Police consolidation and shared services talks begin between Glenville and Scotia
Future budgetary constraints may result in the Town of Glenville and the Village of Scotia to consolidating their police departments, something that has been discussed in the past.
While merging the town and village police forces isn’t a new topic, efforts to evaluate options are becoming focused as a work group that was created for such a purpose met for the first time on Monday, Feb 21.
The group is made up of Scotia Mayor Kris Kastberg, Glenville Supervisor Christopher Koetzle, Scotia Police Chief Thomas Rush, Glenville Chief Michael Ranalli, incoming Glenville Councilman John Pytlovany and another representative from the village.
I believe that everyone is interested in doing what makes the most sense for the town and the village, said Koetzle. `Criteria that I apply to all consolidation proposals is two standards: It has to enhance services and it has to reduce taxpayer dollars. I believe there is an opportunity for both of those to be achieved.`
At the moment, Koetzle said, all options are on the table, and he is under the impression that the town is interested in finding a `smart solution` to the issue, whether the answer involves consolidation or some sort of shared services agreement.
`There are not a lot of details right now,` said Koetzle. `Our chief is doing a lot of work looking into the preliminary issues. I simply have to wait and see what model everyone is comfortable with first.`
Ranalli said that Kastberg a while back had expressed an interest in exploring the possibility of a consolidated police department. Ranalli said he believes a consolidated police force is a good direction to move toward, but the village will ultimately decide if it is feasible.
`The two parts would be stronger as a whole, and we would be able to offer more expertise in certain areas and be able to offer enhanced services to the village and town as well,` said Ranalli `I think it would be a great idea, and I think it would be benefit the citizens of the town and the village.`
Rush noted there have been studies done during his 33-year tenure with the department, and he agrees the issue of consolidation needs to be addressed. At one point, he said, it seemed consolidation was moving forward, but the effort fizzled out.
Rush became chief after Pytlovany stepped down in February of last year.
`This has been around since I started combining the two departments,` said Rush. `The last thing you want to do is to take away services.`
Village residents have become used to the level of police presence currently offered, which he said is higher than other municipalities. He noted the size of the village is about 2 square miles and, he said, there are at least two officers on patrol, and at the most there are three to four.
`Right now, I would venture to say that per capita, the Village of Scotia is covered a lot better than other jurisdictions,` said Rush. `I know that the people would probably want a certain amount of coverage, whether or not that could be accomplished fiscally is something that needs to be looked into further.`
Reaching a `happy medium` of maintaining services while not raising the burden on taxpayers is something, Rush said, he isn’t sure can be accomplished. Although he doesn’t want to just put a `band aid` on the situation and have to revisit talks of consolidation again. If one police department is formed, he said he hopes to move as many officers and employees over so there are no layoffs.
Rush said he doesn’t believe there has been any wasteful spending within the department.
`You try to stay within your budget, which we have, but when you are a small department the officers wear many hats, and there are times there is an increase in overtime,` said Rush.
With state mandates and increasing costs out of the department’s control, he said, the state government seems largely to blame for the fiscal burden being placed upon municipalities.
`I think the state has created a monster, and they are putting a burden on local municipalities,` said Rush. `If the state is saying we are going to put a 2 percent cap on municipalities it is going to put a heavy, heavy burden on local municipalities to meet those mandates, and you have to cut back.`
As far as shared services, Rush said he doesn’t see many new opportunities because there are already shared services between the town and village or other departments. One thing he thought be looked into is central booking, which would involve an officer, after an arrest, bringing the individual to a central location where the booking process would be completed.
Also, he said, the state is mandating all law enforcement agencies to do electronic finger printing and the cost of the machine is around $25,000. If there were one location, then every agency wouldn’t need the equipment and wouldn’t have to pay maintenance costs.
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