Police overtime, fire dept. equipment needs spark city council discussion

Councilman Bill Buckman discusses the police department’s overtime budget at Tuesday night’s council meeting. Only 3-1/2 months into the fiscal year, the department has spent 47 percent of its budget.

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2016, 11:45 p.m. — The Bardstown Police Department’s overtime budget and the city fire department’s desire to add a new fire truck were discussed at Tuesday’s Bardstown City Council meeting.

Councilman Bill Buckman gave the council reports on the latest safety committee meetings, with one dealing with the police department overtime issue, and the second with the fire department’s search for a third pumper truck.

The police department has already used 47 percent of its overtime budget just 3-1/2 months into its 2016-17 annual budget, Buckman reported.

The overtime expenses can be attributed to a number of factors, including increased overtime pay due to higher pay that accompanied recent promotions, including moving four officers to sergeant supervisory positions; the department’s flex team training schedule that required some members to work overtime. Trainings for the entire police department also generate overtime hours.

The department is four officers short at present, and keeping sufficient numbers of officers on the street creates overtime. Special events like the Kentucky Bourbon Festival and other events also created overtime.

But steps have been taken to reduce overtime, including cancellation of most trainings that aren’t required by the state, and officers have been advised to monitor their overtime hours.

But Buckman’s detailed report didn’t settle well with some members of the Bardstown City Council.

Councilman Fred Hagan.

“I understand the incidents that happen you can’t plan for, but what changed between the time you presented the budget was developed and presented to us until now?” Councilman Fred Hagan asked Mayor John Royalty. “Was none of that overtime anticipated?”

Royalty explained that the trainings and resulting overtime weren’t anticipated in the budget.

“That was not McKenzie’s [acting chief Capt. McKenzie Mattingly] budget,” he explained. That was a budget worked out between former Chief Rick McCubbin and Tracy Hudson, the city’s chief financial officer.

“It all just came to light after the budget was passed? That’s terrible planning,” Hagan said.

Royalty told Hagan the blame wasn’t on the acting chief, to which Hagan injected, “That’s on you, mayor.”

“That’s a department head issue,” Royalty said. The city’s department heads are expected to come up with budgets that will cover their operational costs, adding that at the end of the day, he understood that as mayor, he was still responsible for the overall city budget.

Buckman told Hagan the fault lies with the former police chief. Required trainings weren’t being done, Flex team members were given comp time which generated additional overtime hours.

“All this is being rectified,” he explained. Buckman said he was confident that the department will get overtime in line and stay closer to the budget.

FIRE APPARATUS & ISO RATING. Buckman also reported to the council about a special safety committee meeting that focused on the city’s ISO rating and the possible addition of a third pumper truck.

The ISO (Insurance Service Office) score is used by some — but not all — insurance companies to calculate property insurance rates. A lower score indicates greater fire protection capability, and presumably, lower insurance rates for property owners.

One of the fire department upgrades that is most likely to improve the city’s ISO rating is the addition of a third pumper truck. Fire Chief Randy Walker had explained that the department would finance the purchase of a used pumper truck with proceeds of the sale of the department’s old ladder truck and the tanker truck the department purchased last year.

Another long-range improvement to lower the city’s ISO rating will be creation of a new fire station. The current station is too small, and a second station located on the north or eastern portion of the city would improve fire protection in general, as well as ISO rating.

Councilman Francis Lydian cautioned against relying on a single fire apparatus purchase to earn a significant ISO rating change. The ratings are based on a variety of factors, he said.

Lydian said he felt that the claims that a fulltime fire department would help the city’s ISO rating were misleading, adding that lowering the rating won’t happen overnight and will be expensive.

Councilman Bobby Simpson said the in the past, the council has pursued the “golden egg of cutting our insurance costs” by buying a new fire truck and creating a full-time fire department.

“We’re not going to get it anytime soon,” he said of a lower insurance rating. City residents and even members of the council assumed they would see reduced homeowner’s insurance rates sooner rather than later.

Simpson said the council needs to have the fire chief explain the ISO rating process to city residents and chart a path forward for the most effective fire protection improvements.

Royalty said he would ask the fire chief to explain the ISO rating process at the Nov. 1 council working session.

In other business, the council:

— approved a request for closing streets for the annual Christmas Parade on Dec. 1, 2016.

— approved a request from the Bardstown Mainstreet to recognize the Mainstreet Spooktacular as an annual family friendly Halloween event. This year’s Spooktacular begins at 3 p.m. Friday, Oct. 28, 2016.

— approved a request for a mobile food vendor permit for Wild Bill’s Taste Buds.

— approved a resolution that proclaims Nov. 12, 2016, as Euclid Lodge No. 13, Free and Accepted Masons, and Queen of Nelson No. 87, Order of the Eastern Star, Prince Hall Affiliated Day.

NEXT UP. The council will next meet for its working session at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2016.