High Springs Police department faces expanding needs and contracting budget

As time draws near for the city’s annual budget review, it’s becoming more and more evident that somewhere, corners will have to be cut.

City Manager Jim Drumm said some projected revenues are coming in even shorter than last year.

The county property appraiser recently announced that High Springs property values have dropped between seven and eight percent this year.

“That’s a $120,000 loss right there,” Drumm said.

There’s also an expectation that taxes coming from the state will be less. Sales tax revenue, for instance, is down because of the drop in the tourism industry.

Drumm said it’s too soon to say for sure, but it’s definitely possible that the city would have to slash public safety funds.

During a June 10 meeting, Police Chief Jim Troiano addressed the City Commission, requesting authorization to re-apply for a Community Oriented Policing Services, or “COPS” grant.

The city applied for funding from the COPS Hiring Program in 2009, which, as described on the U.S. Department of Justice Web site, is a “competitive grant program that provides funding directly to state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies nationwide to hire and/or rehire full-time sworn officers to increase their community policing capacity and crime prevention efforts.”

The federal grant funds the full cost of salary and benefits for one full-time position for three consecutive years, on the condition that the municipality retains the position and funds it in full for a minimum of one additional year.

This year, the program is not accepting any new applicants and will select the award recipients from those did not receive the grant in 2009 but want to re-apply.

Both Troiano and Drumm said it’s likely that High Springs won’t get it. The commission agreed, however, that it’s worth the try. If the city is selected, it must accept the grant.

Recipients are chosen based on population and local crime rates, Drumm said. High Springs was awarded COPS funding some time in the mid ‘90s, at which time the guidelines were not as strict.

Troiano said he hopes to get this funding for an additional position to help offset the problem of an already short-staffed department.

“We have a limited number of positions, a few people out on light duty and two vacancies,” he explained, “…with our current scheduling issues, when someone goes on vacation or calls in sick, I am forced to pay overtime to compensate for the loss of the position.”

This generates significant additional costs, and the department’s union contract adds limitations to how he can use his staffing.

With the additional officer, the department would be better equipped to handle an increasing call load, and it could take on more proactive policing duties, which Troiano said the department hasn’t been able to do very much of in the past year.

As long as the projected budget already accounted for a cut to be made at the time the grant was awarded, the city would be able to use the funds to essentially break even in police staffing.