John Musolf needs no introduction to our readers. John is an Oro Valley citizen with an extensive background in finance. He has been good enough to copy us on an email he sent to the Town Council & staff.
Please take the time to read John's questioning of the council's decision to "kill" the police department management study.
Art
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Mayor and Council
Oro Valley has conducted past professional management studies of some of its departments such as Building Safety, Public Works, Legal and Library to provide a detailed analysis of how the Town compares to established standards and bench marks of operations.
Management studies are conducted with the intent of utilizing an experienced and independent third party to review current strategies and operations and make recommendations to improve efficiency and delivery of services.
Two management studies of the Police and Parks/Recreation had been approved and scheduled to commence in the summer of 2010.
The new Oro Valley Mayor and Council decided to eliminate those studies.
Therefore, in my opinion, it has fallen to the individual taxpayers to question some of the operations and budgets for Town Departments.
Please review the attached analysis that I have made of the Amphitheater School Resource Officer Program. I would also request that this email be made part of the Town's public records.*
Thank You
John Musolf
Oro Valley Taxpayer
* The Town Clerk complied with this request. Art
State of Arizona School Safety Program
The School Safety Program was a state-funded grant that places School Resource Officers (SROs) and/or Juvenile Probation Officers (JPOs) in selected schools to contribute to safe school environments that are conducive to teaching and learning. School Safety Program officers maintain a visible presence on campus; deter delinquent and violent behaviors; serve as an available resource to the school community; and provide students and staff with Law-Related Education (LRE) instruction and training.
Tucson District One school Board and the Amphitheater School District were both eligible for the Arizona School Safety grants that could be used to offset the costs of the School Resource Officers.
It is unfortunate that state grants dried up. The Tucson District One and Amphitheater School District had no budget for School Resource Officers.
What impact did this situation have on “partner” municipal budgets?
Two examples are given:
City of Tucson School Resource Officer (SRO) Program
History
In 1962, former Tucson Police Chief Bernard Garmire met with the Tucson District One School Board and developed the unique working relationship between the police department and the school district.
Staffing
The School Resource Officer program was staffed by 23 experienced officers, specially selected and trained to work with young people. Each officer was assigned to a public middle school and the neighborhood elementary schools or high schools within the city limits. Each SRO was responsible for about six schools and worked closely with the faculty and staff in situations that may have required mediation or intervention in problems involving students.
The City of Tucson has eliminated their entire School Resource Officer Program. The City was trying to close a huge budget gap.
In 2010, the Tucson Police Department no longer has a job description for a School Resource Officer.
Oro Valley Police Department
The Oro Valley Police Department, in cooperation with the Amphitheater School District, has seven (7) fulltime School Resource Officers (SRO). There is also one sergeant in charge of the SRO unit.
The Town of Oro Valley and the Oro Valley Police Department continue to support the Amphitheater School District in the Town of Oro Valley Budget (1 Sergeant, 7 Officers, $639,930 2010 Adopted Budget, $671,632 2010 and 692,888 2011 for FY2010/2011 Recommended Budget).
The citizens of Oro Valley pay both primary and secondary property taxes to support the Amphitheater School District.
The citizens of Oro Valley will pay additional taxes ($671,632 and $692,888 from the FY2010/2011 Recommended Budget) from the General Fund to support the Amphitheater School Resource Officer Program.
This is double taxation for a resident of Oro Valley.
In 2010, there is no specific job description for a SRO Officer. The Oro Valley Police Department considers the seven SRO officers as an operational assignment. The SRO job description is for a police officer (classification 2760). There are no specific skill requirements or training for the position of school resource officer.
Amphitheater News, Wednesday, April 14, 2010
The Amphitheater governing board approved $14.5 million in budget cuts and finalized the elimination of more than 210 positions.
The board's 5-0 vote to slash the 2010-2011 budget represented a worst-case scenario for the district by Arizona voters next month.
Although a 1-cent state sales tax increase was approved, board members said, nearly $7.9 million and more than 95 positions will still be cut because of reductions in state funding.
The Amphitheater School District has had to cut into their core services because of budget shortfalls.
What is the justification behind the Town of Oro Valley continuing to provide support for Amphitheater school resource officers?
Perhaps the Oro Valley Town Council might want to “earmark” their contribution to the Amphitheater School District to save some teacher jobs instead of funding School Resource Officers?
7 comments:
The third rail of OV politics seems to be anything that has to do with questioning the police department. I find it disappointing that the new council can negate acts taken by the prior council. I guess we can probably look forward to a pay raise for all these public servants at mid-year. I am out of town until September but will continue to follow these doings.
Chuck....Have a great vacation!! While it may be disturbing that Council B overturns what Council A did, it happens every time there is a change in philosophy in government. It was just more overt here than at the county, state or federal level. At those levels they often simply don't fund the action, thus killing it. This is a more forthright and transparent way of doing it.
Didn't we want transparency???
To All.....
Here are John's words:
"Therefore, in my opinion, it has fallen to the individual taxpayers to question some of the operations and budgets for Town Departments."
John eludes to the fact that the above is a negative. I look upon it as a positive. After all we are paying for these services and therefore we should have oversight responsibility.
And allow me to put forth the suggestion that we exercised some of our oversight responsibility on May 18, 2010.
Have the supporters of this anti-police argument learned nothing from this election? The council candidates that ran on platforms like "we will not cut the police department" found overwhelming support. I appreciate that I am getting what I voted for. Let's hope they continue this pace, keep our town and our kids safe, and 'Let Oro Valley Excel'.
Welcome back "Dad."
We don't agree with your most recent comment, but appreciate the tone of the message.
I would almost agree with you, but would use slightly different phraseology.
I would say, "we got we we asked for!"
Having conducted consulting studies of police departments, my experience has been there there are always some thing done well and some things that can be improved.
There is rarely a finding that the Department is terribly mismanaged.
That said, it is entirely probably that an independent review will result in identifying areas where Police effectiveness can be improved through technology and other means.
In other words, a study of the Police Department would likely have resulted in improving, not reducing the effectiveness of our fine protectors.
Rather than fearing a study, I would think that the Department would welcome the help.
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OVOT
We both agree that as individual taxpayers we do have oversight responsibility for the actions of the Mayor and Council . You are also correct that the Oro Valley voters exercised some of that oversight responsibility at the election on May 18, 2010. The new Mayor and Council have every right and responsibility to run the Town as they see fit regardless of what a prior Council had done. I also have a right and responsibility to voice my opinion on their actions.
I didn’t look at the funding of the Police Department School Resources as either negative or positive although you, (OVOT), felt I was negative.
I pointed out factually to the Mayor, Council, OV Staff, OV Media, and OV Public Citizens that School Safety at the Amphitheatre District is Amphitheatre’s budget responsibility for which I pay taxes. I then pointed out that as an individual taxpayer some of the Police Department Oro Valley budget also goes to support the Amphitheatre school safety. I consider that subsidy double taxation.
I did suggest to the Mayor and Council that “earmarking” subsidies to Amphitheatre might be better spent saving teacher’s jobs.
OV Dad
I didn’t know that expressing my democratic right to speak about Mayor and Council actions earned me the title of being “anti-police”. I commented on the use of my taxes by the Amphitheatre District in not funding Amphitheatre school saftey. I then commented on the Oro Valley Mayor and Council’s use of part of the Oro Valley Police Department budget to subsidize the Amphitheatre District budget that I consider double taxation.
As I stated to OVOT: “You (OVOT) are also correct that the Oro Valley voters exercised some of that oversight responsibility at the election on May 18, 2010. The new Mayor and Council have every right and responsibility to run the Town as they see fit regardless of what a prior Council had done. I also have a right and responsibility to voice my opinion on their actions”.
John Musolf
Ok, the election is over (ignore the "we wuz robbed" theory elsewhere on this blog) The "police can have anything they want" party won.
So, if no new taxes is the operative plan this would indicate that all other departments will take cuts and the police will not.
Good, plenty of police will keep those folks in Sun City under control. Can't have the old folks running wild. Smoking dope and rocking to Tommy Dorsey.
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