For the sake of hiring and retaining quality police officers, wages must be increased

Within the space of two and a half months, the City of Holyoke lost two of the five people who made up the local police force. Both Jorge Salas and Joe Marcum left Holyoke Police Department for jobs with other law enforcement agencies, and Holyoke City Council has taken notice.

 Now is the time for Police Chief Doug Bergstrom to be advertising for a job opening, but before doing so, he needed answers about what the City is willing to pay a new officer.

At the beginning of the Dec. 3 Holyoke City Council meeting, the salary for a new officer was $35,500. By the end of the meeting, council members had given Bergstrom the go-ahead to advertise the position at $42,000. Council member Gene Bittner cast the sole dissenting vote. (Council member Kevin Scott was absent.)

The conversation about police officers’ compensation is far from over though.

Council member Steve Moore shared that other nearby law enforcement agencies overwhelmingly start officers at $41,000-$42,000. Even Washington County, which has historically paid its new officers less than HPD, is talking about upping that number to $42,000, Bergstrom said.

“I don’t know where we need to start,” Moore said, “but I think we do need to raise it.”

Having acknowledged Bittner’s concern that there’s only so much money in the budget, Bergstrom countered, “If we’re not somewhat competitive to the other agencies, we’re going to get the applicants that nobody else wants, and that’s not necessarily what the City of Holyoke wants.”

Back in November 2017, the council was split on whether to allow HPD to hire a fifth officer, but it did ultimately happen. Now with just three remaining officers and the issue of offering competitive wages, Moore suggested that having four officers with increased pay may be the appropriate solution — at least for the time being. With regard to retaining officers, Moore speculated, “If we pay four officers better, maybe we can keep four officers.”

With the decision made to offer a new officer $42,000, the council recognized that the salaries of the existing officers may need to be adjusted as well. Council members will discuss that aspect at their Dec. 17 meeting.

City adopts 2019 budget

Following a public hearing, Holyoke City Council adopted Resolution No. 5-2019, adopting the 2019 budget, which totaled $8,513,085 in appropriations.

The budget includes:

General Fund  $3,723,653

Utility Fund  $4,282,843

Sale of Heginbotham Land Fund  $661

Equipment Replacement Fund  $166,500

Library Land Fund  $780

Cemetery Perpetual Care Fund  $4,350

Fire Pension Fund  $10,890

Massman Memorial Fund  $439

Cem White/Leeper Memorial Fund  $13,351

LeBlanc Estate Fund  $9,618

Capital Reserve Fund  $300,000

Total Approp  $8,513,085

In addition, council members certified a levy of 21.807 mills, including 21.2 to the general fund, 0.6 to volunteer firefighter pensions, and 0.007 for refunds and abatements.

The City’s total assessed value for 2019, according to the Phillips County Assessor, is $17,316,670. Therefore, City mills equate to $377,503.406, not including $121.216 for refunds and abatements.

Water, sewer, refuse rates set

Resolutions 6-2019, 7-2019 and 8-2019 were also adopted Dec. 3, setting new rates for water, sewer and refuse in Holyoke.

As of Dec. 19, the water rate will be $6.79 service charge per account per month. All usage is set at $0.58 per 100 cubic feet. Outside city limits, rates are doubled.

For sewer usage, the flat monthly rate for one-family dwellings within city limits is $20.56. Outside of city limits, the monthly rate is $41.12. Nonresidential commercial rates are determined by the average monthly water consumption determined by meter readings from November, December, January and February each year. Within city limits, rates start at $23.74 for usage from 0-600 cubic feet and go up to $328.93 for usage of 50,001 cubic feet and over. Outside city limits, rates are doubled.

New refuse rates are $21.84 per month for residential and $23.88 per month and up, depending on volume, for commercial. Outside city limits, an additional $58.58 per month is charged.

At the Dec. 3 meeting, council members also voted to allow notice for a 2% electric rate increase to be published for usage in 2020.

The proposed residential rate is $10.60 per month service charge plus $0.12109/kWh for the first 1,000 kilowatt-hours and $0.09858/kWh for additional kWh. The proposed commercial rate is $18.75 per month service charge plus $0.12109/kWh for the first 1,000 kWh and $0.09858/kWh for additional kWh. Proposed rates for demand electric (large power users) are $16.05kW and $0.07039/kWh.

A public hearing will be held Tuesday, Jan. 7, at the Holyoke City Council meeting. Should new electric rates be adopted, they will take effect Jan. 20, 2020.

Brown reports on City crews

City superintendent Mark Brown encouraged council members to attend Colorado Rural Water Association’s rural and small systems sustainable utility management workshop that was rescheduled to Dec. 6.

Brown reported that the electrical department handled three power outages since the Nov. 19 city council meeting. Crew members also put up Christmas lights downtown and helped with snow removal. The water and sewer department was busy blowing out sprinkler systems and working on broken meters and fourth-quarter well testing for the State.

The street department finished leaf pickup, did some street sweeping, dragged some roads and moved snow.

Police begin using Kaseware

Bergstrom told council members Dec. 3 that HPD went live with its new report system, Kaseware. Aside from working through a few technical difficulties, he said, things were going well.

At Bergstrom’s request, council members approved two new policies that are directly related to the new system. The first outlines guidelines required by Colorado Crime Information Center and the National Crime Information Center. The second policy regulates mobile data terminal use by officers.

In his report to the council, Bergstrom also noted that HPD, including code enforcement, handled or generated 207 calls for service from Nov. 14-25. The department made one arrest, wrote four citations and two reports, and gave out 25 warnings. Code enforcement handled four animal complaints, seven dogs at large and two ordinance violations.

Other business

In other business at the Dec. 3 meeting, Holyoke City Council:

— Approved offering two individual vacation days as a door prize for employees at the Christmas party.

— Renewed the annual Automated Weather Observing System aviation support and maintenance service contract with DBT Transportation Services at $4,200, ending Dec. 20, 2020.