The Honolulu Police Department wants to draw $4.2 million in unspent money from a variety of its accounts to help pay for recruit classes this year.

Police Chief Louis Kealoha, in a letter to the City Council earlier this month seeking approval of the transfer, said the move is necessary "due to insufficient salary funding for police recruits" and "shortages due to lump-sum vacation payouts for personnel."

In August, Mayor Kirk Caldwell announced that the city needed to trim $4.5 million from HPD’s $230 million operating budget for the 2014 fiscal year, primarily from police recruit class funding. It was the largest of $20 million in cuts announced by the mayor to help make up for a shortfall revenue.

The city insisted then that the HPD cut would not affect the agency’s services, and police officials last week reiterated that claim.

"There will be no changes (to) programs or services," Assistant Chief Mark Naka­gawa said in an email response to Hono­­lulu Star-Advertiser questions.

Savings from the current expense accounts, which consist essentially of all expenses other than employee pay, would be transferred to the salaries accounts, Naka­gawa said.

"This move will benefit the public as the department focuses on trying to fill 180 sworn-officer vacancies," he said.

Two recruit classes are currently underway, and a third is scheduled to begin in the spring, HPD said.

"HPD expects approximately 110 police recruits to enter training at the Wai­­pahu Training Facility," the department said.

HPD netted 104 graduates from three recruit classes that ran in fiscal year 2013, which ended June 30.

Transferring funds to help pay for recruits, by itself, is not unusual for HPD, which traditionally does not include recruit pay among the line-item descriptions in the budget.

"Budgeting for a police recruit position in addition to the metropolitan police officer I position that the recruit would eventually occupy after completing … classroom training would essentially be a doubling of the budget where two positions are created in the budget for one employee," HPD said when asked why recruits are not typically line-itemed in the budget.

"This method of budgeting would incorrectly inflate HPD’s position count and budget."

The monthly salary for a police recruit is about $4,692.

The budget transfer is also paying for $321,705 for lump-sum vacation payouts for employees who have retired, quit or been fired from the department. There was no money set aside in the budget for that activity, HPD said.

During the first four months of fiscal 2014, 32 officers left the department. There were 110 officers who "separated" from HPD in 2013, the department said.

In July, just after the 2014 fiscal year began, city officials announced that a statewide arbitration panel awarded a four-year contract for officers in the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers union.

HPD’s 2,000 officers got a 16.8 percent increase over four years. But that accounted for only about $121.5 million of a $200 million package, which also included $43.4 million in standard-of-conduct differential pay.

City officials acknowledged the package was worth more than they had anticipated.