Police Commission

POLICE COMMISSION April 28, 2022 PRESENT: Chairman Jim Sponaugle, Commissioner Trish Hansen, Commissioner Cheryl Michales, Commissioner Michael Whitlock, Chief Paul Sandy, Deputy Chief David Guerrera, and Tracey Hatfield. Also present Kevin Smith from the Cortland Voice. EXCUSED: Commissioner Liz Starr. DC Guerrera left early for another meeting. CALL TO ORDER The regular meeting of the Police Commission was held on April 28, 2022 in the Mayor’s Conference Room at City Hall. Chairman Sponaugle called the meeting to order at 9:02 a.m. A. MINUTES –Minutes of the March meeting to be approved at the May meeting. B. BILLS –The Commission reviewed the March bills totaling $60,023.42 and were approved on the motion of Comm. Hansen, second by Comm. Michales. C. REPORTS –The March reports as approved on the motion of Comm. Hansen second by Comm. Whitlock were highlighted as follows: 1. Invoice list for month – Brief discussion on the fuel bill. We are currently paying $3.66/gallon, up about $.80/gallon from previous months. The fuel at the school is better than the fuel at the County. Also, the County charges an additional management fee. The County doesn’t change the filters regularly and this causes issues with our vehicles. The fuel budget was also discussed. Comm. Hansen suggested opening up an account with someone in town in case the pumps go down at the school again. 2. Year-To-Date Budget – Brief discussion of percentages and the impound line. 3. Training Report – Again it was brought up that several officers are still not caught up on their training. 4. Vehicle Maintenance – Busy month for repairs. Car #25 needed transmission repairs. Other issues-fuel injectors, batteries, air conditioner, condenser on 2 cars. 3 new cars should be coming by the end of June. 5. Overtime/Sick Time Comparison –Brief discussion of paid out sick time @ retirement. Sick time used not too bad this month. Overtime not too bad in April. Younger officers are still picking up a lot of the overtime, which is good for our overtime budget. 6. Overtime Breakdown– Accumulated comp hours going up due to FTO of new hires. Spring fling coming up in May. Short shift up a little. No more OT for the SRO as he is now part time and will be modifying his schedule on the days he has to attend functions after hours. Stop DWI/Downtown Detail starting to come back up. 7. Other Activities Report –Mental health/domestics still on the rise. 60 mental health calls in a month is a new record. There was a brief discussion on the mental health calls. 1|Page  8. SPCA Report –High numbers again. Chief has been getting woodchuck calls. The Mayor was going to budget funds to contract with a trapper. 9. Detective Bureau Cases – Nothing notable to discuss. 10. Officers Injury Report – Nothing to report. 11. Officers Activities Report – Brief discussion on DWI patrol and parking tickets written. 12. Parking Ticket Report -- Numbers going back up to what they were in the past. 13. Bike Patrol Report –Nothing to report. 14. Arrest Breakdown – TC3 arrests still at 0. OLD BUSINESS A. NEW K9- Still pushing for a new K9. Municipal donations are down. McGruff funds for 2021 will all be going to the K9 fund. There will be a Chicken BBQ fundraiser at Andersen’s on May 21. The goal is to raise $20,000-$25,000. Explosive dogs are less expensive, and their training is shorter. There is also money available from the Federal government to help pay for their upkeep. We also need a new drug K9 which is more expensive, but will be utilized more. B. SRO MOU- Has been signed. SRO Reyngoudt was sworn in on April 5th and Part-time SRO. We’re still working out the bugs. C. KNAPP-RETIREMENT – Nothing new, still waiting. D. RECRUIT UPDATE – All five doing well in the Academy. We lost the sixth recruit at the Academy. Three will be back at the end of May to start their three months of FTO. We have 4 spots held for the Southern Tier Academy starting in August. E. NEW CIVIL SERVICE TEST-32 took the test; some in Onondaga County. Only 9 passed the first round of the PT Exam. 4 more passed the makeup PT Exam. 18-20 total passed the PT portion of the Civil Service Exam. Waiting on results of the written portion. We need to hire 4-5 and the County needs 2-3. NEW BUSINESS A. TRAINING – • Two officers are now certified in child safety seat installation. Lt. Cute is applying for a Car Seat Grant. Car Seat Events are being scheduled. • Two investigators went to Background Investigation School. • We have one officer is going for DRE. • One officer is going for Fire Investigator Training. • One officer going through EMT training. 2|Page B. CONTRACT UPDATE– • Still working on it; trying to update some of the language. • This is an amazing package being offered by the Mayor which hasn’t been accepted yet. • This may entice senior officers to stay and keep younger officers here longer. C. POTENTIAL RETIREMENT – • We had a senior officer put in his retirement papers. He is set to retire on May 24. Chief is hoping the new contract package will entice him to stay longer. D. PERSONNEL ISSUE – • The Commission went into Executive Session at 10:33 a.m. to discuss some personnel issues. OTHER BUSINESS A. COMMENDATION, APPRECIATION, and CORRESPONDENCE REPORT – nothing to discuss. B. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS – no comments ADJOURNMENT At the request of Comm. Michales, seconded by Comm. Hansen, a request was made to go into Executive Session at 10:33 a.m. to discuss Personnel matters with the Chief. With no further business to discuss, the Commission came out of executive session, on the motion of Comm. Whitlock, second by Comm. Hansen the meeting was adjourned at 11:47a.m. Respectfully submitted, Tracey Hatfield Sr. Account Clerk 3|Page