2011-03-14 Study Session - Laserfiche WebLink

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CITY OF UNIVERSITY CITY COUNCIL STUDY SESSION March 14, 2011 The Council Budget Study Session was held on the fifth floor of City Hall, on Monday, March 14, 2011. Mayor Welsch called the meeting to order at 5:38 p.m. and turned the meeting over to Mr. Walker. In addition to the Mayor the following members of the Council were present: Mr. Stephen Kraft Mr. Michael Glickert Mr. Arthur Sharpe, Jr. Mr. Byron Price Ms. Lynn Ricci Mr. Terry Crow was excused. Also present were the City Manager Lehman Walker, the Finance Director Janet Watson, Fire Chief Don Miner and Police Chief Charles Adams. Mr. Walker said as part of the budget process he felt it was important for each department head to provide an overview of their department function and budget submission. He said the next study session would have reports from Community Development; the Library and the Administrative area (Finance, Informational Technology. and Human Resources.) The third budget study session series would include Public Works; and the Parks, Recreation, and Forestry Department. Chief Adams said the Police Department’s budget has been pretty much static from year to year. He said the current proposed budget with salaries, benefits, and contractual and commodities comes out to $7,641,381. Chief Adams said the largest expense is salaries, which is $6,796,160. He said under contractual services for $420,000 is for Fleet Management. Chief Adams said the major hurdle for the Police Department is the management of crime. The challenge has been with personnel and infrastructure costs, such as radio dispatch equipment. He said the department is looking at having seventy-five police officers and nineteen civilians as parking control and dispatchers. Chief Adams went through some items listed in the Police Department Transaction Report explaining some of the categories and their sub-categories as to what it included and its cost. One of the larger expense categories was under Technology Services, which is the Record Management Services to Law Enforcement and Courts called REJIS. Chief noted that this is how the police does most of their intelligence work. Chief Adams was asked how many of the police cars were equipped with heavy duty lap tops and he said eighty percent had them. He was asked if all of the cars had cameras. Chief said that they have three cameras currently in the cars. He said the cameras are very expensive and they were able to get the three through a grant. Chief Adams said the next highest expense line item is in Hardware and Hand Tools. He said this included a variety of different kinds of ammunition, flares, Tasers, etc. Another larger expense is for Uniforms and Safety Gear. Chief said the department supplies uniforms for all the sworn - in civilian personnel for uniformity. He said it costs around $1200 to outfit a new police officer. Mayor Welsch asked about when the Interoperable Communication System would happen. Chief Adams said St. Louis County has sent out an RFP has gone out for a company to manage the system