Take Home Issue On Chopping Block

Leave it to beaver. One week after the election this happens... I smell something! :evil:


http://www.sptimes.com/2008/02/06/Northpinellas/Take_home_cars_may_be.shtml


Take-home cars may be cut

Budget trimming may alter the policy for police and city cars.

By JONATHAN ABEL, Times Staff Writer
Published February 6, 2008


Clearwater police Chief Sid Klein said having the take-home car procedure allows for quicker response to any calls for police assistance.
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CLEARWATER - City take-home cars may be a target for budget cuts when the Clearwater City Council takes up the issue Thursday.

At a workshop Monday night, council members heard the report of a city auditor who said Clearwater spends about $374,000 per year in gas and mileage for police officers to commute to and from work in their take-home cars. About 30 percent of the mileage on take-home cars comes from commuting.

According to auditor Robin Gomez, there are roughly 180 take-home vehicles in the city, about 150 of which are assigned to the police department. And 44 of these officers with take-home cars are commuting to homes outside the county.

One of Gomez's recommendations was to charge these out-of-county commuters 50 cents per mile for the distance between their homes and the Countryside substation, roughly the northeastern corner of the city. He said this could recoup about $172,000 per year for the city.

But police chief Sid Klein argued against "dismantling" the current take-home system.

"When something goes terribly wrong citizens want a cop there and they want a cop there very, very fast," Klein said. "And we have been able to accomplish that in large measure because of the take-home vehicle program."

The city's current policy allows officers to drive their cars home if they live within 20 miles of the city boundary. That includes parts of Hillsborough and Pasco counties. The two officers with cars who live outside that boundary must leave their cars at a safe location within the 20-mile zone.

Klein said the take-home vehicles allow officers to respond to crime scenes more rapidly because they don't have to stop at the police station to change gear. He also called the take-home vehicle policy "very, very important" for recruitment and retention.

As far as charging out-of-county commuters, Klein said it was unfair because an officer living in Tarpon Springs or St. Petersburg might commute farther than someone living in parts of Pasco or Hillsborough but only the out-of-county commuter would be charged for the mileage. That could result in officers spending as much as $2,700 per year out of pocket.

He suggested charging officers to make it to the county line.

The city council seemed undecided on how to proceed. They plan to continue their discussion at their Thursday meeting.

Mayor Frank Hibbard said Tuesday he would try to find a reasonable solution but didn't want to say how he was leaning.

"We want to have a good place, a competitive place for our police to work," Hibbard said. "We also have to make sure that we're being wise with our tax dollars."

City Manager Bill Horne said his initial recommendation was to require reimbursement from officers who left the county. After the workshop, he said, his sense was that "some of the council members want to be more restrictive than that."

Officers are permitted to do very minimal personal business in their take-home cars. When they are in the car, they must respond to serious calls and dress appropriately.

One of the reasons given for the take-home cars is they allow for a swifter after-hours response from officers called in from home. But Gomez's audit showed the majority of take-home cars were rarely used for such after-hours work so that explanation was not significant enough to justify the number of vehicles.

In addition to the police department, Development and Neighborhood Services has one vehicle, which costs the city a minimal amount. The fire department has 12 take-home cars, one of which is driven outside the county. The Clearwater gas system has 22 take-home vehicles. Gomez recommended taking away five vehicles from the gas system.

Jonathan Abel can be reached at jabel@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4157.
By the numbers

180 take-home cars.

150 assigned topolice officers.

44 officers with take-homecars live outside Pinellas County.

30 percent of all mileage ontake-home police cars comes from commuting.

$374,000cost to the city per year in gas and mileage for police officers to commute in their take-home cars.

[Last modified February 5, 2008, 22:17:26]

BEND OVER

"In addition to the police department, Development and Neighborhood Services has one vehicle, which costs the city a minimal amount. The fire department has 12 take-home cars, one of which is driven outside the county. The Clearwater gas system has 22 take-home vehicles. Gomez recommended taking away five vehicles from the gas system."


I guess the audit didn't discover the Suburban from the Fire Department that likes to frequently park near the mangroves in TAMPA.

Two words - Retention and Recruitment. Clearwater is falling behind other agencies. If you want top tier cops, take care of them. If you want the lower tier, keep it up.

All logical points here, but your failing to realize one important thing....The Council and Manager could care less who polices their city. They are not and have never been pro law enforcement. An ironic situtaion is Hibbards comment against Parco. He immediately chose to go against the police instead of hearing the facts first. ALso, look at his comment about spending tax dollars wisely. In some cities, a wise expense is actually considered law enforcement. But here, they see eveything as equal and would rather spend money on things that will never succeed...I.E. downtown. How can you compare police vehicles to other city services? Not saying they are not important, but take the police out of the city and where are you now? Answer: St. Pete....But we will have a Starbucks downtown

Thank the Mayor and City Council for their $9 Million expense for the road to nowhere. The Cleveland Street extension, with it's expensive brick pavers, is seen by only those traveling to Coachman Park and or patrons of Scientology. Why was that important and who was it important for? I think we all know the answers to that.

I also hear they are considering a multi-million dollar equestrian park off of Union Street. Do we really need to spend that money for an extravagant cause at this time? Does the City have bigger fish to fry than to go after the Police and Fire again? Haven't they damaged morale enough?

I did a little math and using the figures given in the article, Gomez hopes to re-coup $172,000 per year by charging the officer 50 cents a mile. He states that 30% of the 374,000 miles traveled by the officers is for their commute to and from work which comes out to be 124,666 miles. 124,666 miles times 50 cents a mile equals a savings of $62,333 dollars. A far cry from their overinflated drastically incorrect figures.

I wish we had the power and means to utilize the media to drastically overinflate our position. Now you see why when it comes to pensions and COLA's, these same City representatives can't be trusted to shoot straight with us.

Using the same numbers, the average officer will have to pay about $325 a month to the City for their mileage. IF we say the average police car gets 16 miles to the gallon and the takehome car goes the maximum 40 miles roundtrip to and from work, it would take approximately 2.5 gallons of gas to complete the trip. 40 miles at 50 cents a mile is $20 a day. $20 divided by the 2.5 gallons means that it costs you $8 per gallon of gas to use that car. Very fuzzy math. The same kind that the City uses to charge the police department $800 a month per vehicle to lease from the City, after the Police Department has already purchased the vehicles outright from the dealerships out of their budget. How is that not a crime or at the very least dishonest to the taxpayers?

I say, let them keep all of the cars. We just won't be in service until after loading the car and out of service as we unload the car or you get paid overtime. You probably already make car payments on a car you own so why would you make what amounts to be a car payment to the City for a car that represents and markets the City of Clearwater. It doesn't make financial sense to do that.


Keep the cars and we will expose the truths and bigger picture as we approach contract time.

Fiscal restraint is necessary, but don't cry me a river when they spend lavishly on ridiculous projects that benefit very few at the cost of the rest.


WE HAVE AN EYE ON YOU.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/02/08/cit ... index.html (http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/02/08/city.council.shooting/index.html)

OH mayor and city council members, THIS is why you invest in your police department. Your life may depend on it. They are too many nutjobs out there!!!!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/02/08/cit ... index.html (http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/02/08/city.council.shooting/index.html)

OH mayor and city council members, THIS is why you invest in your police department. Your life may depend on it. They are too many nutjobs out there!!!

(with the article attached)

Six dead as gunman 'goes to war' with Missouri city

* Story Highlights
* Dead includes councilwoman, public works director, police, newspaper says
* Kirkwood, Missouri, mayor critically injured in shootings, hospital official tells AP
* Newspaper: Gunman had filed lawsuit on right to speak at meetings
* Gunman's brother says, "My brother went to war tonight"



KIRKWOOD, Missouri (CNN) -- A gunman killed five people and wounded two Thursday night at a police station and City Council meeting in suburban St. Louis before officers shot and killed him, police said.
art.thornton.ap.jpg


Two police officers were among the dead, said Tracy Panus, spokeswoman for the St. Louis County police.

"We have what we believe to be our suspect," Panus said. "There's no reason for the Kirkwood residents to feel unsafe at this point."

Police did not identify the suspect or victims. Video Watch an eyewitness decribe the shootings »

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported the dead included Councilwoman Connie Karr, Public Works Director Kenneth Yost and police officers Tom Ballman and William Biggs.

Mayor Mike Swoboda was wounded and in critical condition, and Suburban Journals newspaper reporter Todd Smith was in satisfactory condition, St. John's Mercy Hospital spokesman Bill McShane told The Associated Press.

The shootings began shortly after 7 p.m. just outside the Kirkwood City Hall when a man approached a police officer in the parking lot of the Kirkwood police station and fatally shot him, Panus said. The officer died at the scene.
Don't Miss

* KMOV: Gunfire at City Council meeting

The suspect then went into the City Council chambers and killed a second police officer before fatally shooting three city officials who were attending the meeting, Panus said.

Kirkwood police officers returned fire, Panus said, killing the suspect.

A correspondent for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Janet McNichols, who was at the City Council meeting when the shootings took place, identified the gunman as Charles Lee Thornton, the newspaper reported.

Thornton sued the city of Kirkwood after he was arrested twice for disorderly conduct at two council meetings in 2006. He later was convicted, according to the First Amendment Center, a group that says it works to preserve First Amendment freedoms.

An eyewitness to the shootings told CNN that Thornton -- whose nickname was "Cookie" -- had disrupted City Council meetings frequently in the past.

"He would make inappropriate noises, heehawing like a donkey. He would make derogatory comments towards the director of public works, the city attorney and the mayor," Alan Hopefl said Friday. "None of it seemed to make any sense as far as him trying to make a point, as far as why he was really there and what his major complaints were."

Thornton's brother, Gerald, told CNN affiliate KMOV-TV in St. Louis that his brother had serious grievances with the city government.

"The only way that I can put it in a context that you might understand is that my brother went to war tonight with the people that were of the government that was putting torment and strife into his life," Thornton told KMOV.

"And he had spoke on it as best he could in the courts, and they denied him all access to the rights of protection, and therefore he took it upon himself to go to war and end the issue."

According to a Thursday article written by the First Amendment Center -- before the shooting -- Thornton asked to speak during public-comment portions of 2006 meetings on specific topics but instead discussed his alleged harassment by city officials.

In his lawsuit, Thornton said his First Amendment rights had been violated. But in a January 28 ruling, U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry said that the public-comment portion of a meeting could be reserved for certain groups and topics of discussion.

Rather than discussing the subject at hand, Perry wrote, "Thornton engaged in personal attacks against the mayor, Kirkwood and the city council. ... Because Thornton does not have a First Amendment right to engage in irrelevant debate and to voice repetitive, personal, virulent attacks against Kirkwood and its city officials during the comment portion of a city council public hearing, his claim fails as a matter of law," according to the First Amendment Center.

Bill Reineke, a builder and acquaintance of Thornton's for 15 years, said he sensed a change in him starting three months ago.

"He seemed to feel lately that things were going wrong," Reineke said. "He would run into City Hall once in a while during meetings, and he would talk about the plantation mentality of the mayor and board."

Reineke said Thornton had begun to hold grudges.

"I don't know what made him go off -- what made him twist -- but it's just a darn shame for everyone concerned," he said.

Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt responded to news of the shooting, saying, "Tonight our fellow Missourians in the city of Kirkwood were terrorized by a senseless and horrific crime at an open government meeting."

Blunt said, "I join Missourians tonight in praying for the victims, their families and friends, and everyone in the community of Kirkwood."
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Kirkwood, a town of about 27,000 people, is about 10 miles west-southwest of St. Louis. Kirkwood's Web site bills the city as "Queen of the St. Louis Suburbs" with high property values and quality public schools.

It was also the scene of another high-profile recent criminal case. Pizzeria employee Michael Devlin pleaded guilty to charges, including kidnapping and sexual assault, after police found two missing boys in his Kirkwood apartment in January 2007. One of the boys was held for four years. E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend

take home cars are absolutely no use to the citizens. this is entirely a job benifite that now costs to much to continue.

take home cars are absolutely no use to the citizens. this is entirely a job benifite that now costs to much to continue.
Actually you’re wrong. It will cost the citizens more in the long run by taking the vehicles away. National studies have proven this. Not the two week study the city employee completed.
The cost will increase due to the following: (this is only to name a few)
1. Vehilces will be running the vehicles longer (24/7) so this increases wear and tear. A vehicle will not last 6-8 yrs as take homes have. They will last 2-3 which means more money from the budget. More mileage means car don’t last as long.
2. By running the vehicles 24/7 this increases vehicle repairs. This will increase your budget. Take homes aren’t run 24/7 and the officer takes better care of the vehicle meaning less time in the shop.
3. Due to vehicles being downed or in for repair, officers will be standing around at the station waiting for the next vehicle to come in so they can switch out (day shift to evening shift to night shift). Never ending process which we already have this problem. Cutting car makes it worse. This mean overtime.
4. Officer overtime with loading and unloading.
5. Might as well add a new parking garage for the employees to park their vehicles since we will be taking over the parking garage across of the PD.
Watch the budget next yr and see. The proof is in the final figure. You will see an increase in cost due to taking the cars away. But hey they saved a couple bucks this yr.
How about that beach walk that was supposed to cost 9 million a few yrs ago. Now it cost over 31 million because they aren’t done yet. Wait what will the cost of the beach walk be in 2008? Hmmmm I thinking around 45-50 million. Hey Major job well done with spending the cities money...