City government: July 2010 Archives

POMONA - The Pomona Police Department serves the city at a cost of about $36 million and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department says it can do it for about $32.5 million.

The Sheriff's Department says it can do the job for less money and provide better service.

"This is a lot more coverage than they've been getting in the last five years," said Capt. Bruce Fogarty of the Sheriff's Contract Law Enforcement Bureau. "This would be a good public safety programs for the city of Pomona."

There are doubters including members of One LA, a grass-roots organization that focuses on issues of concern to families including schools, jobs and public safety.

"We have some serious doubts" about the Sheriff's Department analysis, said the Rev. Julie Roberts-Fronk, a One LA leader and a minister at First Christian Church of Pomona.

City Council members in April directed City Manager Linda Lowry to request an estimate for law enforcement services from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

The city has cut staff, downsized programs and outsourced some services over the past two years.

City Council members cannot make a decision to dismantle the Police Department. The city's charter states such a decision requires the approval of the city's electorate.

Pomona administrators have until Aug. 6 to submit documentation to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk to have a measure placed on the Nov. 2 election ballot, according to a city staff report.

A report on the Sheriff's Department analysis is not expected to go to the City Council until early August.

City administrators have questions about the analysis and have turned the estimate over to a consultant who will go through it in an effort to come up with a comparison of both departments, said Mark Gluba, assistant to the city manager.

"We need someone to look at this, the service levels and the cost proposed by the Sheriff's Department," Gluba said.

The estimate does not make any mention of start-up costs that may be involved if the city contracted with the Sheriff's Department, he said.

Among the questions city administrators have is the way the Sheriff's Department calculates service in terms of a "deputy sheriff service unit."

Under the Sheriff's Department system the deputy, his replacements when he's off duty, along with the costs of maintaining his patrol car, fuel and clerical staff and all the people and resources he needs to help him carry out his work, are built into the service unit, Fogarty said.

"We're still trying to figure out how many people they put on the street," Police Chief Dave Keetle said. "They count man-hours, not people."

Sheriff's Department representatives say the estimate was developed with information from the city, visits to the city and crime statistics.

"We're trying to get a real picture of the city," Fogarty said.

However, Fogarty said his department didn't have all the information it needed to provide the city with a more accurate comparison of what the city provides now and what the county would provide because it lacked information including the actual number of Pomona Police officers working a shift.

Kettle said the city was cooperative with the Sheriff's Department and provided all information requested.

"I had a list from the city manager's office," Keetle said. "I provided everything."

Among the things Keetle provided was the department's patrol roster and, as requested, time sheets for a busy week.

Included with the information were about 700 pages of time-sheets for sworn and non-sworn personnel, Keetle said.

The county estimates it would provide services to Pomona with 191 sworn personnel.

The city, following recent budget cuts, will do so with more than 150. Two years ago, prior to the start of deep cost cutting, Pomona had 200 sworn officers.

The sheriff's estimate covers what it calls enhanced services including traffic enforcement; a special problems team to address issues such as auto theft, graffiti and vandalism; gang teams, and some deputies to handle youth services and community programs.

Not all cities purchase those services, but given Pomona's needs it would be wise for the city to do so, Sheriff's Department representatives said.

The department has many other programs such as K-9 programs and helicopters services that the city could access without cost in an emergency, Fogarty said.

However, if the city wanted to have a K-9 team as part of the services it contracts for or a certain number of helicopter patrol hours, it would cost the city extra, he said.

Pomona now has its own K-9 unit and its own helicopter.

While the city would have some detectives stationed in Pomona to investigate property crimes and some crimes against persons such as batteries, homicide cases would be investigated by the Sheriff's Department unit based in Commerce, which handles homicides across the county, Fogarty said.

The estimate, also referred to as a Phase I study, does not include an assessment of Pomona police resources such as its building, fleet, radio system or what police personnel might be transferred to the Sheriff's Department, said Sgt. Mike Mangen of the Sheriff's Contract Law Enforcement Bureau.

Such a review would be part of a phase II study and is usually done when a city is giving serious consideration to contracting with the county for law enforcement service. The study has an estimated cost of about $25,000, a fee that would be waived if the city chose to go the Sheriff's Department, Mangen said.

The fee goes to offset the costs of doing what is an extensive analysis that takes three to six months to complete, he said.

As part of the estimate, Sheriff's Department personnel looked at Pomona's radio system at the city's request but no evaluations were made, Fogarty said.

Keetle said Pomona's radio system is a significant matter. The $6 million digital system purchased during the tenure of retired Chief James Lewis is part of a network involving several Los Angeles County cities.

The system has considerable range and was designed to facilitate communication among multiple public safety agencies in emergencies.

The county uses an analog system and is working on developing a digital system, but for now the city's radio system and the county's are not compatible, the estimate said.

A county system is still five to six years from being in place and will cost well into the hundreds of millions of dollars, Keetle said.

Even though Pomona has an up-to-date system it may still have to pay $3 million to $9 million for the county's future system, he said.

It's matters such as the communication system and others that raise the concerns of One LA members who have gone through the estimate.

Pomona has a better radio system now, Roberts-Fronk said, but could have to give it up for something that's not as good to have compatibility with the county.

"We're going to have to take three steps back," she said.

One LA also has concerns about the Sheriff's Department rotation of personnel. The frequent movement of personnel makes it difficult to establish long-term relationship between law enforcement and community members, relationships needed to address crime and quality-of-life issues, Roberts-Fronk said.

On the surface it may look like Pomona could save money by going to the Sheriff's Department but the start-up costs are likely to be significant, she said.

"It could take about three years to start seeing a savings cost," Roberts-Fronk said.

Members of the Pomona Police Management Association also have questions about the estimate.

As it is now the information from the Sheriff's Department does not offer a complete idea of what it would provide, said Lt. Ray Mansfield, association president.

"It's not a complete picture for anyone looking to make an informed decision at this time," Mansfield said.

The report lacks details as to how many of the deputies assigned to Pomona would work only the city, or if some assigned to a Pomona station but would work in neighboring areas served by the Sheriff's Department.

As it is now "all of the officers that wear a Pomona police patch only work in Pomona," Mansfield said.

Fogarty said under the Sheriff's Department a Pomona sheriff's station would serve no other city. It's possible it would house some deputies assigned to unincorporated county areas nearby but there are few of those areas near Pomona, Fogarty said.

Mansfield said without more detailed information, a fair comparison of the two departments can't be made.

POMONA - Shorter library hours, slightly longer waiting periods to process construction projects and, eventually, fees for playing on lighted athletic fields are effects of the budget crunch the city is experiencing.

Recently, City Council members adopted the city's operating budget, which includes its $79.4 million general fund. It is the general fund that contains money used to pay for services such as police, fire, the library, and parks and recreation

To balance the budget, the city had to make deep cuts. It had made cuts in the last 12 months but the results of the most recent round will soon be visible, beginning with the Pomona Public Library.

Beginning Tuesday (July 6), the library will be open Monday through Wednesday from noon to 7 p.m. It will close Thursday and Friday and open Saturday from noon to 5 p.m.

The new schedule means the library will offer 26 hours of service a week, 10 fewer hours than it had been offering.

"We'll have no full-time people in the building," said Greg Shapton, who is both library director and the city's community services director.

Although the summer reading program and the computer lab will remain in operation, some resources will become scarce, Shapton said.

The library's book budget this year is $40,000, down from $80,000 last year, he said.

"We're going to be dropping a lot of magazines," Shapton said. "We'll still buy popular materials people want such as best sellers."

But to do that the library will have to sacrifice purchasing core reference materials and scale back on the number of online resources such as databases, Shapton said.

"We're between a rock and a hard place," Shapton said.

Grants the library was able to secure in the past are no longer available because the library does not meet certain local funding requirements, he said.

Shapton said it may be possible to keep some magazines with the help of its adopt-a- magazine program that allows people to purchase a subscription for the library.

But it may be harder to raise money for other resources, he said.

The city's recreation programs are expected to experience minimal changes but sports leagues will soon find themselves paying to play on fields with lights.

Community Services personnel are developing a fee schedule for the use of illuminated sports fields, Shapton said.

The city spends "$100,000 annually to light up all these ball fields," Shapton said. "We want to support youth."

Under the current financial situation the city simply can no longer provide that service, he said.

Community services lost maintenance employees so it may take longer to tend to matters such as plumbing problems at park restrooms and other recreational facilities, Shapton said.

While the Pomona Police Department has had to make cuts, Chief Dave Keetle said he is doing all he can so officers can remain patrolling the streets instead of having to take on administrative duties at a desk.

"It's my job to do everything I can so that doesn't happen," he said.

Part of Keetle's job is to shuffle job responsibilities such as was needed to accommodate the loss of three civilian positions, one of them a management analyst.

The cuts were made to keep two, and possibly three, sworn positions at the request of the council.

The management analyst duties include budget development, payroll matters and revenue generating responsibilities related to grants, Keetle said.

Grant-related responsibilities include researching, writing, monitoring and completing reports on the use of grant funds to agencies that provided them, Keetle said.

Other responsibilities include handling jail booking fees, addressing false alarm reports and graffiti, and writing staff reports and resolutions.

Keetle said all of those responsibilities will have to be assigned to one or more persons.

City Manager Linda Lowry said efforts are being made to ensure response to calls for police service is the top priority at the Police Department.

In other departments, people will feel some effects resulting from budget cuts. People submitting paperwork for projects to the city's planning division may find "the turnaround time is a little longer," she said.

The city is still involved in labor negotiations with most of its employee groups and that could have an impact on this years budget.

"We're still in the throes of the bargaining process, We have to get through it to see if we hit our budget target," she said.

New agreements will probably be for a year, Lowry said. Once agreements are reached "we'll be back at it pretty quickly," Lowry said.

Councilman Steve Atchley said he expects residents and others doing business with the city will eventually have a complaint that is tied to service cuts.

Atchley said he hopes the city begins to see some economic improvement soon.

"Even a little bit of a rebound in revenue would be fine," Atchley said.

But if there is no improvement the city could find itself outsourcing more of its services such as residential trash collection, he said.

Atchley said he hopes the economic picture is beginning to improve and that the city will be able to put some challenging times behind it.