A note of clarification

This post is for those of you who may have been at Tuesday's Police Advisory Committee meeting. After replaying the meeting in my head, I realize that a comment I made may have been misconstrued. As previously stated, officers proactively conduct walk through patrols at apartment buildings in Grand Chute. However, my statement may have mislead some to think I had actual knowledge of patrol logs, specific time frames or dates of walk throughs. This is not the case. My written notes are correct in that officers routinely walk through apartment complexes as part of their proactive policing efforts.

Police merger advisory committe meeting recap

Police Advisory Committee Meeting
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Grand Chute Town Hall

The following are notes I presented at tonight's meeting.

Reason for committee is to ensure numbers are accurate. Checks and balances with an Appleton based Interim Deputy Chief in charge of the numbers.

Fringe Benefit Savings
Calculation from Chief Peterson of 57,312 savings over five year period.
Requested breakdown of savings.


Inaccurate information.
Failure to take into account benefit comparisons of Grand Chute and Appleton PDs
The following is over five year period (Breakdown on attached sheet)

Physical Fitness Incentive up to $173,380.81
Retiree Health Insurance 17,500.00
Clothing Allowance 46,452.00
Body Armor 10,150.00
Sick Leave (78,883.67)
Wisconsin Retirement Contribution 71,552.40

Five year payout for additional benefits with merged department $240,151.54

Sick Day Accumulation
Grand Chute would need to pay Appleton for officer sick hours accrued at Appleton rate with any merger.

Currently 15,535 Hours banked
Grand Chute current accumulation $342,609.00
(Rate increase to Appleton would still be needed)

Myth:
Grand Chute is not a proactive police department

• Virchow Krause reported Grand Chute has little to no proactive policing.
• Ed Henschel in January 27, 2009 phone conversation stated no analysis or service structure report was performed. Mr. Henschel said the statement was based entirely on direction from Interim Appleton Deputy Chief Peterson.

Why this statement is false

• Officer time is broken down into committed and uncommitted time
• Committed time includes screens generated for calls for service, paperwork, initiated tasks, administrative and out of service screens.
• Uncommitted time is used by officers to conduct proactive policing.

Committed and Uncommitted Times for past three months

October
Committed Time
43%
Uncommitted Time
57%

November
Committed Time
37%
Uncommitted Time
63%

December
Committed Time
36%
Uncommitted Time
64%


Myth
Grand Chute is lacking in specialized services

• Many services are, in fact, provided by Outagamie County Sheriff’s Department for free, but were never noted.
• Notation on some services that Grand Chute because of its size of the department does not have specific organized teams. However, Grand Chute does have individual officers specializing in these services.
• Grand Chute officers have gone through many of the 26 courses noted as Appleton State Certified instructional staff. While they are not state certified, they have gone through training for these courses as required for continuing education.

Uncommitted, proactive policing time was used to

· Actively patrol for drunk drivers
· Perkins Restaurant patrol
· Business checks during every shift
· Neighborhood Watch Program
· Citizens Police Academy
· Crime Prevention Activities w/kids
· Bike Rodeos
· Halloween Trick or Treat Bags
· National Night Out for Neighborhood Watch
· Bicycle PatrolCommunity Development officer/Liaison
· Prevention with local banks on incidents involving robberies
· Grand Chute I.D., Program established years ago for tellers/clerks checking two forms of ID and how to decipher fake IDs
· Licence Premise Checks
· Grant Projects related to speed enforcement, alcohol enforcement & seatbelts
· IRS Projects
· Fox River Mall Patrol/crime prevention
· Roadstar Inn targeted patrol for Drugs, underage drinking etc.
· Apartment complexes ALL in Grand Chute receiving letters for Apartment watch where nightly officers routinely walk through the complexes. This includes 3321 Woodman Drive which recently had a homicide.
· High Accident Intersection of Wisconsin/41 which led to officer's monitoring intersection and seeking out violations. This led to reduction in accidents at this intersection

Loss of Accountability

• Grand Chute taxpayers will be giving up the accountability of its police department.
• There will be little to no Grand Chute managers within the merged department.
• Can Grand Chute taxpayers comfortably give Appleton 25% of the town’s operating budget?
• Are the numbers provided accurate? What happens if they aren’t?
• Is there an established trusted relationship between the two municipalities?
• There is no turning back if the merger doesn’t work.

Staffing Levels

• A merged department brings no increase in staffing
• Grand Chute loses part time positions equaling 1.5 officers
• Reliant on positive placement up to discretion of the Appleton Chief
• No secured place for Grand Chute’s 5 staff sgts.
• No room in the budget to hire additional future staff
• No study has been done if a merged department or level of services Appleton promises to provide can handle influx of Grand Chute’s population.

Grand Chute has the ability to add more officers without increasing taxes

Salary difference GC officers raised to Appleton levels $ 464,626.00
Savings in Fringe Benefit payout (excluding sick time) $ 240,151.00
Half of Current GC Overtime Budget $ 649,565.00
TOTAL $ 1,354,342.00

New Officer Hires
Year One 74,500
Year Two 76,735 76,735
Year Three 79,037 79,037 79,037
Year Four 81,408 81,408 81,408 81,408
Year Five 83,850 83,850 83,850 83,850

Total 4 New officers over five years $1,126,113.00
Remaining in budget 228,229.00

Future Level of Grand Chute Police Department remaining intact
21 Patrol Officers
5 Staff Sgts
4 Investigators/PSL
2 Leuitentants
1 Police Chief
5 Part time positions (Equals 1.5 officers)

34.5 Grand Chute Officers


Conclusion

• Grand Chute is a fully functioning department
• Grand Chute is adequately staffed
• Interim Appleton Police Chief has failed to provide accurate numbers to the committee, resulting in biasness for a merged department.
• There has been no documentation in support of the half sheet of projected cost savings.
• Projected cost savings are completely wiped out with benefit payouts needed to meet Appleton’s.
• Virchow Krause, a respected accounting firm with experience in negotiating numerous municipal mergers concluded funding formulas do not favor Grand Chute taxpayers.
• Grand Chute has the resources to add more officers and keep the department autonomous without increases to the Grand Chute taxpayer.

K9 Services available in Grand Chute

The following is a communication I received yesterday from Outagamie County Supervisor (and Grand Chute resident) Pat Stevens regarding K9 services provided by Outagamie County Sheriff's Department.

January 21, 2009

TO: Police Merger Advisory Committee

FROM: Pat Stevens

I was concerned with a comment made about the K9 dog at the Appleton Police Department possibly not being available to Grand Chute.

Apparently some are not aware that the Outagamie County Sheriff’s Department currently has 3 fully trained K9 dogs. They are dual trained in bomb and tracking. (searching for lost children, robbery suspects, etc.) Also, the County Board recently approved a grant application for the Sheriff’s Department. It is a “for sure” grant and they will be using the money to acquire a fully trained drug K9 dog before the end of the year.

My concern is that you may not realize the availability of these dogs and that the taxpayer’s in Grand Chute are already paying for that service. We really do not need to think of duplicating it.

Police Advisory Committe meeting agenda

Appleton – Grand Chute Police Merger
Citizen Study Committee Meeting
January 27, 2009
6:30 PM – Board Room

Agenda

A. CALL TO ORDER

B. APPROVAL OF AGENDA/ORDER OF THE DAY

C. APPROVAL OF MINUTES – Approval of the January 14, 2009
meeting minutes

D. APPEARANCE & STATEMENT FROM THE CITY OF APPLETON
a. Mayor Tim Hanna and Chief Dave Walsh

E. NEW BUSINESS
a. Individual committee members present their opinions and recommendations
b. Formulate recommendations to the Town Board and/or determine next step in the process

F. Other matters, questions, discussions.

G. ADJOURNMENT

Examining why control matters

One of the issues that comes up with merging governmental entities is the issue of control. Many times, one municipality will have to give up partial control to the other. In the case of Grand Chute merging it's police department with Appleton, Grand Chute will be giving up ENTIRE accountability of it's police department. Right now, indirectly, the citizens of Grand Chute have control of their police department. As a town board member, this becomes an important factor. After all, I am accountable to Grand Chute residents. That includes being able to make the best financial decisions for taxpayers. Giving up control of a large portion of the town's budget must carefully be looked at. Do I trust the municipality with managing over three million dollars of the town's money? Are the numbers provided accurate? What happens if they aren't? What is the past relationship we have with the City of Appleton? Many consolidation reports cite the importance an already established trust relationship between both municipalities. Is the city of Appleton fiscally responsible with their taxpayers money? These are the questions I will be examining.

Town of Grand Chute
Delivery of Police Services
An Outline in Representative Accountability to Grand Chute Citizens

Option 1:
The merger of the Appleton Police Department and the Town of Grand Chute Police Department. The legacy Grand Chute Officers are merged into the ranks of the Appleton Police Department. The elected Town of Grand Chute turns over control of the Grand Chute Police Department to the City of Appleton. A 6 member control board is created. It consists of 4 Appleton members and 2 Grand Chute members.

• Appleton Mayor Elected by Appleton Citizens
• Appleton City Council Elected by Appleton Citizens
• Appleton Police Chief Answers to the Appleton Mayor and City Council
• Grand Chute Police Chief Answers to the Appleton Police Chief
• Answers to a 6 member board
• Level of Service Dependent on the Appleton City Council

Option 2:
To contract police services to the Outagamie County Sheriff’s Department/ The legacy Grand Chute Police Officers are merged into the Outagamie County Sheriff’s Department. A detailed contract will dictate the level of service provided to Grand Chute.

• Outagamie County Sheriff Elected by Grand Chute and all Outagamie County Citizens
• Answers to the Outagamie County Board on fiscal matters
• Outagamie County Executive Elected by Grand Chute and all Outagamie County Citizens
• Outagamie County Board Five Elected by Grand Chute Citizens
• Assigned Grand Chute Officers Answers to the Outagamie County Sheriff
• Level of Service Dependent on the Contract for Services Agreement

Option 3:
To maintain the existing Grand Chute Police Department.

• Town of Grand Chute Chairman Elected by Grand Chute Citizens
• Town of Grand Chute Board Elected by Grand Chute Citizens
• Town of Grand Chute Administrator Answers to the Grand Chute Town Chairman
• Answers to the Grand Chute Town Board
• Town of Grand Chute Police Chief Answers to the Grand Chute Town Chairman
• Answers to the Grand Chute Town Board
• Answers to the Grand Chute Administrator
• Town of Grand Chute Police Officers Answers to the Grand Chute Police Chief

Keep in mind that both Option 1 and Option 2 require that the existing Grand Chute Police Department cease to exist. The officers will merge into a separate department. It is anticipated that the officers will receive an increase in salary and fringe benefits. With these two options, there will be no turning around.

Option 1 removes the Grand Chute citizens and their elected officials from managing the delivery of Police services to Grand Chute.

Option 2 maintains a fairly high level of control since Grand Chute citizens elect the Sheriff, County Executive and their(s) Representatives to the County Board. In addition, the Sheriff’s Department may relocate its Patrol Division in Grand Chute, thereby increasing the law enforcement presence over and above what the contract provides.

Option 3 mandates control of the Grand Chute Police Department to the citizens of Grand Chute.

Police merger report

Grand Chute (and Appleton) residents have been asking what I think of the analysis of the two municipalities police merger report that was released by consulting firm Virchow Krause yesterday.

The report is pretty straight forward in that shared costs formulas do not paint a viable picture for Grand Chute residents. The writing was on the wall by doing simple math from the budgets and different formula scenarios provided in last week's post. Grand Chute residents would pay anywhere from $1.7 million to $14.2 million (over the next five years) more with a merged department.

Now that the numbers don't come out, I expect the push for merger approach to change to an increase in specialized services justification. A request will probably be made that all cost formula scenarios be thrown out the window, and a contract of services agreement looked into, something that had previously been rejected as not optionable by the Town Board when Outagamie County Sheriff's Department had submitted an RFP.

Much has been made about Grand Chute police being a reactive instead of a proactive department. This claim has been a point of frustration for many officers in the Grand Chute police department who say this is a biased and false statement. They spend many hours on proactive policing in the community. A small sampling of proactive policing includes:

• Neighborhood Watch
• Business Watch
• Citizens Police Academy
• Crime Prevention Activities w/kids
• Bike Rodeos
• Halloween Trick or Treat Bags
• National Night Out for Neighborhood Watch
• Bicycle PatrolCommunity Development officer/Liaison

• Prevention with local banks on incidents involving robberies
• Grand Chute I.D., Program established years ago for tellers/clerks checking two forms of ID and how to decipher fake I.D.s
• Licence Premise Checks
• Grant Projects related to speed enforcement, alcohol enforcement & seatbelts

• IRS Projects

• Fox River Mall Patrol/crime prevention
• Roadstar Inn targeted patrol for Drugs, underage drinking etc.
• Apartment complexes ALL in Grand Chute receiving letters for Apartment watch where nightly officers routinely walk through the complexes. This includes 3321 Woodman Drive which recently had a homicide.
• High Accident Intersection of Wisconsin/41 which led to officer's monitoring intersection and seeking out violations. This led to reduction in accidents at this intersection

Virchow Krause's analysis also discovered that Grand Chute's police department is adequately staffed. This was a huge turnaround from the $800,000 figure stated in the town newsletter mailed to all Grand Chute residents this past spring. Remember this post?

The panel's next meeting is scheduled for January 27th. Committee members will be able to give presentations or speak their thoughts at this meeting with one another. This is something that really hasn't been available due to time restraints at past meetings. I will be busy the next couple of weeks sorting through all the information.

Grand Chute citizens advisory committee meeting

Below is the agenda for this Wednesday's meeting

Appleton – Grand Chute Police Merger
Citizen Study Committee Meeting
January 14, 2009
6:30 PM – Board Room

Agenda

A. CALL TO ORDER

B. APPROVAL OF AGENDA/ORDER OF THE DAY

C. APPROVAL OF MINUTES – Approval of the November 25, 2008 meeting minutes

D. NEW BUSINESS
1. Presentation of the Town Staffing Analysis by Ed Henschel
a. Patrol Analysis Model (PAM)

2. Presentation of Cost Allocation Analysis by Ed Henschel

3. Discussion of service levels vs. costs

4. Discussion of Options for Consolidation
a. Merger
b. Contract for Services

E. Other matters, questions, discussions.

F. ADJOURNMENT

Police Department budgets

These spreadsheets are a supplement to yesterday's postings on cost allocations. They give a snapshot of Appleton Police Department and Grand Chute Police Departments operational costs, along with a combined department. Click on each graphic for larger view.

Cost Allocation Options for the Grand Chute-Appleton Police Merger

Chart of different cost options and percentages that each community would contribute.
Click chart for larger graphic.

The following was presented to Police Advisory Committee members at the November meeting. The document was prepared by consultant Virchow Krause. This site doesn't allow me to post PDF or word documents, so this information is copied from the report.

Cost Allocation Options for the Grand Chute-Appleton
Police Merger
November 25, 2008

The distribution of costs between participating municipalities in a fair and equitable manner is the cornerstone to any successful merger so that one party does not feel it is subsidizing the costs of the other. There are a number of funding options and combinations of options that can be considered. Currently, each municipality is funding the cost of providing police services through the General Fund. Thus residents pay for police services based on the value of their property (as is the case with most municipal services). Public safety services are rarely paid for on a use-of-service or benefits-received basis because they must be available to all residents in a community on an equal basis at all times. Public safety is in effect an essential service providing for the “health, safety and welfare” of the entire community, the costs of which do not easily lend themselves to be allocated to individual citizens according to the benefits-received principle of public finance (i.e. user charge).

In order to create equity in the distribution of costs for police services between municipalities, several alternative funding mechanisms are available for consideration. These cost-sharing methods may include:

A. Equalized Value
B. Population
C. Calls for Service
D. Part 1 Index Crimes
E. Baseline cost plus one or more of the above


A. Equalized Value Basis
This is the current method used by Appleton and Grand Chute for separately funding police services. It is a widely accepted method and is easy to administer using annual State equalized values. Under this method, each municipality would pay its share of the merged police department costs in proportion to its share of the sum of the equalized values of the two municipalities. This method of allocating costs between municipalities would cause the more developed (higher taxable value) community to pay a higher share of the costs. The focus here is the protection of property as being the primary role of the police department.

Using this formula and based on 2008 data from the Department of Revenue, Grand Chute would be expected to pay 34.46% of the total cost of a merged police department and Applton would pay 64.54%, as shown below:


B. Population Basis
The second method that can be considered for the distribution of costs is the population method. This method is also easy to administer using U.S. Census or State Department of Administration annual population estimates. Since police services are primarily responsible for protecting persons, this method has significant validity. However, this approach does not account for crime enforcement related to retail theft or high population density that often has greater incidents of crime. Nor does it take into consideration “daytime” populations that can very significantly in those municipalities with a high concentration of retail businesses, office complexes, high traffic roadway systems, etc. Using this methodology, Grand Chute would pay 22.11 % of the cost of the merged police department and the City of Appleton would pay 77.89%.


C. Calls for Service
The calls for service method would allocate costs based on the proportionate share of the annual number of calls for service in each municipality. This method comes closest to a “user charge” system in that the municipality with the greatest call volume would pay the largest share of the costs. If this methodology is used, it is important that the municipalities “count” calls for service in the same manner. This method does not take into account the cost of the many hours of general patrol time (which is a crime deterrent) or the basic costs of providing police services regardless of the number of calls a community experiences.

Distributing costs on the basis of calls for service would result in Grand Chute paying 27.32% of the cost of police department services and Appleton paying 72.68%.


D. Part 1 Index Crimes
The Part 1 Index Crime method would allocate costs based on the proportionate number of Part 1 Index offenses in each municipality. These crimes include: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson. These are the most serious crimes that may be committed in a community. Similar to calls for service, this method begins to approach a “user charge” system in that those municipalities with the greatest number of serious crime calls would pay the largest share of the costs. The distinction between “index” crimes and total crimes is that index crimes, because of their serious nature, take more personnel time to respond to and resolve thus requiring a greater manpower commitment. As with calls for service, however, it does not take into account the cost of the many hours of general patrol time, detective follow-up, or other basic costs of providing police services regardless of the number of calls or level of crime prevention. Because there are fewer of these crimes, to be most effective, a methodology using index crimes would need to include a rolling 3 or more year average to minimize year-to-year swings in data (which can be significant).

Information on index offenses is reported to state and federal agencies through the uniform crime reports (UCR) and thus is relatively easy to administer as a funding option.

Distributing costs on the basis of index crimes would result in Grand Chute paying 26.69% of the cost and Appleton paying 73.31%.


E. Baseline Cost plus a Combination of Funding Options
Providing police protection requires a substantial capital investment in buildings, vehicles, equipment and manpower. This investment is necessary even if the police department did not respond to a single call. Furthermore, police departments provide a variety of services to citizens such as general patrol, responding to calls, investigations, crime prevention, education, etc. that are not attributable to any one factor. Thus consideration can be given to distributing costs on the basis of a baseline amount and one or more other factors. This can be done through a variety of funding options or by weighting the various categories.

The above methodologies for the distribution of costs are summarized as follows:

December 16th meeting minutes

Minutes for the December 16th, 2008 Town Board meeting are available for download.

Police Advisory Committee update

Two meetings of the Police Advisory Committee are scheduled for January. They are January 13th and January 27th. Both meetings are at the Grand Chute Town Hall at 6:30. Some of you have been asking for updates regarding the merger. December was a slower month for merger talks because of the holiday. A meeting was cancelled on Dec. 30th to allow committee overseer Virchow Krause time to examine how many additional officers Grand Chute could use if the department stays autonomus.

At the last meeting, Virchow Krause presented three different formulas on how each municipality would finance the merger. These formulas are percentages based off of three scenarios: Population, number of service calls and equalized values. I'll try and scan in this document this week. Numbers weren't plugged in to the formulas at this point. The committee is supposed to receive this information at te January 13th meeting.

Outagamie recycling woes do not affect Grand Chute

By now, you've probably heard of the difficulties some municipalites in Outagamie County are facing with the lapse in contract between Wittenburg Disposal Service and the new subcontractor, Inland Services, Corp.

Grand Chute contracts out it's own recycling services through Veolia Environmental Services. The contract was approved earlier this year by the Town Board. There will be no interruption of recycling services in Grand Chute.

Jan 6th town board agenda

The ammended agenda for the Jan. 6th, 2008 Town Board meeting is ready for download.

Back in the blogoshpere

Wow! Looking at the date of my last post, I didn't realize it's been this long! I hope you all had a nice holiday season. It's been a busy one for me. I'm building a contract home right now, and this weather has been quite, umm....challenging. Seems like every day we were shoveling snow out of the house and dealing with windy weather on a 12/12 pitch roof. It was a battle getting the house covered, but now, I can focus on the interior and get back to blogging.