05 - COUNCIL MINUTES FROM 07/13/2015

Home Browse Search

Regular Council Meeting July 13, 2015 Page 12 hardnosed. Council Member Plata concluded that Chief Hundley needed to make attempts to reach out to his junior officers. He said if any preferential treatment existed that it needed to stop. He also said Chief Hundley had people under him to help manage his department and that if more than two or three officers were disgruntled by problems taking place from people in charge that Chief Hundley needed to take steps to rectify the situation. Council Member Plata said another problem he observed is with the perception that the City Manager has given the department managers free reign of the respective departments which is fine, but the problem is when issues are brought forth to the city manager by council people or others, and at times there were no signs of change to address these issues. Council Member Plata said when changes are not made, everything continues as usual. In conclusion, Council Member Plata said more money alone would not retain officers. He said he agreed that they could probably use more money, as everybody could. Council Member Plata said if certain changes are not made, there was a possibility that more officers would be leaving. He said he hope these issues could be addressed and a resolution reached. Mayor Hashmi said he understood there were several factors as to why Paris lost officers to other cities, and his understanding was that money was the main factor. Police Officer Josh Crawford said he had been an officer for a little over 5 years and was also president of the Police Officers Association. He said they could not put a value on what it was worth to have a bilingual officer especially in a dangerous situation. Officer Crawford said the ultimate reason people quit and the reason they cannot retain officers is the salary. Police Officer Robert Milton said he had been with the Paris Police Department for almost 25 years. Officer Milton said the problem was pay. He said he had worked for two chiefs in 25 years and there had always been a gripe about how the extra duty jobs were handled. He said it had always been done by seniority, that he waited his turn to move up on the list, and he thought everybody else should do the same. Chief Hundley presented to the City Council an outline reflecting there were 59 positions plus the chief position, and explained the department was nine officers short at this time. He further explained there were three guys in the academy who will be graduating at the end of July, two guys that were just hired, and two guys on injury leave. Chief Hundley reported in the last 15 years, 82 officers had gone through the police department. He said they were lost to either other cities or the private sector and the major factor was money. He depicted a comparison salary chart and stated the City of Paris was not in the average salary range, but lower salary range. Chief Hundley said there are changes he would like to make such as adding extra enforcement in narcotics, adding a K9 unit but without sufficient staff that was not possible. Next, Chief Hundley addressed crime statistics which were previously reported and added that report came from a burglar alarm system company who was trying to sell alarm systems. Chief Hundley said crime statistics reflect that in the last four years the crime rate in Paris has been decreasing. As far as reorganization of supervisors, He said this went back to morale and they had too many lieutenants. Chief Hundley said they had a lieutenant opening and they had already tested for it. He said a promotion is something people look forward to but this is something that may not happen, depending on the money and what they need to do to get decrease some of the extra supervision the police department currently has. Mayor Hashmi inquired the cost of training an officer and the total cost to the city as a result of losing 23 officers over the last five years. Chief Hundley explained from the time an