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minutes 12-08-99Page 11 of 31
<br />of the things that I was going to take on afterwards. Why, on earth, does ‘hire the personnel necessary to carry out its
<br />functions’ mixed up with ‘except for purposes of inquiry’? Those two ideas just don’t go together. They’re two different -
<br />you hire the personnel necessary to carry out its functions, period. Then the next (g) says, ‘except for purposes of inquiry,
<br />neither the Commission nor its members shall interfere in anyway’, and actually I’d change the sentence around to say,
<br />‘neither the Commission nor its members shall interfere in anyway except for purposes of inquiry’. I don’t know who starts
<br />out sentences with those kinds of phrases, but they drive me crazy. But, I think that that would solve some of your problems.
<br />They’ve mixed up two different ideas in one paragraph, and it diminishes both of the ideas. If you said one phrase is hire
<br />personnel necessary to carry out your functions, then we can start to expand on what kind of personnel. You’ve already got
<br />permission to hire a contract person.
<br />SCHEELE: We hire an investigator, yes.
<br />M. HERKES: And you have a budget, but you don’t have, in your budget, funds to hire an outside attorney?
<br />SCHEELE: No, and when the budget is being reviewed by the County Council, and the word comes down from the Mayor,
<br />that departments have to cut their budgets, if the departments are told 10%, then the Chief comes to us and says, and you
<br />need to cut yours by 10% too.
<br />M. HERKES: Go back, Sharon. First you started with the County Council, then you started with the Mayor. We all know that
<br />the Mayor doesn’t tell the Council what to do, and the Council doesn’t listen anyway. Is it the Council or is the Police
<br />Department that cuts it?
<br />SCHEELE: That cuts it? Well, actually, I think it’s probably really the Mayor that says budgets need to be cut.
<br />M. HERKES: Budgets need to be cut. Okay.
<br />SCHEELE: And so, therefore, each department has to start cutting their budgets, and the Chief comes to us, and says, okay,
<br />everybody has to cut by 10%, therefore, you have to cut yours by 10%.
<br />M. HERKES: Do you get a choice as to where to cut?
<br />SCHEELE: Well, yes, we do, but our budget is so small anyway, and we’re dealing with several million dollars in the Police
<br />Department budget, and we’re dealing with less than $100,000 in the Police Commission budget, to pay for our investigator
<br />and to pay for our secretary, and it’s just really out of proportion. I mean,10%, yes. But 10% of $100,000 and 10% of 20
<br />something million dollars is a big difference.
<br />M. HERKES: But that’s mixing apples and oranges. My real question was, isn’t there a way that you can contract out of your
<br />budget for an attorney?
<br />SCHEELE: No, not right now, not the way our budget is.
<br />M. HERKES: And it is the Police Chief that says this is the way we’re going to cut it? Well, you’d better get ready. It’s going
<br />to get cut again, big time.
<br />SCHEELE: Oh yes, exactly. You’re right.
<br />M. HERKES: Can I ask one more question?
<br />RAY: Sure.
<br />M. HERKES: I think I asked you this before, but I want to bring it up again, on a Department of Public Safety, where we
<br />have one Commission and three departments. What would be your feeling of that? That would give you a bigger budget,
<br />maybe.
<br />RAY: This is assuming we want to pursue a Fire Commission, right?
<br />M. HERKES: Yes.
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