Council says no to more cops

Sparta - The township council just said no to the chief of police, who had been looking to add three officers to the force for the upcoming year. Mayor Alish Hambel was the lone member of the council to vote in favor of increasing the size of the police force from 38 to 41 officers. Instead, the council approved the police chief’s request to add a clerical staff member to the department. The decision was one of a number of cost-cutting moves or suggestions made during a public budget hearing with the township manager held last week. Another public hearing is scheduled for Saturday, beginning at 8:30 a.m., in the municipal building. Sparta Police Chief Ernie Reigstad was given approval last year to hire two officers bringing the force up to 39 members. However, Reigstad said a sergeant is expected to retire this year, which would lower the number of officers to 38 to police the 37 square miles of town. The average cost of each officer to the township including salary, benefits and pension is about $70,000 each year. Meeting the chief’s proposal to add two more officers would have translated into a 14-percent increase in personnel costs from 2005. Reigstad said the size of the police force has not kept pace with an increase in the township’s population in the last 15 years. Policing the township has also been affected by an even greater rate of residential growth in all of Sussex County and nearby eastern Pennsylvania, he said. The police chief supported his request for additional officers with results from internal studies that identified staffing needs based on guidelines recommended by the F.B.I., the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Bureau of Justice Statistics. According to the chief, the time devoted to patrols has dropped, while calls for assistance and officer miles logged have increased. The police force was just one stop for the council, which moved meticulously down a list of requests made earlier in January by department heads for the upcoming year. Along the way, council members questioned everything from the amount of toilet paper needed in the new municipal building to the cost of upgrading uniforms for the fire department. “I don’t think we’re micro-managing,” said councilman Scott Seelagy. “We’re making the department heads look at this and make better choices.” The council is intent on reducing the budget surplus, which Sparta, like most towns, anticipates every year to compensate for uncollected taxes or unforeseen expenditures. Michael Guarino, the township finance director, said Sparta has operated on surplus budgets ranging from $4.1 million to $5.1 million annually since 2000, and $4.8 million last year. The township has used anywhere from $3.1 million to $4.2 million of that money in subsequent budgets, leaving $680,000, in surplus reserve since 2000, he said “We’re asking every department for a few thousand dollars,” said Sparta Township Manager Henry Underhill. “Unless (department heads) can give some details, we’re taking money out (of their budgets).” Underhill said the township was looking into increasing the number of court sessions from six to seven each month to accommodate an abundance of driving-while-intoxicated summons. He said the township judge was having difficulty hearing cases within the 60 required days from the offense. “We have a lot of activity right now and I don’t think it’s going to let up,” said Underhill, who noted that township retains court costs, although some related DWI fees are forwarded to the county for offender education. “We have days where you can’t get in the door.” Underhill said the prosecutor is paid $38,000 per year for six monthly court dates. Township benefits are not included in the compensation package, he said In the number of court days is increase, Seelagy said, prosecutor fees would probably need to be adjusted to $39,500 annually, or about another $125 per hour. Additional costs would have to be factored in for the judge, Underhill said. The Department of Public Works had presented an annual budget that represented a 5.46 increase from last year’s levels. According to Underhill, 4 percent of that increase was due to salary adjustments or step increases. However, the council was more concerned about the department’s asphalt and concrete pickup and disposal charges, which were projected to jump from $260,000 to $320,000. Underhill was asked to knock at least $7,000 off the total public works budget by paring down tree removal and line striping for roads in some of the subdivisions. “I’ll certainly go back to these people and have them sharpen their pencils,” he said. “We’ll do as much as we can with less.” Councilman James Henderson questioned a jump in building supplies and materials for repairs. The township manager said moving into the new municipal building would alleviate some expenditure, but that he had planned to perform repairs that had been neglected the past few years. “A lot of it is management discretion,” said Seelagy. “That’s where efficiency comes in.”