Tuesday, May 15, 2012

we are not required to fund the policemen hired under the Obama stimulus grant.

Writing in the Facebook Group Homeowners Against a Property Tax Hike  today, former Metro Council Member candidate William Cyril Guthoerl explained that we are not required to fund the policemen hired under the Obama stimulus grant. Many people have argued that if we do not permanently fund the positions funded with the Obama grant money we would have to repay the grant. This is the explanation offered by William: 

For everyone that keeps hearing the threat on the loss of police officers, let me explain the COPS grant. The grant provides funding for 50 police officers for 36 months. At the end of the 36 month period the city is required to increase the police staffing levels to add those 50 positions. While a budget cut might not allow for that increased level, the COPS grant provides a clause that allows cities who have faced budget reductions OR a natural disaster to apply for a waiver from the requirement. That is an option for Metro. If granted, the department is continually hiring, meaning that there are openings for those 50 officers to be absorbed into the current staffing.

it is good to know that if we do not fund these 50 positions that we would not have to repay the grant. We had a natural disaster. We should apply for the waiver.  I am going to assume that this is correct unless someone provides evidence to the contrary.  In essence, no policeman would have to lose his job. There is enough turn over in the department that no one would have to be laid off. Without a tax increase it is true that we probably could not keep all of those positions funded under the Obama Cops grant. If however, it is determined that the optimum number of policemen includes some of those positions currently funded with the Cops grant, then the city could keep some of those positions by reallocating resources. Maybe the city could abolish the worthless and unnecessary Human Relations Commission and fund three of the police positions. I bet I could find some other money that could be reallocated, if I was convinced that losing those 50 positions would be detrimental to the city.

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Posted by Rod Williams
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1 comment:

  1. William GuthoerlMay 27, 2012 at 9:36 PM

    Rod,

    Thanks for sharing this. The retention exemption could in fact relieve us from the burden of increasing the department's staffing levels to fund the additional 50 sworn positions. It would, however, have to be approved by the Department of Justice, and if approved the city would be ineligible to accept any additional COPS grant funding for a 12 month period, however, as select members of the council noted when it was accepted, it a bad idea to accept grants that will required a departments budget to increase at the end of the funding period when our revenue is based on projections in a downed economy. Personally I would like to know if the question has been asked "have we researched this option"? Here is the link to the USDOJ retainer requirements for the COPS grant.

    http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/default.asp?Item=2115

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