1.0 Call to Order and Pledge of Allegiance

Transcription

1 City of Pewaukee Common Council Meeting Minutes W240 N3065 Pewaukee Road September 1, 2009 In attendance: Mayor S. Klein, Alderpersons S. Bierce, C. Enters, M. Hasslinger, H.R. Hathaway, and D. Noll. Ald. Kiser was excused. Also present was City Administrator T. LaBorde. 1.0 Call to Order and Pledge of Allegiance Mayor Klein called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. and requested everyone stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. 2.0 Presentation by Waukesha County Sheriff Dan Trawicki on Policing Services provided by the Waukesha County Sheriff s Department Mayor Klein presented information as to who the presentation would go this evening. He stated that the Council needed to look at everything that is available to the city and had conversations with the Sheriff and it was important for the Council to hear what the County has to offer. The debate on the issue will take place on another night. The Sheriff has received some questions from the aldermen in advance of the meeting. There may be some brief questions following the presentation and then that s it for tonight. It will be important for the city to receive questions from the department and the residents. Sheriff Trawicki introduced himself and other representatives from his department Steve Marks, Karen Ruff, and Eric Severson. The Sheriff understands that the main interest for much of the community is local control. He began his presentation and proceeded through a total of forty-one (41) slides in the attached Waukesha County Sheriff s Department - Police Contract Services for the City of Pewaukee. The Mayor asked a question about the detective position. The Sheriff clarified how the detective position would work. One detective would be charged to the city but the other detective would be assigned to the substation but would not be charged. The charge is indirectly paid by the community through their county taxes. Recommended one detective that would be here on days and would only work on city of Pewaukee cases and then another detective that would not be part of the contract that their bureau would be handling anyway. Not built into the cost. The Mayor also asked if the Sheriff could clarify the coverage of the community. The Sheriff responded that his recommendation would be the contract serves the residents, businesses and thoroughfares through the community. He looks at I-94 and Highway 16 as transient traffic. He would recommend that they not patrol those and that they spend more time on the local streets. That s not to say that they wouldn t send people out there as needed. The Sheriff s staff would be handling Highway 16 and I-94. Sheriff Trawicki responded to the twenty-one (21) questions that were submitted to him prior to the meeting by the Common Council as follows: Common Council meeting minutes ~ September 1,

2 1. What mechanism in place to discuss service issues or concerns? The Lt. assigned to days would be the person who would meet with the Administrator to go over the issues. This would be the Lieutenant who works Monday through Friday. All of the issues funnel through the Lieutenant. There is a shift relief factor built in so that when the Lt. is off, the position would be backfilled with a deputy that is built into the cost so that it is continually staffed. 2. Will concerns be documented and action plans to correct any problems be documented? The Sheriff s department utilizes action plans on a regular basis. All issues are addressed immediately. 3. How will special events that require additional police be handled? Will citizens phone the county directly or will the calls come from city hall to the county? The Sheriff s department would cover all special events and has built in an overtime amount. The number is based on a five year average for overtime. He would also utilize other resources within the Waukesha County Sheriff s Department. 4. Will there be a year-end report that summarizes all police activity? If so, when would this report be available? An annual report will be prepared. Reports will be presented to the Common Council either monthly or at every council meeting by the Lieutenant. 5. Question: The City of Pewaukee is unique in its composition of commercial business, valued at $951,000, The City has a sophisticated mix of Finance, Banking, Insurance, major corporations, utilities' and healthcare. This combination is unmatched not only in Waukesha County but also in Southeastern Wisconsin. The majority of these business would require specialized police capabilities. For example, we have both Wisconsin Electric Power Company and the American Transmission Company, that require high levels of security from terrorist threats. These companies control not only the power in the State of Wisconsin, but also many adjoining states. Our financial business, require high levels of protection from white collar crime. The Medical College of Wisconsin, Pro-Health and Aurora, have major healthcare clinics. This unique mix presents some issues that the Waukesha County Sheriff's Department, the Milwaukee County Sheriff or any department in Southeastern Wisconsin, have ever had to deal with in such a concentrated group. Only the City of Pewaukee Police Department has had the experience to meet these challenges, by growing in knowledge and experience as the City itself grew. This is due to the outstanding planning of the cities development, provided by our planning department and past and present legislative bodies in the Town/ City of Pewaukee, in conjunction with our police and fire departments. I believe the Waukesha County Sheriff is confident, but I don't want him to take this challenge to lightly and be overconfident. How will the Sherriff meet these challenges and provide our community the type of protection we have come to expect? The lowest price bidder s is often not the best choice! A community like the city must have complete confidence in their choice, and that choice has been left to the governing body of the city, which is the Common Council. The Sheriff is not in the position to handle all of the potential issues discussed here, and neither is any other body able to handle all of them. There is a current division that handles white collar crimes and therefore would be in an excellent position to handle for the Common Council meeting minutes ~ September 1,

3 most part any financial white collar crime that would occur. In regards to levels of security from terrorism threats, he has personnel that have that as their expertise and has personnel that are assigned to the FBI terrorism task force that would handle these issues and have access to resources that could come in and help them out. In regards to city development, the city has done a great job. Does not feel he is overconfident but that he is confident and that he is in a great position to provide the city with a level of service that you have a reasonable expectation to have. The department does a lot of planning for these types of situations and is confident that the Sheriff s department will meet the needs of the city. 9. How much of the city s current infrastructure will you be able to use - i.e. cars, buildings? Will you plan on turning the city hall into a substation? The recommendation is to continue to use city hall as a substation. The department would have to look at the vehicles and equipment in Lisbon they looked at the equipment and the Sheriff s department fleet service made a bid to buy the items. 10. What is your plan for interacting with the fire department or other departments in the city? Will you establish some type of procedure as to who has control of an emergency event i.e. car accident, fire scene, etc. That procedure would not change from what you currently have. The Sheriff s department currently works with all of the fire departments in the county and at some point they interact with them all. He recently got a call from the Chief in Sussex who also works full-time in Brookfield and said that if they want to contact him they should it works famously. He also mentioned Chief Doug Brahm in Lisbon who had mentioned a working relationship. The relationship wouldn t change and they will continue to work to insure a consistent level of service. 11. What do you see the level of staffing to be for the city compared to what we have now if we were to go with the Sheriff s Dept. for service? He has given you the proposal. He also mentioned having discussed this with the consultant who performed the study. It could be less employees but in most cases it is more employees than we have now. The sheriff s department would be able to provide 24 hour supervision. He doesn t have all of the information related to some areas such as the typing of reports. 12. Would our current police department staff be able to apply for hire with the Sheriff s Dept., and expect to be given some priority as you add to your staff? If so, how many of our officers and detectives would you be looking to hire and give us the coverage our city needs? The Sheriff s recommendation would be to hire 18 FTE s and understands that the department currently has a total of 27 full-time officers including the Chief. The recommendation is for 18 full-time employees. The Sheriff also has 6 openings on his department at this time. That amounts to 24 fulltime positions. He wants to hire the city s employees and they would be subject to the process that would unfold per Civil Service rules. The 18 positions however would be excluded from the civil service per Act 40. Act 40 deals with communities contracting for service and allows the department to bypass civil service there would be a testing process which includes internal oral interview, polygraph, psychological, physical exam, drug testing, and medical screening. For the 6 other openings those would have to follow the civil service testing and complete a test. He would petition the commission to open up a window for one week to allow those Common Council meeting minutes ~ September 1,

4 officers to apply, the window would close and then go through the process as noted above including the written test. In addition he is aware of the boat patrol, the Sheriff is moving forward at the county level to look at a part-time seasonal position to employ as many as he could based on a collaborative agreement currently in place with the Town of Delafield and the Village of Pewaukee. 13. Would seniority and service record with our department be considered as a factor in the application process? Proposal would be similar as to what they did in the Town of Lisbon. There was discussion as to how sick time would be calculated. There would be an integrated pay scale. The officers would be placed at the closest step in the pay scale to where they were currently being paid. He would assume that the majority would be making close to where they are or the same. The Sheriff had Human Resources review the contract and there are some things that are advantages and disadvantages. Seniority would not carry for vacation picks or shift selection. The supervisory staff of the city would be eligible for testing for lieutenant, captain and detective positions. They would also be immediately enrolled in the Wisconsin Retirement System. 14. Can any officer that is accepted, request and be assigned to our city? (Guarantee?) The answer would be a qualified yes and a qualified no. The best way to gauge what would occur is to look at what has occurred in the past. He couldn t guarantee that the officers would work here, assuming that this is where they want to work, there is a lot more opportunity in the department. If he has an officer that wants to work here, he can t think of a reason why they wouldn t. 15. With seasoned officers entering the WRS, how many years before they are vested and eligible for retirement benefits? (Years in the plan vs- age?) The plan is based on the top three years of wages and the number of years of service. 16. How would our officer s new pay scale be determined in relation to their present rank and pay? He has already mentioned that. 17. What about our clerical staff and their jobs? The Sheriff recommends that we keep some clerical staff. There would be a need for a clerk to process citations issued and greet people. We would have to have further discussions on that. 18. Would the city have a police department presence in the city hall similar to what we have now? Yes 19. Would officers assigned to City of Pewaukee be floating to other jurisdictions, or could we expect the same officers to remain in the city in order to build the rapport with citizens and staff? His recommendation would be to have the officers assigned to semi-permanent districts. 20. If this is a contractual agreement (3yrs, etc?), and should we not be satisfied, can we ever cancel agreement, or is this a matter of never going back, even if we financially could afford to start all over? Typically the contract is for a five-year contract. There are some incentives. The city would have to provide sixty day notice to cancel the contract. If the contract were to be canceled before the end of the first five years, there would be a required payment of the indirect costs that were saved on the front end of the contract. Not going to tie your hands forever in the future. 21. Would squads be identified as the City of Pewaukee along with Sheriff s logo? Yes. He thinks that the pictures showed that. Common Council meeting minutes ~ September 1,

5 Skipped over a few questions so returned to #6. 6. Question: If the Waukesha County Sheriff would assume police protection duties, I would like to see "City of Pewaukee" more prominently displayed on the squad cars than what I have seen with other much smaller communities. Our citizens would need to know there is a very visible force in the city, protecting the city. In order for that to happen we would need "City of Pewaukee" to be the most prominent logo on your squads. Our community will be the largest municipality you would be representing, and for the cost deserves to be properly identified. Has no problem with that, this would be consistent with what is provided for the other communities. 7. Who will be the contact who the city will work with? There is a dayshift Lieutenant that would be the contact. 8. Can you explain how it would work if there were a large emergency event in the community? And if something were to occur in Waukesha County how would you commit to respond to a larger emergency? He believes that a specific event occurs somewhere else and then another event takes place here. If someone needs help they are going to send a squad. They do not however randomly move cars around. They are all working together as one community. They are trying to get away from only one community handling issues. There will be squads coming in from other communities to help in Pewaukee. The presentation that was made has been made available and will be on the city s website. The Sheriff suggested that the most difficult part at this point is to look at it objectively. What s really hard is to take the emotions out of it. Mayor Klein stated that there are people involved here and that is going to be difficult. Ald. Hathaway asked about whether or not municipal court would continue on what would happen with the municipal citation funds. The Sheriff stated that non-contractual units would receive the revenue, like it currently does, and for citations issued by contractual units the revenue would go to the city, like it currently does. Ald. Enters asked if this was the first city that the department would contract with. The Sheriff responded that is true. If the city were to sign on with the Sheriff what involvement would the city have with the control of the contractual language or the daily operations and if there were some change with the elected bodies could that arrangement change? The Sheriff stated that all positions can change. In twenty plus years of contracting with the Village of Sussex that really hasn t changed could it change yes. He spoke with Chairman Matt Gehrke from Lisbon who suggested that if the Council has any concerns, tell them to call me. As the Town that was the best decision that they made. You have to work with the changes it goes to the integrity of the agency and those that are delivering the service. Ald. Enters stated that she is hearing that even though there is a contract the city s concerns are important not just the County telling the Common Council meeting minutes ~ September 1,

6 city what we need. The Sheriff stated that the contract will state that ultimately it is the decision of the Sheriff and that they are his employees. He would suggest that you individually and as a Board talk to the chairman and the administrator to find out how it has worked. It is about the community. All of us have to start looking at ourselves as one community and not an individual community. Ald. Enters asked if there were any other cities in the state that have sheriff patrol. The Sheriff wasn t sure if there were any other cities. Other states have the service but he doesn t know about in Wisconsin. The quality and the level of service will be at least the same. This is not about a cheap proposal this is a professional package that would provide you the same level of service. He is 100% committed and convinced that you would not see a reduction in that. Ald. Enters asked about the housing of the officers at city hall would we collect rent. Ald. Noll asked about the contract with the city does the County Board have to approve it. The Sheriff stated that the contract would be between the City of Pewaukee and Waukesha County and would require County Board approval. He has already met with the County Executive and several board members individually. Ald. Noll asked about the price of the contract the Sheriff stated that the actual dollar amount that the residents pay for law enforcement service from the county is small when it comes to their entire budget and that he is not sure that the amount would change much from what is being proposed however these are estimates. Ald. Noll asked that if it is a five-year contract and something changes with the level of service, would that be within the purview of the contract or would the contract be null and void. The Sheriff stated that the contract would not change recently the Town of Delafield went from 5 days a week to 1 day a week they went out of their way to tell the department that it was not reflective to the quality or level of service that it was a budgetary issue. Conversely recently in Sussex they are looking to another shift next year the contract would remain in place and they would just make the necessary adjustment to the costs. Ald. Noll asked that if we pursue this would officers have the opportunity to apply for the available positions, are there any hurdles for them coming into the Sheriff s department? The Sheriff responded that he would expect that there probably be some that would not apply. His goal is to hire as many of them as is possible. He would have 24 openings immediately and with the screening process it is a reasonable expectation that some may not make all of the requirements. Is that his goal no. His goal is to bring on as many as possible. He feels that the officers would be a great addition to the Sheriff s department. Ald. Hathaway requested that the Sheriff forward a copy of a draft of the contract to the city. The Sheriff stated that they would forward a copy to the Administrator by noon tomorrow. Ald. Enters asked about the clerical employees is that cost outside of the current contract proposal. The Sheriff stated that yes those costs are not included. Ald. Enters understood that the city would be abolishing the police department and that the Council would adopt a resolution. The Mayor commented that he thinks that is accurate but we haven t gotten that far. The Sheriff stated that he thinks that is accurate but also wanted to say that he has built in to the contract approximately $20,000 to $23,000 for transcription for typing of reports but doesn t know the extent of how the current staff Common Council meeting minutes ~ September 1,

7 handles that but recommends keeping some clerical staff for citations and citizen complaints. The Mayor stated that we will have to look at how we are providing those services now. The Mayor explained to the audience that they need to get all of the questions answered. This item will not be on our next council agenda. This should be another separate meeting and look at September 10 or the following Monday September 14 for a meeting to allow the public to comment. Those who have questions, start writing them down. There will be no decision tonight. 3.0 Adjournment A motion was made and seconded (H.R. Hathaway, D. Noll) to adjourn the meeting at 8:52 p.m. There was no discussion regarding this item and the motion passed unanimously. Respectfully Submitted, Tammy LaBorde Administrator Common Council meeting minutes ~ September 1,