Growing costs of DCPD outpace property tax receipts

Updated January 7, this story includes corrected figures for the cost per service call according to city budget figures.

The main question about the future of the David City Police Department is one of sustainability.  The City Council has approved a mail-in special election to determine if the city will continue to operate a police department.
 

According to information from the city's budget documents, the cost has been growing for the past seven years, while the city's capacity to raise funds through property taxes has lagged behind.

The budget numbers used for this story are available at the city's website. The numbers of police calls were provided by the city as part of its interlocal agreement with Butler County for dispatching services.

Here are key questions:

What is the cost of running DCPD?

The cost of operating a police department for David City has grown from $282,191 in 2002-03,to $437,000 budgeted for this year.

This year's budget is listed at $488,000, but it is inflated by the one-time injection of revenue, $51,000, from the sale of the city police station to Henningsen Foods. That money was budgeted to help pay for a new police station.

With the police station revenue removed, the operational budget is $437,000 for 2009-10.

Where does the city get the funds?

The city this year will collect $519,000 in property taxes under the state mandated levy lid of .45 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.

Another 5 cents per $100 of assessed valuation is dedicated to the city's share of dispatcher costs under an interlocal agreement with Butler County. This year, the city will pay $74,000 under the agreement with the county. The city has explored other options and attempted to negotiate a lower cost with the county.

On the other revenue categories, the department had peaks of revenues in three years, but those were down to $1,677.

How much did the police department expenses grow in recent years?

The growth of operational cost is up $16,000 from the actual final cost of the department in 2008-09, which came in at $421,421. The largest share of the cost increase was $6,000 for salaries.

Salaries increased steadily from 2002-03 to 2006-07, which had a total of $200,549. The number dipped to $190,049 in 2007-08, but was back up to $219,100 in 2008-09, and the budget amount this year was $225,000. As of budget time, the department had two vacancies, a sergeant and an officer.

The starting salary for police officers, $26,000, is lower than at other cities. Seward pays $36,000 for new officers; South Sioux City pays $40,000, Trowbridge said.

What is the projected trend for DCPD costs, assuming the department has a staff of five officers and a secretary? How does this stack up against property tax collections?

By 2013-14, the operational cost would be $550,000.

How does the budget break down on a per-call basis?

The Banner-Press took a look at the cost of operating the police department between 2005 and 2007, and the number of service calls that were attributed to DCPD during those years.

If the costs could be cut to $388,000, with a police chief and three officers, and the department costs still grew 6 percent per year, the projected cost by 2015 would still be nearly 90 percent of the property tax revenue flowing into the city coffers, Trowbridge said.

If the city would contract with the sheriff's office for $240,000, and factored in a 6 percent yearly cost increase, the city would be spending 58 percent of the property tax revenues flowing into the city. 

How much would be saved with the sheriff's proposal?

By contracting with the county to have the sheriff's office provide local law enforcement, $753,000 could be saved over five years, from 2011 to 2015.

According to Mayor Dana Trowbridge, savings could be used for one of several other possible community improvements: half the cost of the Northwest Drainage project, or contribute $7,500 to the Ball Association for 100 years, or fund the swimming pool deficit for 12 years, or resurface 36 city blocks with concrete surfacing. The $753,000 savings would pay for half of the cost of a methane power generator, making the project feasible, Trowbridge said.

How would the sheriff's department be staffed to meet the needs of David City?

Under the current proposal, the Butler County Sheriff's office would add three full-time deputies whose primary focus would be David City law enforcement. The remaining time, David City would be served by other deputies and the sheriff.

In effect, this would replace five full-time officers with three full-time officers with the sheriff and six deputies filling in the gaps to make sure the city has at least one officer on patrol in town throughout each day. Hecker also has proposed adding a code enforcement officer, which would free uniformed officers from handling such calls as nuisance ordinance complaints or unregistered vehicles.

How much would downsizing the department save for the city?

Operating budgets for those years were $349,976 in 2005, $376,296 in 2006, and $396,634 in 2007. This comes to an average of $374,302.

During those three years, the Butler County dispatch center tracked DCPD related calls of 1,166 calls for 2005, 1,187 in 2006 and 1076 in 2007.

That comes to a three-year average of 1,143 per year.

The calls divided into the average cost comes to a cost of $327.47 per call based upon the staffing level of a chief, four officers and a full-time receptionist.

If the same number of calls is divided into the $240,000 proposal by Sheriff Mark Hecker to cover the city with three deputies, the cost would be $210 per call. 

What would be the result of downsizing the police department staff?