Saturday, September 11, 2010

John Musolf Questions The Value Of The Oro Valley $850K Motorcycle Police Unit

By now our readers should all be familiar with the work John Musolf puts in on the issue of the Oro Valley Police Budget---which is a major impact on our overall budget.

As John has consistently pointed out, the Super Majority of this council saw fit to rescind the Police Department Management Study approved by the prior council. To date, nobody in the town has given any satisfactory responses to any of John's questions.

John has forwarded his questions and concerns on the $850,000 budget for the motorcycle division of the police force to the mayor & council.

As John stated: "The following analysis on the Police Motorcycle Unit attempts to illustrate why any independent management study (analysis) can question the effectiveness of any governmental program and gauge how critical and/or costly it might be to the community."

Police Department Motor/Traffic Unit

The goals of the Oro Valley Motor Unit are to respond to citizens traffic concerns; be highly visible to the public and; enforce traffic laws. By staying proactive and achieving these goals, the Motor Unit is able to deter criminal behavior from residing in or targeting Oro Valley. The three measures deploying the Motor Unit are: highest collision intersections, special events, and citizen traffic concerns.

1 Sergeant
1 Lead Officer
1 Officer/Special Events Coordinator
7 Motorcycle Officers

$717,565 2009 Budget
$ 860,8912010 Budget
$850,284 2010 Adopted Budget

Why have a motorcycle unit versus standard patrol cars?

The U. S. National Transportation Agency discusses the formation of motorcycle units:

nhtsa.gov/.../motorcycle/motorcycle_traffic03/planning.htm

“The decision to start a motorcycle unit should not be made lightly. Agency planners should conduct an exhaustive budget review, cost benefit analysis, and forecast available resources before moving forward with implementation. A feasibility study may also be necessary to identify the benefits a motorcycle unit will bring to a particular agency”.

I’m sure the Police Department performed a feasibility study on the benefits of a motorcycle unit. It was then followed by an exhaustive budget review, cost benefit analysis and forecast of available resources before moving forward with implementation. Of course, all of this was then fully vented and documented and approved by the Mayor and Council at the time of creation?

General Questions:

How are the motor unit traffic personnel deployed for 7/24 traffic enforcement service (e.g. by days/shifts)?

Do motorcycle officers cover third shift?

How many special events are held per week, month or year?

Is it necessary to have a full time officer to cover special events?

What does the special event officer do to coordinate these special events?

What percentage of time does each motorcycle officer
spend on special events versus regular traffic duties?

Are any motorcycle officers paid overtime for any special event and does the special event organizer pay for overtime?

Do regular patrol cars and officers spent any time at special events or is it strictly a motorcycle unit function?

7 comments:

Nombe Watanabe said...

Hey bloggers. Have you received your property tax statement yet?

I think the Golder Ranch Fire profit center must be taking motorcycles to all the fires. My tax statement indicates that it will cost less to let my house burn down and just collect the insurance.

Christopher Fox said...

We need a Mary Schuh! (But maybe one who can write a little more coherently....)

Richard Furash, MBA said...

Yes. I should do a posting on the property tax bill. Get a sense on what others are experiencing.

Nombe Watanabe said...

Zee:

Do it. Have you seen the anti-Golder Ranch FD signs on Tangerine?

Should be a high interest item.

Unknown said...

John Musolf has his head so far up his four point of contact, I am surprised that he can still breathe. I don't know why he has such a hard on for the police department. He should just go back to the big hole in the ground that he crawled out of and let the Chief of Police run the department the way he sees fit.

The last time I checked Oro Valley is the safest place in the State to live. I am sure that has nothing to do with having one of the best police departments in the State. I Love our police department in Oro Valley. Quit messing with them and let them do what they are trained to do.

John if you have such a hard on for the police department why don't you go through the academy and become a police officer and see what it actually takes to run a police department. Instead of sitting behind a desk, or should I say use to be a desk, since you are retired now, and keep counting those beans.

LJ

Fear the Turtle said...

Amazing comparison for properties with the same assessed values.

Tax bill for condo in the Foothills totals $1,171.80. Decrease of 73.99 from 2009 tax.

Tax bill for condo in Oro Valley totals $1,700.32. INCREASE of $264.47 from 2009 tax.

A majority of the increased tax for the OV condo is due to the TAX imposed by the Golder Ranch Fire Dept, which took over this servicing this development in 2009 much to my protest.

This tax by Golder Ranch is a real turn off for homebuyers, and will hurt home sales. I will no longer buy any property in OV because not only do we have this fire tax but a possible property tax is in the horizon. Talk about an economy killer!

Tomorrow is Golder Ranch's open house at a new station. I wonder if they will serve bread to the citizens they are hosing, while they eat cake?

arizonamoose said...

Goodness Gracious J!

Evidently I hit a nerve!


Obvious you have never read any of the analysis I have done over the last seven years on utility taxes, finances, budgets on other departments than the police, TREO, MTCVB, Economic Development, etc.

I have prsented facts on the spending that Oro Valley has done in many areas (including the police) without justification. Please attack me on the incorrectness of the information not passionate emotion.

Any citizen can judge for themselves what Oro Valley has done or not done. I am simply expressing my democratic right to free speech.

John Musolf