By DAVID TELLER
Staff Reporter
Cheney Police Department continues to juggle funding within the department to cover overtime and other unexpected costs.
During the budget process last December, the department added an administrative assistant position to the labor expense. The department got permission from the City Council to transfer $5,700 from the administration budget to the dispatch budget.
Cmdr. Rick Campbell said that administrative position was added to the dispatch team. He added that the dispatchers have four angles they have to work. He said they meet the public, answer the telephone, and take radio calls from two different police agencies.
Earlier this year, the department eliminated the vacant administrative assistant position and added another dispatcher. This generated new savings because the administrative assistant position was scheduled to pay higher than a dispatch position. Last May, the department added $8,200 to the overtime budget to compensate the overtime costs accrued earlier this year.
Campbell said there are specific line items with in the budget he said he is trying to control. Some of the line items, like office supplies expenses can be controlled. Others, like quartermaster cannot.
“We purchased well and we planned well last year to stave off things (the department) need this year,” he said.
The quartermaster budget made a substantial increase during May. Campbell said quartermaster has an erratic pattern.
“It goes: big jump, and then a long pause,” he said.
The source of the increase is training and orientating a new officer, which is Officer Tyler Kullman. Campbell said new employees typically cost the department $2,500 to $3,500.
He added hiring Kullman was actually a savings to the department, because Kullman is earning less than the officer he replaced.
Campbell sees no reason for concern about the budget. He said the overall budget is 39 percent spent with 41.7 percent of the year lapsed. Despite the overtime costs, with the adjustments made last month, the department is currently under budget.
Elsewhere in the department, Total uniform crime reports (UCR) have increased slightly. Campbell said, there are 73 crimes reported this year compared to 53 last year and 56 in May 2006. He said the biggest influence is theft is higher this year with seven more reported cases. Currently there are 23 reported compared to the 16 reports at this time last year.
Assaults were higher last May than the normal month-to-month incidents. The department had 16 reports last month compared to April, which only had seven.
Campbell said overall year-to-date crime is 9 percent lower than last year.
David Teller can be reached at [email protected]
Reader Comments(0)