Originally Posted by
Unregistered
Well here it is folks, they are at it again, 400k for the tank, 350K for the traffic unit, 17million to run the dept and now 30 million for a new PD headquarters. ( actually cost estimates to include the land near the post office is 40 million) I have to give them credit, they are persistent and smart and cunning. Case in point, all the vehicles parked in the secured area of the PD, looks like the lot is full. But realistically most are not in-service vehs most are going to auction, but not knowing this one would think they needed a bigger lot. Lets look at the so called over abundance of evidence, there is plenty of unused areas of the PD, the never used jail cells, all the useless offices, has it gotten so critical the asst chief, commanders etc have evidence in their offices, no way. This whole thing is a shame started by, you guessed it Asst chief CM. See he has this thing, if another PD has something, he needs it, the tank, SPD has one, he needed one, the traffic unit, others have one, he needed one better, SPD and other PDs have a motorcycle unit, he needs one ( not yet, but its coming) and yes Venice PD is building a new public safety Bldg and you guessed it, we need one. No one is fooling anyone here. The pink castle is more than adequate to provide headquarters for years to come , need room, move the garage employees over to the DPW garage, frees up the whole garage building, cars are already fixed at the DPW anyway. Move the tank and the command center under a permanent canopy in the rear lot. Re open the substation on NP blvd, No its a lot easier to dupe the commissioners and fleece the taxpayers. Hire more officers they say, so we can what keep the SRO,s hire more homeless liaison cops, promote more detectives and command staff and still keep patrol understaffed. Very poor leadership. The problem is this and simply this, the last commission was hard on the PD, gave them very little,(ABCD) When change was made and the new commishs gave the dept raises, new vehicles and were duped into thinking we are your last line of defense, the criminals are banging at our doors, we are not capable of handling all this crime, the commission virtually gave the PD a blank check, just how much has this cost us so far. The time is now to tear up that blank check and say NO to a new police HQ. Renovate/enlarge to police garage to store evidence, re open the substation on NP blvd. If the PD can get grants to fully cover the new HQ and not cost the taxpayers a dime, that's great. If the commishes cave and give in, just what happens to the old station, the PD is not going to relinquish this, it was specifically made for them, so now we are paying for two headquarters and a substation, and the small army they want. They need to learn to live within our means, work with what you got and remember its election year, do not support any candidate who places the wants of the PD over their fiscal responsibility to us, the taxpayers.