Public Service Dept.

MJ:
City to restructure public safety department

By Ed Richter
Staff Writer
MIDDLETOWN —
A budget proposal by city manger Doug Adkins calls for restructuring the public safety department as part of efforts to reduce overall spending by $1.12 million in 2015.

Public safety currently represents 72 percent of the city’s general fund budget, including the reductions in the public safety forces. Adkins said if public safety expenditures were reduced to 60 percent of the general fund, it could free up more than $3.57 million a year to fund other city objectives.

“We provide public safety in predominantly the same manner as we did 30 years ago,” Adkins told city council in his interview for the city manager job. He added that “instead of adapting new methods of service to the budget, we continue to operate by reducing staff and continuing to provide less public safety with higher demand.”

The public safety budget for 2015 will be $27.9 million, which will be a 3.9 percent — or $1.12 million — decrease from the 2014 public safety budget of just more than $29 million.

The proposed 2015 police division budget will be $11.33 million, a decrease of 4.9 percent, and the proposed fire division budget will be $8.56 million, a decrease of 5.6 percent.

Adkins recommended creating public safety director to oversee the fire and police divisions, as well as eliminate the deputy chief positions and create one assistant chief position.

If the public safety budget is approved by council, Police Chief David VanArsdale would become the city’s public safety director beginning Jan. 1. The police chief will be selected sometime during the first quarter from the current deputy chiefs, Majs. Mark Hoffman and Rodney Mutterspaw. The one not selected as chief will become the assistant chief.

Earlier this year, the city of Hamilton announced that Police Chief Scott Scrimizzi would retire as police chief at the end of the year and be rehired as the city’s Director of Public Safety, a role that has traditionally been held by the city manager.

Hamilton spends more than $27 million annually on public safety operations, according to officials. Both the police and fire chiefs will report directly to Scrimizzi in his new role, according to City Chief of Staff Brandon Saurber.

On the fire division side in Middletown, interim chief Paul Lolli said he will apply for the job permanently. Deputy Chief Brent Dominy said he was not interested in the chief’s job. Deputy Chief Tom Snively, who once served as assistant chief before a previous restructuring, could not be reached for comment on his interest in the chief’s job.

The new public safety department will consist of the director who will be be responsible to create a core management group outside of the safety unions to begin long-range planning and implementation. Among the director’s duties include developing the five-year plan to reduce spending; find long-term dispatch and jail solutions; working with landlords to improve business practices and develop a chronic nuisance ordinance; hold a heroin summit with Atrium Medical Center; and partner with Atrium on chronic EMS issues.

Some of the primary fire division goals for 2015 include finishing automatic aid agreements with Franklin and Monroe, including Interstate 75 responsibilities; reduce EMS calls by 15 percent in 2015 over the 2014 calls; review and possibly eliminate non-essential duties due to staffing levels; and look at a policy and possible fees for false alarms/non-emergency runs and requests for public service for events.

For the police division, some of the primary goals will be to place surveillance cameras at Douglass Park starting Jan. 1 and evaluate use at other parks; continue crime mapping and task forces to deal with problem areas; wider use of police reserves for task forces and other duties; add two new neighborhood watch groups; increase more public interaction; reduce Part 1 crimes such as homicide, robbery, rape, burglary, etc. by 15 percent in 2015 over the same crimes reported in 2014; develop a plan to upgrade/update software in records section; and formalize agreement with the Ohio Highway Patrol to handle auto crashes.

Vet,

It appears that Dougie plans on saving money by shifting responsibilities down the management chain.

Currently there are three Deputy Chiefs. One is in charge of vehicles, one in charge of facilities and one in charge of records as well as running their respective platoons.

Captains supervise and lead their crew as well as managing their station.

Lieutenants supervise and lead their crew.

I would image Lolli will be the next Chief, Snively will be the Asst. Chief and Dominy will be the odd man out. Will he retire or be demoted?

That leaves the Captains to do their jobs AND the old Deputy Chiefs job. You would think with more responsibility there would be more compensation, however, if that happens, Dougie's savings goes out the window. The guys are already making more runs than they ever have, when will the Captains have time to do the Deputy Chief's jobs?

Since there is only one Captain per platoon, who is going to run the shift, a Lieutenant? Currently Lieutenants are not allowed to run the shift but by waving his magic wand, Dougie will okay it?

If Lieutenants don't have the proper training to step up and run the platoon, every time a Captain is off, an overtime Captain will have to be called in.

Just to put all this posturing in its proper perspective, Dougie's goal is a part time department. Colerain Township now offers health care to their part timers fire fighters in an effort to attract applicants. Will other part time departments match Colerain's benefits to get their share of the part time pool? If others start offering health care, will Colerain offer vacation and sick time? The snowball effect may be just beginning.

The City of Oxford just authorized 2 full time positions after being all part time for several years.

Why is it Middletown is regressing while others are progressing?

ashkicker