The Van Buren Township Police Department had two officers retire last December and then lost two more officers earlier this year, putting them down four officers.
At the Dec. 7 meeting of the VBT Public Safety Committee, the committee voted unanimously to recommend to the township board the replacement of two police officers.
Director of Public Safety Carl McClanahan said the cost for the two would be slightly less than $200,000.
Township Trustee Phil Hart, the board liaison to the committee, said there is money in the unreserved fund balance and some of that money could be transferred to pay for the officers.
“It’s for rainy days and it’s raining,” Trustee Hart said.
Director McClanahan said that at the township board’s budget session he asked for a more strategic approach to public safety and staffing.
He said he is asking for a commitment to manpower, instead of looking at the checkbook first to see how many they can afford. He said he would like a three-to-five-year commitment for the number of staff, instead of having the number rise and fall with the ebb and flow of the funds available.
Supervisor Paul White said he didn’t want to replace the two officers because he didn’t want to hire someone now and then have to lay them off later. And, there are the legacy costs to consider, he said, referring to pension and health care in the future.
“There is no way to determine the funds we will have three years down the road,” Supervisor White said. “We need to have a total township, instead of giving all the funds to public safety.”
He referred to senior services, parks and recreation, and other programs.
“I agree with the supervisor to an extent,” McClanahan said, but he said the township could hire people who do projections and the staffing plan could be based on that information.
Regina Miller, who the committee appointed chairperson for the meeting, was adamant that the voters passed the public safety millage because they were told this would “maintain the service” and, “When you lose and don’t replace you’re not maintaining.”
Miller was chairperson in the absence of vice chairman P. Ramone Crowe. Chairman Michael Miazga has resigned.
Supervisor White had suggested reassigning two or more of the four traffic unit officers to road patrol, where they would still enforce traffic laws.
“The public safety traffic unit is to calm traffic,” White said. “We have to reevaluate how we use our public safety department, to use the police officers we have… We do have money in the general fund, but it’s shrinking quickly.”
White said the board will have to take $651,099 from the reserve fund balance to balance the proposed 2012 budget.
White was critical of traffic officers spending so much time patrolling the freeways, but Hart supported having them on the freeway.
Hart said there are terrible accidents on the freeway that can be prevented.
“We owe it to our citizens and people who travel through our community,” Hart said.
Committee member Diane Madigan asked if there could be any other cuts to the budget than the suggested traffic unit.
“Cutting services to the residents of the township is not the way to balance the budget,” Madigan said, suggesting they look at take-home cars, the honor guard, and fire department overtime, instead.
White said even with two officers fewer this year, “We still have the same high level of public safety in the township.”
“Impossible!” Miller replied.
Committee member Richard Wardwell said he has checked numbers on the traffic unit for 12 months and found the fines are down because of the times. He said the judges are giving community service to those getting tickets instead of fines because people can’t afford to pay.
Wardwell said in 2008 there was $830,000 in traffic fines to VBT and in 2011 it’s fallen to $525,000. He said there aren’t fewer tickets written, just less money taken in.
In a related discussion, the committee discussed staffing of the two fire halls, which was told to voters would be two persons per station, 24/7.
Madigan said McClanahan had stated that in an emergency the two fire halls could be staffed by three fire fighters.
McClanahan said that was based on the ability to staff those stations.
Madigan said the millage was for a two-person crew at each station, which is not always being done.
McClanahan said they are in the process of training fire fighters right now.
Wardwell said he worked for the millage and on the brochure they distributed it said the millage was for 24/7 coverage. He said there are just 30 certified fire fighters on the duty crew roster.
Fire Chief Darwin Loyer had stated that he needed 68 fire fighters to properly staff the duty crews.
Chief Loyer said they hired five people in July and the five are in training now. He said he had a meeting Sunday with two probationary trainers. He estimated by the end of December he probably would put two additional fire fighters on, but they can’t be put on the duty crew because they don’t have ice rescue training. Without this training, they cannot be cleared for the duty crew under the present policy.
Loyer said there was a problem because there has been no ice for training.
He said two other people need driving class, which is set up in January, before they can be cleared for duty.
There are just two trainers in the fire department, Loyer said.
Wardwell said there are 30 fire fighters to rotate on the duty crew, so they need to increase the number of people. He said the current group has been in training since July and they won’t get final certification until next year.
“Seems like we’ll never catch up,” Wardwell said.
White said his recommendation a year ago was to hire as many paid on-call fire fighters as possible and to make it an ongoing process, always hiring.
Hart asked if Loyer had double the amount of trainers could he put though the people faster?
“Do we have other people capable of training?” Loyer asked, answering himself, “No.” He said the other people in his department are not capable of training. When he became chief he said there were people on as probationary trainers that never should have been trainers because they were not capable. He has since revised the program.
“We don’t have full-time personnel who want to teach every night of the week,” Loyer said.
He said his department will put on more trainers and set up a trainer-trainer program.
Hart asked about what was causing the duty crew short staff problem and Loyer said it is call-offs. He said since February they have been tracking call-offs and there have been 177.
A call-off is when a fire fighter who has agreed to work a duty crew shift calls in to say he/she can’t. Excuses include being held over on a full-time job, illness, couldn’t get a babysitter, etc.
“It’s a volunteer department. I can’t make anybody work,” Loyer said, adding he can’t force anyone to give an answer as to the reason.
Loyer said the last round of applications started with 50 and it has been whittled down to 14 now. The candidates are evaluated, have LEIN reports run, physical agility test, written test, psychological test, medical tests, and extensive background tests.
When Madigan asked if the evaluation of the candidates was done in-house, Loyer said when someone reaches a certain level (like the last 14), the fire department pays $750 each for background checks by an outside company.
“That’s a lot of money,” Miller noted.
McClanahan said it’s more efficient to pay someone else to do the checks than to use his detectives who have detective work to do. He said the money comes out of the fire department budget.
When White asked what Loyer was going to do to get more candidates, Loyer said after Jan. 1 he would be sending out advertisements that VBT is seeking candidates.
In other business the committee:
• Learned the emergency traffic signal planned for the Sumpter/Hull intersection to allow for exit of fire engines from Fire Station #1 is not being installed because the traffic flow is not adequate for a signal, according to White, who said he talked to Wayne County on the matter. The station is wired for the signal, with a button on the wall to turn it on, but when Kroger or Belleville High School wasn’t built next door, “Someone else decided not to do it,” Loyer said;
• Heard McClanahan say he is not looking at getting a replacement police dog at this time. He said they are considering improved training for the K-9 officer handler. He said they interviewed officers interested in being a handler, but decided to hold off for now. McClanahan said there is a tremendous amount of money needed for training a dog and handler; and
• Learned McClanahan did look into Leads on Line, as suggested by Madigan, who said a township resident recommended the program. McClanahan said he sent a group of detectives to Dearborn to be trained the previous week and VBT currently is using the program. Leads on Line allows police to track items sold to resale or pawn shops across the country by zip code of seller and identify stolen property that the shop owner may not know is stolen. The program also allows tracking of stolen property on eBay. “This is huge,” McClanahan said. For more information, see www.leadsonline.com . McClanahan said the cost will be $2,848 to VBT.