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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0184.023 1996-1998 Mtv or o?J ~c~ ` Wayne G. Carvalho 6ily; Police Chief Stephen K. Yamashiro Mnyor James S. Correa 4~ , Deputy Police Chie( ~ of w~ (D ~D1Tit~~ D~ ~~T~tTtYTt ~ ~ ~ ~ POLICE DEPARTMENT Z ~ ~ -f ~ rv (1l 349 Kapiolani Street Hilo, Hawaii 96720-3998 ~ t~7 (808) 9353371 • Fax (808) 961-2702 ~j ~ ~ 1 ~ ~ `Il , ~ - i 1 March 20, 1997 ~ ~ cn - o TO JAMES ARAKAKI, HAWAII COUNTY COUNCIL CHAIR AND ,~/ME~/MBERS OF THE HAWAII COUNTY COUNCIL FROM ~AYNE G. CARVALHO, POLICE CHIEF SUBJECT: HAWAII COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT'S BUDGET MESSAGE 1997-98 Attached for your information is the Department's budget message for fiscal year 1997-98. wGC:sk Att. ;;umna. DTI, esented~_~~ .o:. ~te,e'. t~ate_ MAR 2`i ~,:.A.~.e HAWAII COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT BUDGET MESSAGE 1997-98 The County of Hawaii continues to experience austere and lean budget constraints. Although population, traffic and calls for services continue to increase, the Police Department has not escaped major cutbacks in its operating expenses. Only recently have we been allowed to fill vacancies. This personnel shortage compounds our difficulties to meet the quality of services expected by the public. While public services and traffic problems have increased each year, the size of the Police Department has not increased proportionately for several years. We are continually streamlining our duties, functions and responsibilities in order to operate more efficiently and economically and to cope with existing shortages of personnel and equipment. Restructuring at the command level, redistributing workloads and eliminating redundant functions are but a few of the steps we have taken to cope with budget constraints. We have serious backlogs and a high rate of overtime pay for an overworked staff. Over the past four years, our needs have become so critical that many priorities in this Department have been deferred. Funding for crime prevention programs such as D.A.R.E., HI-PAL, P.A.G.E. and Juvenile Gang Awareness have not been increased. 1 Although we were advised not to request new positions, Hawaii Revised Statutes 353-6(b) compels us to hold pre-trial detainees until they are arraigned in court. This legislative mandate, without a funding appropriation, has placed on our Department an enormous burden to supervise, staff, process, provide meals, secure transport and render medical services to inmates. Additionally, the law requires us to separate detainees by gender, and because our Hilo cellblock is inadequate and can hold only five prisoners, it has forced us to periodically double-bunk inmates. Because of this new law, we must have an increase of positions to perform the essential requirements of the job. In conjunction with our staffing needs, we intend to seek County and State CIP funds to expand our cellblock facilities to comply with the new State law. Shortage of personnel in the azeas of support, operations and cellblocks puts us in the most precarious position our Department has experienced. It is imperative that we be allowed to expand our personnel at a time when our budget is deficient. Sworn and civilian supervisors are needed to augment present positions in our dispatch operations. The Department is averaging 185 hours of overtime a week, increased sick leave attributed to stress, and a 24 percent increase of calls, compared to the same period in 1995. This, we believe, amply justifies increasing the number of Department positions. Increased health benefits, medical coverage revisions, amended civil service procedures and the like have increased the workload of our only Personnel Assistant by more than 50 percent. Major increases in crime reporting, expanded recovery, tracking, storing and retrieving evidence and more frequent court presentations are too much for our two evidence custodians to handle adequately. 2 Because of mandated budget restrictions, we have tried to hold the line on increases in our operating budget. However, unavoidable cost increases in service contracts, car allowance, electricity, police safety equipment and supplies and autopsies have forced us to reduce other areas of the budget in order to comply with these administrative restrictions. We have reduced our overtime budget by 30 percent from the current year's $1,266,980 to $892,041. As of January 31, 1997, we should have expended a projected 58 percent of our budgeted amount of overtime for this 1996-97 fiscal year, but in fact we have already expended $904,832, or 71 percent. It will be impossible to operate within the constraints of the proposed overtime budget. Since we are athree-shift, seven-day-a-week, twenty-four-hours-a-day operation and have contractual overtime and premium pay mandates, overtime occurrences are inevitable. Our estimated annual amount for holiday overtime pay alone is $887,138. This would leave only $12,403 for all other overtime occurrences, including overtime for vacancies, vacation and sick leaves and unanticipated natural disasters such as floods, eruptions, humcanes and wind storms. After these funds are expended, all SHOPO Unit 12 overtime will have to be logged as compensatory time. This will create a huge liability for the County because much of the compensatory time balances will eventually have to be paid off, possibly at a higher conversion rate. Additionally the HGEA contract mandates the payment of cash, if the employee so elects, for all overtime incurred. Our requests for equipment are minimal but essential. Because of a change in Federal Communications Commission policy, we will soon have to compete with private industry to 3 utilize radio frequencies. Our radio crystals will be legally available for purchase for private use, which means we will have to share our radio bandwidth with the private sector and could significantly impact public safety responses. Although we have replacement schedules for radios, we have had to delay these purchases in previous years because of budget constraints and are now approximately two years behind schedule. Hand-held portable radios are critically needed now as officers are currently sharing radios. With the impending graduation of the current recruit class, we will require even more radios. Fifty-eight of our 199 portable radios, or 29 percent, are more than 10 years old, and repairs are difficult, if not impossible, because parts aze no longer manufactured. We also have ] 70 mobile radios that are more than 10 years old, and manufacturers will only guarantee that parts will be available for a maximum of 10 years. Outdoor generators with higher electrical output aze needed as backup power for our remote communication sites. Our present generators are antiquated and no longer capable of accommodating additional or new advanced radio equipment. With the impending acquisition and conversion to the 800 MHz radio trunking system, newer radios and generators have become an even more critical need. We have spared no accounts from reduction. Renovations, building repairs and facility maintenance have been deferred or canceled. Reroofing and repainting of the Puna Police Station and Captain Cook substation have been deferred. Funding for capital improvement projects are in 4 jeopazdy. Among the projects in jeopardy are: the cellblock expansion (Hilo); the air-conditioning retrofit (Hilo and Kona); the chain link fencing and security (Hilo); the evidence wazehouse and radio shop completion (Hilo); the central heating and cooling system (South Kohala); the parking lot expansion (South Kohala); and the 800 MHz radio conversion (islandwide). Only essential projects such as Public Safety Building parking lot lighting conversion and American Disabilities Act compliance projects will be undertaken. A matter of primary importance to the Department is the improvement of its operations with a computerized automated information system. We aze at the stage of procuring a professional services contract for the acquisition and installation of a computer aided dispatch (CAD) system. A future RFP will call for interfacing the CAD system into a record management system. This automated information system will aid in solving crimes, expediting police responses and producing statistical crime information in graphic form in order to help us deploy manpower and other resources more efficiently. The computer will greatly enhance our overall efficiency and effectiveness. We will continue to upgrade our E-911 dispatch consoles and police radio and emergency equipment within our amended budget. Some of these costs are reflected in this budget and in our CIP requests. We have scrutinized all accounts in our budget proposal and have kept increases to a bare minimum. To further reduce expenses, we have canceled maintenance agreements on some of our 5 office equipment, thereby saving $9,000. Since we are now billing other agencies such as Public Works, Fire, Prosecutors Office and Liquor Control for fuel costs, we have reduced our fuels and lubricants account by $34,500. Our insurance account was reduced by $17,650 from our original proposal with the hope that we would have a more favorable rate due to our past year's good driving record. The cellblock medical accounts for Hilo and Kona were reduced by $21,734. The original budget request was for $100,000, but the cost of this service is still unknown, since the RFP has not been executed. Our equipment account was reduced by $266,618 from our original budget request. Major items deleted were two of three blue and white vehicles, computer equipment, 25 of 50 hand-held portable radios and two of three outdoor generators. For reasons stated earlier, we are very apprehensive about this decision to reduce funding for equipment purchases. We hope to continue our efforts in crime prevention programs such as Community Policing. The original grant that pays 55% of the cost for five Community Policing Officers expires on September 30, 1997. Funds to continue this worthwhile program for the remaining nine months have been requested in our current budget proposal. Funds for the other crime prevention programs such as D.A.R.E., HI-PAL and P.A.G.E. have been maintained at the current level. The addition of four Community Police Officer positions in a second grant that started in April 1995 and expires in March 1998 will allow us to address many community-oriented problems in all districts. Funds to continue this program for the remaining three months will be requested during the budget amendment hearing in May 1997. The program is essential to getting to the 6 root of crime problems in this County and to increase the involvement of community members in a partnership with police to help create a safer environment. Matching funds have also been allocated from our asset forfeiture account. As in previous yeazs, our efforts in traffic enforcement and apprehension of drivers under the influence of alcohol and drugs will continue to be emphasized in order to reduce traffic accidents and minimize the death toll on our island's highways. Although Federal and State funding reductions eliminated one of two traffic positions, we endeavor to carry out the necessary traffic enforcement measures to curtail serious injury accidents. In conclusion, the Department realizes that the County of Hawaii is experiencing an austere economic climate. The Depaztment is doing its part by trying to operate more economically and efficiently, yet striving to serve the ever increasing needs of the public. We continue to operate with a shortage of personnel, an overworked staff and antiquated equipment. We have made sincere efforts to hold costs down without seriouslyjeopazdizing police operations. However, some increases are mandated by law and others aze unavoidable operating costs. We have pared down our budget proposal to bare minimum and in some cases less than minimum in order to comply with mandated restrictions. We will continue our efforts in crime prevention programs and traffic enforcement within the confines of our budget. Despite a no-frills budget proposal and an uncertainty of future funding, we are hopeful that we will be able to provide the citizens of Hawaii County the highest level of police service. 7