Cities and towns in Southern Marin are considering ways to cut into mounting costs as the financial fallout from the coronavirus pandemic continues.
Sausalito’s short-term solutions include freezing the hiring of police officers and canceling the purchase of body cameras that would have cost $115,202 in the first year, according to the staff report.
A longer-term approach is taking shape through a pilot program that would share services with Mill Valley’s police department, said John Rohrbacher, Sausalito chief of police.
As part of the agreement, Mill Valley will lend a detective and a full-time motorcycle traffic officer and Sausalito will lend its part-time motorcycle officer. The agreement does not require council approval since it would come at no increased cost to the cities and it would begin immediately, said Rohrbacher.
“We already agreed in the concept that detectives from each agency are going to help each other out,” he said. “So that means, with permission already in place from me and Mill Valley’s police chief, detectives are just going to do it. We don’t have to ask anyone for permission.”
A recently hired police officer was released from training, offering an opportunity to freeze the vacant police officer position — saving Sausalito $125,000 in pay and benefits, Rohrbacher said.
“Instead of trying to fill that job, Adam (Politzer, city manager) said we should freeze that position and save that money for something else,” Rohrbacher said. “So instead, we are going back and looking at service sharing opportunities.”
This kind of agreement also is an opportunity to rekindle old partnerships, similar to 2014 when police chiefs from Mill Valley and Sausalito agreed to a shared traffic-enforcement services department.
“It was a simple service sharing idea,” Rohrbacher said. “No formal agreements … were involved. Agencies that chose to participate did so voluntarily and no charges or costs were billed to each other.”
Sausalito spends $5.5 million on police services and has 20 sworn officers on staff. In Mill Valley, 22 sworn officers serve the department, which budgeted $6.3 million this year, according to the department websites.
While there is no set end date for the pilot program, shared service agreements such as these open up resources for the city to use elsewhere, said Alan Piombo, Mill Valley’s interim city manager and former police chief.
“This opportunity allows each agency’s detectives to work together and provide coverage when the other is off-duty or on vacation,” Piombo said. “The shared traffic officers allow for additional coverage throughout the week since ours works three to four days a week. It also provides additional resources for focused enforcement efforts.”
Discussions of sharing services between towns and cities throughout Marin are still in the early stages, said Sashi McEntee, Mill Valley mayor.
“We are just starting to talk about ways to bring the groups together,” McEntee said. “There is no reason for everyone to have duplications of services everywhere. We are a very small county and there are definitely things we can share while still maintaining our individual identities and values.”
"share" - Google News
May 30, 2020 at 07:44AM
https://ift.tt/2ApWfQw
Sausalito, Mill Valley to share police services - Marin Independent Journal
"share" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2VXQsKd
https://ift.tt/3d2Wjnc
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Sausalito, Mill Valley to share police services - Marin Independent Journal"
Post a Comment