Police department adds full time position

Good News! The Grand Chute Police Department was able to consolidate three part time officer positions and create one full time position on the department for the upcoming 2011 budget. This was a smart move due to the high turnover rate of the part time officers. Many recruits would be hired by GCPD only to move on when a full time position became available at another department. There are high training costs associated with each new hire and overtime rates spiked when officers would have to cover open part time shifts.

The benefits to this move are two-fold. There will be more uniform coverage with a another full time officer and the department should see a reduction in overtime (one of the department's major expenses). The best part of all, the department was able to do this without any increase at all to their 2011 budget.

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 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.

agenda for December 16th Town Board meeting

The agenda for this evening's town board meeting is available for download. One of the items up for vote is approval to pay Virchow Krause a little over $2,000 to identify staffing needs for the Grand Chute police department.

Update on first Grand Chute citizen's advisory police merger panel meeting

The following post is an update on the first Citizen Advisory police merger panel meeting. At Tuesday's meeting, my suggestion to communicate what transpires to the public through press releases was not very well received. It was decided residents could keep updated through meeting minutes. Unfortunately, meeting minutes will not be posted on the town's web site until they are approved at the following meeting. The next meeting will be September 23rd. Therefore, I am providing this update to Grand Chute residents.

The Grand Chute citizen's advisory police merger panel met this past Tuesday. It was the first time the panel had met. James Milslagle, member of the panel, was selected as Chair, with Tom Dreier elected as Secretary. A representative from Virchow Krause was present as they have been hired as a consultant to oversee progress and provide direction to the panel. I was initially concerned when Edmund Henschel, the representative from Virchow Krause, told the panel he had been directed by the Town Board to lay out a six month time table for the study. His directive was to split the phases into two three month segments. I informed Mr. Henschel, the Town Board had not set forth any time table; Chairman Marsden later indicated this was a directive from himself.

I asked Mr. Henschel, in his 27 years of experience, if he had encountered mergers that were put together in less than six months. My police merger investigations indicated a much longer time period, some taking 2-5 years. Mr. Henschel agreed six months was an extremely short time frame.

Since the purpose of the panel is to ensure a thorough investigation into the pros and cons of a police merger, the panel agreed to leave the time table open at this point, and not restrict itself to a six month period. The panel also agreed monthly meetings may be too far apart, and may consider bi-weekly meetings at the next session.

Our next meeting is scheduled for September 23rd. Interim Chief Peterson will be gathering information, including statistics that were requested in the original RFP, including calls for service, scheduling, and a planned budget. Panel members will receive this information for review and at the next meeting will forward our questions to Interim Chief Peterson.

I will be happy to have Interim Chief Peterson answer any citizen questions as well. Please email or comment with any concerns. I fought for this panel to be formed to ensure taxpayers are at the forefront of the decision making process. This is your opportunity to become involved.

Interim Chief Lewis tenure wrapping up at Grand Chute

Interim police chief Jim Lewis is finsihing up his duties this next week when Deputy Chief Peterson is installed as the following interim chief while Grand Chute and Appleton look at police merger possibilities.

I had high expectations when Chief Lewis became interim chief, but have overall been disappointed with his tenure at Grand Chute.

My hopes that Interim Chief Lewis would unify the Grand Chute police department never came to fruition. Unfortunately, the department is divded more than ever, with emails from officers indicating morale is at extremely low levels.

Hopefully, Deputy Chief Peterson will be able to restore department morale.

Town citizens speak out about police merger

The main topic of discussion in the open forum section of last night's annual meeting was the potential merger of the Grand Chute police department.

Resident Jim Duncan called for a motion for the board to put a three-tiered question to referendum. The questions would be, should the police department stay the same, should it merge with Appleton, or should it merge with Outagamie County Sheriff's Department. The motion was seconded and passed. There was no mention of when this referendum would take place in the motion. I say this, because the Post-Crescent this morning incorrectly reported that a referendum would take place this fall.

Another point to clarify is that this is a citizen advisory vote for the Town Board. Only Town Board members have the ability to place a referendum on a ballot. Last evening's meeting was a meeting of electors, not the Town Board, so no official Town Board action was taken.

After the advisory vote, and comments from residents, there was a call for a showing of hands on who was in favor of each proposal. I was able to observe from my spot in front, facing the crowd. The following are estimates from my personal observation, as no official count was taken. Out of approximately 125 people attending:

In favor of Appleton 6
In favor of staying Grand Chute 75
In favor of Outagamie County 45