Council considers boosting size of police force

CELINA - City council members may approve hiring at least one new patrol officer to allow the police department to shift current employees to other positions.

For that to happen, council must amend the strength ordinance that sets the number of police department personnel. Mayor Jeff Hazel recommended council increase the number of patrol officer positions from 11 to 15, though not necessarily to hire four new officers immediately.

At a personnel and finance committee meeting on Monday night, police chief Tom Wale said the department lacks an assistant chief and could use a second detective. Council members also learned the department has 16 employees, about six fewer than the state average for cities of Celina's size.

The most pressing need, though, is for a second detective who could assist with the more in-depth investigations of burglaries and other serious crimes, Wale said

The city's size and the department's number of calls "could more than justify another detective," Wale said.

Ron Waltmire is the department's detective but patrolman Steve Yoder has been working as an interim detective, Wale said.

"Our detectives are patrolmen by rank but they get assigned the detective position basically at my discretion," Wale explained.

Yoder is smart, has a good personality, a knack for talking to people and would make an excellent detective, Wale added.

If Wale were to assign Yoder to detective duty, the department would need a new patrol officer to assume Yoder's road duties, he said.

The department has been without an assistant chief since mid-July when Cal Freeman retired after 34 years with the department. The department needs to fill that position, Wale said, but added a second detective is more important.

The assistant chief, a nonunion employee, assumes the chief's authority when the department head is not present. He also carries out internal investigations.

"The assistant chief (position) has value but I also think having a detective has value and I have to make a judgment call (on) which is the best use of my manpower," Wale said.

The position of assistant chief, however, must be filled, Hazel said.

"Under the law, the only way to abolish a civil service position is while somebody is in the position before they give notice of retirement or resignation," Hazel said.

If the city wants to abolish the position, it must first promote someone as assistant chief.

"So we're going to put an assistant chief in place and then we're going to abolish the job? That's a little bizarre," councilman Jeff Larmore said.

"The simpler thing to do is just increase the strength ordinance for patrolmen and that's the end of it. Then we hire one more patrolman. There's a lot of expense and I understand that, with adding another employee to the payroll," Wale said.

Two sergeants, Dan Hartings and Kent Taylor, are eligible to take the assistant chief promotional exam through the civil service commission.

Promoting a sergeant to assistant chief would leave another vacancy in the department.

Councilman Bill Sell said it sounds as if the department needs both a detective and an assistant chief.

"The point we're at right now with our budget and our finances, we could afford it," Sell said. "I think what would be best for the public would be to have someone there when the chief's not there."

Councilman June Scott agreed.

"If you become incapacitated as far as health goes, you're not answering the phone. Nobody could answer the phone," Scott said. "It would be best suited for the department to have both (positions)."

Scott also noted that the public has approved a 0.5 percent income tax for police and fire services.

"I don't think this public would ever complain ... with the fact that we are going to try to strengthen our police department by adding on other positions to make sure that we can get this issue (drug-related crimes) under control," Scott said.

According to the city auditor Betty Strawn the police department, including dispatchers, has an annual payroll of about $1.14 million. Also, the city is poised to have a general fund carryover of as much as $3.8 million next year, much of which comes from the additional 0.5 percent income tax and is earmarked exclusively for police and fire expenses. The 0.5 percent income tax brings in as much as $1.8 million per year.

Celina city officials are asking voters to amend the purpose and duration of the city's current 0.5 percent income tax levy for police and fire services to also pay to fix streets and alleys. The levy originally passed in November 2010 is set to expire at the end of 2017. If approved, the change would take effect in January and extend the tax's duration by five years.

Hazel suggested amending the strength ordinance by adding four patrol officer positions.

"It still has to come to council to fund those positions but if we have those authorized by ordinance then when we go into the budget cycle, ... and at least they're authorized," Hazel said.

The personnel and finance committee moved to recommend increasing the permissible number of patrol officers from 11 to 15.