Last night’s Shoreacres City Council meeting started with a proposal of sorts from Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia for his office to contract with the city for police services.
3.0 Special Presentation
Sheriff Garcia did not have a formal presentation for the council. Resident Paul Croas had prepared a spreadsheet which was given to the council and a few of the meeting attendees. The spreadsheet showed a potential yearly savings of $54,585 using a formula that deputies’ time between the city (80{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}) and the county (20{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}).
During an extensive question/answer session, Sheriff Garcia said that he did not anticipate the city ever being without at least one deputy, even under an 80/20 time share. Other items of interest during the Q&A:
- The elimination of capital costs (no need to purchase cars,radios, maintenance, etc.)
- Fixed cost – no overtime charges
- Yearly review of contract cost, increases determined by Commissioners Court and approved by City
- The current police station would be used by HCSO and the contract negotiations would include this
- Current Shoreacres officers could apply but no guarantee that they would be accepted
- All officers are first responder trained (first aid) but not all units have defibrillators
- There was some concern that deputies would look to the Sheriff’s office and not to the city administrator for priorities.
- One resident suggested getting competitive quotes from Constables
- In his experience, Garcia said that the deputies that work these contracts become part of the communities they work in
- Potential of having more resources if another hurricane hits
- One citizen was concerned that the crime rate might go up
- Interim Chief Massey was against the idea
Resident Croas did much of the talking for the Sheriff’s department as he was the person that was behind the proposal.
6.0 Citizens Comments
Darlene Gamble Bay – no one from the council is going to the inter city dinners and she wanted someone to represent the city
Gerry Victor – status of water plant #1. Should have been repaired by December, 2012, then March 2013, still not online. He noted that two homes had burned down in the past two years on his street. System failures in fire response.
I pointed out that the city requested two new public works vehicles in the first budget pass, then one in the second, then the request was eliminated and the public works was given a retired Ford Expedition to use with some minor refurbishing. The Expedition has not moved in the three months since then and clearly wasn’t needed in the first place.
Dana Woodruff – congratulated public works on the recent Christmas party
Charlotte Wells – discussed the “Ike dike” and the recent centennial gate to protect from future storms. She suggested that the council be proactive and learn about it. She also mentioned rumors that our city administrator was approached by FEMA about a buyout of homes on Miramar and wondered if the council had any information about it.
Gerry Victor – he was familiar with the FEMA buyout, he had given it to the previous mayor and nothing came of it.
7.0 Administrative Reports
Stall was not present.
Interim Chief Massey urged the council to stop the interview process for police chief if they were seriously considering contracting police services out. He seemed perturbed about the whole process, specifically that he wasn’t advised earlier about it.
Public Works Sutton said that recycling will be moved to Monday until after the holidays.
Commentary
The meeting was lightly attended, which was a disappointment with an issue of this magnitude on the agenda. I’ve watched this council every other week for the past 7 months and will tell you that I don’t think this proposal is going anywhere. The council did not seem to be very receptive to the idea, nor did the few citizens in attendance. The proposal itself seemed rushed and there wasn’t much detail presented. There are some merits to it, not only in cost savings but in investigations, manpower, resources, etc., but losing the sense of “community police”, if it were to be lost, will be hard to overcome.