Priorities

I must admit to some disappointment with Falmouth's budget priorities - or lack thereof.

On Monday evening, the Board received a rather sobering report about staffing at the police department. Shortly thereafter, the Recreation Committee provided a glowing report of the Recreation Department's activities over the past year.

The difference between "soberting" and "glowing" is all about priorities. On the one hand, the Rec Department appears to have an adequate amount of funding to complete it's mission. On the other, the police clearly do not.

At the heart of this are questions that are not being asked. What is more important, recreation programs, or body armor for the police? Should the Rec department be fully self-funded, i.e., by user fees?

Critics will remind me that as a selectman, I am part of the problem. That is true. While I have put much effort into addressing budget issues, I won't make excuses. The buck stops here. Although the budget problem was growing and festering for years before I came along, it is now up to me - and the other four selectmen - to fix this.

It won't be fixed overnight, but I am hopeful. Over the past three years, the people have elected four new selectmen. Clearly, there is a message here: the status quo is unacceptable.


For your information, this is the memo which Police Chief Riello read to the Board on Monday evening:

Due to the current budget reductions and severe staffing shortages I am compelled to make several changes to best serve the town with available resources. Many of these changes are contrary to our mission but are necessary given the critical shortages we are experiencing.

The following set of circumstances have resulted in the "perfect storm"

1. Budget reduced $751,000 for FY 09 and FY 10.

2. Only 48 officers of our 09 authorized strength of 66 are available for duty. This number includes Sergeants and command staff.

This represents a reduction of 18 officers or 28% less available for duty. The status of the 18 is described below:

a. 5 officers eliminated from budget
b. 4 officers deployed in the military, some overseas
c. 11 line of duty injuries. Five of the ten are long term /possible retirements. The remaining 5 will return to duty within the next 3-12 weeks

Due to this situation, we are forced to adapt our mission to focus on responding to 911 emergency calls and non-emergency calls for service. Consistent with this change in mission and to insure we are able to respond to emergencies all calls will be prioritized and many will require citizens to come to the station to file complaints or report certain crimes and incidents.

In order to insure we accomplish this limited mission it will be necessary to re-assign specialists and limit services. The patrol force is the backbone ,the first line of defense, and must be staffed first.

Steps taken to enhance the patrol function are as follows;

1. The School Resource Officer will be reassigned to the midnight patrol shift.
2. Three Detectives will be re-assigned. One to patrol, one as an Acting Sergeant, and one as the court officer.
3. Drug investigator will be assigned detective duties in addition to drug investigations.
4. The second drug investigator will be assigned to patrol.
5. The court officer currently on injured status will be assigned to patrol upon his return.
6. Due to officer burnout from mandatory overtime we will have to reduce the number of officers on the street.

The programs and services that will be curtailed or eliminated are:

1. Bike patrol
2. Walking beats on Main St
3. Wood Hole coverage.
4. ATV patrol.
5. Bike path patrol.
6. Neighborhood liaison program
7. Special event coverage.