Budget woes continue in the police department

The police department is over budget more than $10,000 and this number will continue to grow until a new budget is proposed in May.

During the Thursday city council meeting Commissioner John McPeek motioned to resend the ordinance that would put in place the Safety Director position. Commissioner Beth Montfort stressed the understanding that there was no "hidden agenda" when it came to the Safety Director, which had been a concern amongst the community.

The vote passed 3 to 2, and McPeek invited police Chief Whipper Johnson to the podium for discussion among the council, chief and community members.

"This council has done a great job improving our city but we have back slid on public safety," McPeek said. "We have a ton of new businesses and we are happy to have them but we need to beef up public safety."

Johnson says that the reason the police department is in such a bind is due to staffing, as officers have left the force and have not been replaced.

"We need to hire manpower if we are going to hire, not someone to work in the office," Commissioner Natalie Miller said.

Thanking Johnson, Fowler said, "I know you have taken on a lot of extra hours uncompensated to cover."

In order to alleviate some of the overtime hours, Johnson took it upon himself to work the extra shifts.

When asked what can be done or what needed to be discussed, Johnson said, "There has been nothing new brought to the table, we are still over budget."

The previous council cut $10,000 off the overtime budget of each of the city's departments to balance the budget for the past fiscal year.

This shortage in the budget, according to Johnson, along with the removal of the SWAT program, which generated $11,000 in reimbursements from the state, is what is causing the police department to be over budget.

"We have had one drug detail since May last year," Johnson said.

In response, Fowler expressed how unacceptable that situation had become. In 2015 the police department had more than 15,000 police actions while operating understaffed.

"We should have talked to Whipper first instead of putting this off for so long," McPeek said. "We jumped on a split second decision at the last meeting without even talking to him."

Several of the senior officers are up for retirement in the next few years which according to Johnson would alleviate a lot of the budget stress by replacing them with rookie officers, saving an estimated $50,000 plus in salaries.

"Maybe right now is a time to spend more money to hire new employees that don't cost us a lot further down the road," Johnson said.

The continued increase in salaries and the decrease to the budget over the last two years has contributed to the over budget status of the department, according to Johnson.