Brattleboro Selectboard Special Meeting – FY18 Budget Discussion of Police and Fire Departments

The Brattleboro Selectboard, sans John Allen, held a special meeting regarding the FY18 budget, focusing on the numbers for the Police and Fire departments.

With no preliminary announcements, the meeting got right down to business.

Public Participation

Rich Holschuh returned to the Selectboard with a petition signed by 540 voters, over 5% of the registered voters in town. The petition asks to change Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day in Brattleboro, and for the question to be placed on the 2016 Representative Town Meeting warning for a vote.

“I’m back to complete the circle of what we began here on October 4th,” he said. 

Holschuh said Brattleboro was “ground zero for the deleterious effects on indigenous people in Vermont” so it would be fitting that Brattleboro be the first town to take action.

Robin Flatley agreed, saying that it was time to support indigenous people. “With what’s happening at Standing Rock, I’m happy to come here tonight to show my support for Native Americans. I totally support it and wanted to let you know.”

Monica MacNeille said she was also in support. “It’s appropriate to do now. It acknowledges those who came before and those whose land we live on now.”

FY18 Budget – Police Department

Police Chief Fitzgerald presented his department’s budget for FY18 and pointed out significant changes over the previous year, including increases for IT expenses, ongoing maintenance and expenses for a new facility, fees for a state incident reporting system, new copiers to replace expensive printers and older copiers, and some expenses related to the newest collective bargaining agreement.

Kate O’Connor asked about the nearly $88,000 of new expenses related to the new facility on Black Mountain Road, up-fit costs, and the nearly $100,000 increase in salaries.

Town Manager Peter Elwell answered that the carrying costs of the new police building would partially be offset by rent, leaving an annual cost of closer to $60,000. The up-fit costs associated with the space for the Reformer were unrelated to ongoing costs, he said.

Chief Fitzgerald said that the salary increases were related to collective bargaining agreements, and Elwell elaborated that adjustments in starting salaries and pay in early years of service (to aid in retention) were the reason.

Dick DeGray asked about revenue from overnight parking tickets. 

The Chief explained that civil violations could be written up under state or local ordinances, and how it gets written changes the percentage of revenue from fines.  More revenue is generated from a local ordinance violation, sort of. “I try to understand how they divide it. When we write a ticket, the state gets it. Then we get a kickback from some of those fines.”

Chair David Gartenstein suggested kickback might not be the best word. Everyone had a chuckle.

DeGray asked why the parking fund got revenue from overnight parking violations and not the police? “The police write the tickets.” Elwell said they’d look at how ticket revenues were allocated.

Elwell also pointed out that the $35,000 in “repairs” was a placeholder, poorly named,  for the care and cleaning of the new police building.

DeGray asked about downtown policing, particularly on Flat Street and at the Transportation Center. “What can we do to abate some of the valid fears?” he said of panhandlers and places that people were afraid to walk.

The Chief said that a combination of better lighting, knowing specific troublesome times of day, and better staffing would help. This presented an option for him to announce that Brattleboro has two new graduates at the police academy who will be on the force within a month or so.

DeGray asked about the department’s opinion of cameras.

“I’m all for cameras,” said Fitzgerald. “They won’t prevent a crime, but will help solve them.” He said no one in town monitors cameras all day long. “We download after the fact from the cameras. I’m getting officers body cameras. I’m all for cameras.”

Indeed, body cameras were on the list of possible capital fund expenses for the police department, as were ballistic vests.

The body cameras would take a while to implement, said Fitzgerald, as there were lots of policy and training issues to work out before using them. “Buying them is the easy part.”

“Preservation of data is critical,” added Gartenstein.

DeGray was concerned about overtime costs for the police dispatchers. Fitzgerald said it was a difficult job, and many people can get all the way through training and still quit.

Rich Holschuh congratulated the department for efforts in community policing. The Chief in turn thanked his “fantastic team.”

Unrelated to the budget, Fitzgerald said he had a great time at a recent charity basketball game.

“I spent about 8 minutes on the basketball court,” he explained. “The Town Manager showed us how to do it.  He schooled us in his athletic ability. It was truly fun. I haven’t laughed that hard in a while. I think it was 40-8 at halftime. Hopefully it becomes an annual event. It connected a lot of us.”

Brattleboro’s Police Department has  25 officers and 2 open positions, plus four administrators, 8 emergency service employees, and 2 on-call/seasonal positions.

Revenue expected to increase from $141,109 to $170, 620, a total of $29,511 or 20.91%.

Expenses are expected to increase 9.52%, or $189,681, to $2,181,133 (crossing the $2 million mark for the first time.)

Police dispatch expenses are expected to also rise, but by a smaller amount. Dispatch expenses for FY18 are expected to be $486,533, up $18,521 from the previous year, or 3.96%

FY18 Fire Department

Brattleboro Fire Chief Mike Buccossi gave the board his review of the fire department budget for FY18.

He said there would be decreases in line items for personnel due to staff turnover, and reduced building maintenance in the new buildings.

Increases would come from a switch from oil to propane, new office management software, and vehicle maintenance for upcoming ladder truck repairs.

Town Manager Elwell had answers for the board regarding the need for a new fire truck. Questions had arisen at last weeks meeting about use of the rescue truck, the expected lifespan of a combination rescue pumper truck, and how many times the reserve engine is used.

The rescue truck, which respond to medical and rescue calls, is called out about 100 times a month. A combination rescue pumper truck could last 20 years. The reserve truck might get called four times a month.

This led to a somewhat confusing explanation of the need for four trucks, but the need is very real, and four is the recommended number for a town of our size, population, and proximity to other paid fire departments. The fourth may not get used a lot, but it is a trusted and able vehicle awaiting service in special circumstances, and without it would be “a great concern.”

The new combo rescue and pumper vehicle would cost about $550,000, and could, Elwell said, be paid with fund balance surplus cash that would still leave a 10% reserve for emergencies. The fund balance stands at about $2.8 million, with $1.6 reserved. Some of the remainder is accounted for, but there is still another half a million or so.

That said, he cautioned, Elwell saw value in borrowing for this one-time, long-term expense. It would leave more money in the fund balance to do long-needed capital improvements in town. With a truck lifespan of 20 years, 10 years of payments would be tolerable for a purchase of this size. There was no way to predict the future of interest rates, he admitted. They could be like now, or spike.

Franz Reichsman said he had spoken to a banker about mortgages and rates had risen 7/10 of a percent in the last two weeks. “The spike may have already started.”

One newly-revealed aspect of getting a combination rescue and pumper is that it would not be sent to medical-only calls. In those cases, a simple pick-up truck could do. The rescue pumper would only be used for incidents requiring rescue equipment, or fires.

The purchase of the new truck, to which no one was currently objecting, would be placed on the warning for Representative Town Meeting’s to approve in late March 2017.

Deb Witkis expressed concern about waiting so long, with one truck out of service. “What do we do in the interim without enough equipment?” she asked.

“We’re moving as quickly as we can,” said Gartenstein.

Brattleboro’s Fire Department has 25 full-time employees, with 6 on-call/seasonal staff positions.

Revenue is expected to increase from $18,700 to $21,500, a total of $2,800 or 14.97%.

Expenses are expected to decrease by $4,419 to $1,858,832, or -0.24%.