Two weeks after La Center Police Chief Marc Denney approached city councilors with concerns about what he called an overworked, understaffed police force that is “blowing through overtime” trying to police the city 24-7, La Center City Council members have agreed to pull money out of the city’s reserves and fund a vacant police officer position.
The 5-0 vote came Wed., May 27, during the La Center City Council’s regular meeting. To the casual observer, the vote may have seemed like a sure thing – after all, several citizens, including the mayor’s wife, Candi Irish, stood up during the council meeting to speak in favor of having a 24-7 police force, even if it meant dipping into the city’s reserves. However, just minutes before the council meeting began, city councilors were still at odds over funding the vacant police officer position.
While every councilor said they understood and empathized with the police chief’s situation, some councilors were hesitant to pull money out of the city’s reserve funds, especially considering that the proposed Cowlitz tribal casino, which could open as early as 2017, could have a ruinous effect on the three private cardrooms currently operating in La Center. Of the city’s roughly $3.5 million budget, almost $2.5 million comes from the cardrooms.
“There are so many unknowns,” said City Councilor Joe Valenzuela during the council’s work session, held before the city council meeting. “Right now, $1.7 million out of our budget goes to police. If we lose the revenue from the (cardrooms), our real revenues are only $1 million. I would suggest that we need to be conservative right now.”
Other councilors said the city’s $4.5 million general reserve funds were meant for a situation like this.
At issue, said Police Chief Denney, was the police department’s ability to function as a 24-7 police force without enough officers. Currently, the city’s police department has five officers and one sergeant. When the police department lost an officer last year, the city council opted to not fund that vacant position in 2015. To cover the city all hours of the day and night, the officers are working overtime, pulling 12-hour shifts, and not able to provide backup for each other or take the vacation time they’ve accrued. The stress has taken a toll, Denney said, and he’s had several officers out ill this year.
“You’re running my staff ragged,” Denney told the councilors at their May 27 work session. “I’m telling you what I need. I can’t make any more cuts in my department. I just can’t do it.”
Of some councilors’ hesitation to spend the city’s reserve funds to fill the vacant officer position, Denney said he understood that hard times might be coming for La Center, but urged the councilors to think about current needs, too.
“Now is the time to shore up what you can,” Denney said. “It’s like having money in your savings account and watching your front porch rot away because you don’t want to spend it.”
The chief added that the city’s reserve money can be a hindrance when department heads look for alternative funding sources, such as grants.
“We are not eligible for a lot of grants because we have money in the bank,” Denney told the councilors. “We apply for grants, but most of them get denied for this reason.”
Councilor Greg Thornton said he heard the chief “loud and clear,” but said he hoped to gain a better perspective about what La Center’s residents wanted for their city before dipping into the reserves.
“The city is in a situation where our revenues are going down and our expenditures continue to go up,” Thornton said. “The question is, ‘How do we use the reserves to the best advantage of our city?’ To me it’s a sustainability issue. The police (staffing shortage) is just one thing we are faced with. Do we want or need 24-7 police coverage? We may need to have a town hall or something to ask our citizens if they want that.”
Thornton added that he supports the police department, but said the city has a low crime rate – the lowest in Clark County – and that some citizens may not feel the need for such extensive coverage.
But Councilor Randy Williams argued that the council shouldn’t wait much longer.
“The chief needs an officer now,” Williams said. “A few years ago, the wheels were falling off our police cars. We took care of that … now the wheels are falling off our police officers. Yes, we need a more strategic plan (regarding use of the reserve funds), but, right now, we need an officer. It’s my opinion that not a soul in this town wants us to cut the cops.”
Hiring a police officer is not a simple process and candidates who come in with experience need to be vetted first. Because the city vetted candidates before deciding to not fund the vacant position in 2015, the police department still has a list of viable candidates. Denney said that if the top candidate is still available and still willing to come to work for La Center, he could have him up and running by July.
The cost for that officer, for the remainder of 2015, including benefits will be about $50,000. The councilors voted 5-0 on Wednesday night to pay for the position out of the reserves for 2015 and to reflect the hire in a future budget amendment.
The vote drew a round of applause from several audience members, but Councilor Valenzuela cautioned the crowd that the city’s next budget process could be tough.
“We are already spending over half of our budget on police,” Valenzuela said. “Now we’re adding $125,000 to that $1.7 million. I want you to realize that our situation is nebulous and that tapping into our reserves has a long-term impact on our budget. If in two years, the (Cowlitz) casino is up and running and the cardrooms leave, we’re looking at a $2.5 million loss in revenues. We don’t know what will happen when that new casino opens.”
