayor."

Frey's defense is, we're spending about what we would've spent if MPD had 888 officers. Does that mean the department has a budget for 888 officers? "No."

Question about why his budgets have so drastically underestimated police overtime. Frey points to how understaffed MPD is. Staffing per capita is among lowest in country. He doesn't say why this reality, which has existed for many years, was not reflected in his budgets.

Frey says spending is the equivalent of MPD having hundreds more officers than they actually do. "what it shows is, it was not actually an overspend at all." He's in his third term and still getting the hang of the concept of a budget.

Frey clarifies: "it was [an overspend] in comparison to the allocation of the budget. It was not in comparison with the services needed."