There will be two versions of the Village Buzz posted today given two relatively lengthy subjects each of which deserve a more detailed review.
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Germantown Police Department Budget...
I learned that our Police Department was being tasked by some members of the Village Board to reduce its 2009 budget request by some $330,000 as its share of the $900,000+ deficit solution. I have followed the department closely enough to recognize that this request would very likely cut away muscle and not fat, and I asked Chief Hoell for information about what this level of reduction would bring in the way of policing in 2009 without sharing my position with him at that point.
Chief Hoell indicated that his proposed budget was already done on the basis that this was an austere year for the village and that he would have to make do without a lot of the things he'd like to see for the department and the citizens of Germantown. He advised that he had been able to trim some operating costs but that other line items, such as fuel costs, were beyond his ability to control. He said that, although there have been cost increases in other line items, the department had made do without similar budget increases. If there were equipment breakdowns or if some large unforeseen event such as a major crime scene were to be confronted, there would be no surplus available with which to handle the occurrence.
He stated, simply, that "a $330,000 cut would cripple this department". "We would become solely reactive at best and the safety of our officers would be at jeopardy." He indicated that, if he took out insurance, bonds, heat and water expense line items, the $330,000 would be "pretty much our operating budget for 2009".
"If you take this money out of personnel, then as I stated above, we would become solely reactionary at best and no longer proactive. We are already experiencing delays in our responses due to the volume of calls for service or simply cannot respond to a time sensitive incident. The safety and security of our officers will be at stake and the safety of our community will slowly deteriorate."
He went on to discuss staffing studies: "The Germantown Police Department is the least staffed municipal agency in Washington County per capita. The same holds true for the metro area. We continually update this study and attach it to our budget to keep our elected officials educated on where we stand for staffing. The Depart. of Justice recommends approx. 2.2 officers per 1,000 people. GPD has 1.58 officers per 1,000 people. Granted the 2.2 is a bit high, however the national average is 2.0, the state average is 1.8". (This is for communities having from 10,000 to 40,000 people).
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Now, I'll take the opportunity to "editorialize":
The thought that we would cut our police protection budget by such an amount simply to be "fair" to the rest of the departments in this village is something I simply am unable to grasp. This would likely result in a reduction of one-third in the on-the-road shift staffing; and that staffing is already quite sparse for the community from my perspective. "Across the board cuts" are too often simply the easy way out for people charged with developing budgets. Each department head has, I hope, put forth their best effort. I rely upon the Village Administrator to assure that there is no "fluff" left in any department's numbers. I rely upon our elected representatives to handle the balance of any mandated budget reductions with the best interests of all citizens uppermost in mind.
I believe this proposed cut would be to carry the funding of the police department to a level that would cause our services to deteriorate too far. If we lose the edge we have today in that area, we will pay a very severe price. The "bad guys" don't respect budget issues. They respect force. I hope and trust that wiser minds will prevail when the Finance Committee and Village Board again convene. It is time for some serious leadership on a serious issue. There are "issues" and then there are "life and death" issues.
I can only imagine the reaction if a member of the Board were to be poorly served by the department in a time of need due to this budget process. I'll wager that the recrimination wouldn't be pretty, and I'll bet some heads would roll. But those likely wouldn't be "elected heads" rolling.
