By Neil Farrell ~
It’s been hanging over the heads of the local police for years and in August, the City Council is inviting the community to give input on whether they should contract out policing services with the County Sheriff and disband the MBPD.
The Sheriff’s Department already handles police dispatching under a contract and Cal Fire/County Fire dispatches the fire department. After Cmdr. Bryan Millard was named Cuesta College Police Chief, and current Chief Amy Christey leaving soon for Pacific Grove, the timing is apparently ripe to discuss the future of police services.
An agenda item is being drafted for the Tuesday, Aug. 9 City Council meeting (6 p.m. at the Vet’s Hall), and everyone from letter writers, to the Neighborhood Watch Association, and even the police themselves are asking residents to show up and give their views on where we should go from here.
“Based on a recommendation from the Management Partner’s Financial & Organizational Study of the City,” reads a Facebook post by the police department and posted on the Neighborhood Watch site (see: https://mbneighbors.com). “Council was to consider in 2017 whether or not to obtain proposals from the SLO County Sheriff on costs of providing law enforcement service to the City.”
The Management Partners Report (to download see: www.morro-bay.ca.us/920/City-Goals-Objectives and click on the report at the left), released in May 2015, analyzes the City’s organization makes numerous recommendations. (Management Partners also conducted a 10-year budget forecast released earlier this year that painted an alarming picture of the City’s potential future revenues.)
Given vacancies in the department — they are down a sergeant, a K-9 officer and police dog, too — that 2017 schedule is apparently being moved up. “With the Police Commander’s departure and Police Chief’s pending departure, Council directed staff to bring an agenda item regarding this matter, likely at its Aug. 9 meeting.”
Mayor Jamie Irons said the idea was discussed openly in the Management Partners report, and with the unfortunate departure of the chief and commander, who had good opportunities, he said, it makes sense to talk about it now.
“We have to hire a police chief,” Irons said, “and if we don’t have this discussion now, a candidate [for the job] is going to look at the Management Partners report and have hesitations about even applying.”
He added they needed to “clear the plate” over the police department. “That’s a significant point,” he said. He’s been getting a lot of emails, he added, and encourages the residents to let them know how they feel. He was also to meet with the Neighborhood Watch folks on Tuesday.
Irons said there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding out there about what’s going on and the nature of the coming agenda item. He met with the police crew last week during the morning shift change, when the most officers are in station. “A lot of the guys like working in the City,” he said, “and the variety of calls here.”
Councilman John Headding responded via email, “There are a number of issues that demand the consideration of potential alternatives to the existing structure of police services in Morro Bay, in addition to examining the current structure of police services as they exist.” He adds that to continue services at the same or improved levels, alternatives must be looked at, both for costs and “resource constraints.”
“This was to be considered next year as one of the council’s goals that principally came from the Management Partners study of the city (2008 and 2015 update),” Headding said.
The loss of the top officers is an opportunity to step up that schedule. “I think we would be remiss if the council did not evaluate potential opportunities now, instead of waiting until next year,” Headding said. “This is principally because the significant ‘tension for change’ that was evident in the Management Partners report continues, and the major turnover of leadership that occurred recently, demands in my opinion, that we evaluate these alternatives now before moving forward with duplicating our existing structure.”
They also have to examine the City’s tight budget to see if it’s even possible, he said. It’s too early for any decisions to be made.
“This is just a determination if an evaluation of potential contracted services should occur,” Headding said. “I certainly do not support making any ‘final’ decisions regarding definitive outsourcing at the Aug. 9 meeting.”
The essential question is this: “Should the City of Morro Bay conduct research into the question of obtaining a proposal from the SLO County Sheriff Office to provide law enforcement services in the City?” according to the City Manager, who released a public memorandum July 18 on the issue (see: www.morro-bay.ca.us/DocumentCenter/View/9757). Mayor Irons urged residents read the memo, as it lays out well the situation the City faces.
Buckingham’s memorandum gives several parameters the Council reached consensus on:
• Do not consider seeking proposals for multiple service levels, but limit the question to only one level of service. The level of service to be considered must be equal to, or better than, the level of service currently provided by the excellent Morro Bay PD.
• No reduction in number of sworn patrol officers on shift will be considered.
• No reduction in response time will be considered.
• Law Enforcement services for Morro Bay must be based from the current Morro Bay Police Department.
• The Sheriff’s Office must be committed to sustaining a “Morro Bay” police force. That is, officers will generally be assigned to Morro Bay on a semi-permanent basis, perhaps 2-5 years, or more.
• The “Morro Bay” unit will look and feel, as much is as possible, to be a Morro Bay Police Department including driving Morro Bay police vehicles and having other Morro Bay specific insignia.
• Any future contract should have a set term and include provisions for an orderly end of contract services and return to an internal Police Department should the City determine to cancel the contract.
Management Partners’ report included: “While such services will not provide the level of attention to individual residents currently provided by the Police Department, the City may decide that such a high level of service, while welcome, is not worth the cost.
“We recommend a new discussion with the sheriff that starts without any presumed service levels and that base proposal be the level of service the sheriff would provide if the City were unincorporated. Additional services can then be added to the base proposal to bring it to the level that is most consistent with community expectations at a cost that can be afforded.”
And, “Several staffing models may be available from the sheriff and should be explored, even if they offer lesser service to the community than what is currently enjoyed.”
Buckingham promised to conduct a “robust public process to gather input from residents, businesses and other stakeholders,” in his memo to the community.
In August 2014, when the City Council decided to contract out dispatching services for the police (with the Sheriff’s Office) and fire and harbor departments (with Cal Fire), then interim City Manager Ed Kriens was asked about rumors that they were looking at contracting with the Sheriff too. He told The Bay News, “Absolutely not… In the first place it would be cost prohibitive, but even if it weren’t, residents of Morro Bay want their own police and fire.”
Dispatch, at the time, was suffering a similar crisis of staffing — down to just three from 5½ budgeted positions. In 2014, dispatch was budgeted at $461,133 and the County contracts were going to save some $43,000 in the first year (starting that October), according to numbers released at the time.
The 2016-17 City Budget lists the fire department dispatching contract with Cal Fire at $123,899 and $252,076 for Sheriff’s Dispatching for a total of $375,975.
