Nazareth-Upper Nazareth Police Dept. Merger

I arrived at the Council Meeting as Rev. Matz began to outline the recent meetings between Nazareth Borough Councilmen Matz and Daugherty and Upper Nazareth Supervisors Mohn and Fahr.

According to the comments made these individuals met twice for about six hours, three hours each time on Saturday mornings. The meetings were not announced on the borough web site, nor do I recall them being announced at previous meetings.

Matz distributed a document to fellow Council members that sounded like it was five pages in length.

According to Matz there were five areas of consensus:

• New Chief
• Accreditation of the Department
• Cost Control
• Training Program
• ? (sorry wrote five and only had four)

Resistance to consolidation had three items:

• Service Expectations, Coverage, Cost Control
• Fear of loss of Control and Power
• Police Employees May be Against it

The Committee believes each item of resistance could be dealt with.

The headquarters would be located at the new Nazareth Borough Building on South Main Street.

Funding would be equitable with a cap based on a formula.

A three year deal would be done first (probationary period) that would have each municipality contribute what it is budgeted to spend in 2007 up to a cap. The current amount budgeted for Upper is $750,00 and the Borough is $686,070. Later (assuming after the three year initial contract) a formula of 30% per capita, 30% assessed property, and 40% incidents previous year would be used to determine the funding.

The new force would use a Police Commission form of governance. The commission would be comprised of two borough, two township and one alternating on a term of office from each.

The recommendation is to begin operation of the new force on 1/1/08.

The informal consensus of the committee is highly favorable, it serves the common good and while there are a few issues for the solicitor we need official approval from the Township and Borough to move forward. To that end, a motion will be made at Monday's meeting.

It was further noted that if this is going to be done it needs to be done now or drop it. Can't drag it out.

Based on a packet of information including articles from journals on the issue, Councilwoman Werner asked about the union approval of each police force and the extra cost of a new contract that would essentially require the best offerings from each union's current contract (for instance with two contracts one of the two will have better salary, one will have better benefits, etc., and the new contracts often have the best component from each contract).

The solicitor stated that the union couldn't negotiate, but must be given a fair package. He later noted that approval should not be a problem because they will get a better package than what they had (hence Werner's point about the better packaging costing more).

Councilman Herbst asked about the number of officers, two forces currently have 13, new force showing 14. He also noted that the two municipalities are neighbors but very different places with Upper having about 40 square miles compared to Nazareth's 1 and the road miles are significantly different as well. He asked if projections could be made for the formula since we have incident rates available so Council could make an informed decision on what the cost will be. He was told it could not because per capita is difficult to get (which would make one wonder how much of a problem this will be when the formula is used).

Question was asked (missed by who) if Upper Nazareth was willing to give up its Police Chief? Answer by Matz was yes. Also noted that the one Nazareth was in the process of interviewing and hiring would be hired as the Chief of the new department and the answer was yes.

Discussion regarding past multi-municipal coverage was raised. Nazareth had a contract with Lower Nazareth to provide police services to the township. It was not a joint effort by the municipalities with both participating, instead it was Nazareth's police force covering additional territory based on a contract. Operationally, it was similar to a regional police force.

Councilman Samus asked if Upper would be interested in a similar contract. Answer was eventually that they were not interested (it did not come across from the conversation that this was discussed as an option at the meetings).

Werner asked what the police officers thought. Answer was they weren't asked. Mayor Keller noted that four years ago when it was discussed the officers favored the idea.

Councilman Daugherty noted we need to do what is in the best interest of the community not the police.

Councilman Stoudt noted that haste makes waste and let's take our time and do this right if we are going to do it.

That was the end of the conversation regarding the merger.

A few immediate thoughts:

1. These meetings ought to have been announced and open to the public. The intent of the group was to determine feasibility and consider if it could work. While there were contractual issues that would have to be worked out, they were not negotiations. Based on the information provided this group made decisions that will be recommended to their respective Boards for action.
2. Cost control was listed as an item of consensus, yet the funding formula after year three was not tested with current data to determine if there would be an increase or not. Further, the first three years are set at current levels with a cap, meaning there are no savings but could be increases. Finally, there was no discussion addressing the facility being based in Nazareth and maintained by the borough. Would this result in a reduction of the contribution the borough made? In effect, the Borough will make its contribution and pay all utilities, maintenance, etc. for the department because it is in the Borough building.
3. Coverage is a huge personal concern of my own. Nazareth has struggled to cover the Borough (albeit they have been down a few officers) and now we are going to be able to cover the borough plus 40x our own size? The two departments often work together and there are benefits to having a larger force, but I'm not sure if the larger force will be able to cover both based on their diverse needs.
4. Current Police Forces. I was shocked that Upper, who has a Chief, was willing to give up its chief and accept whoever Nazareth hired for its new Chief. The current Nazareth force has been short-handed, has had its long-time Chief recently pass away, and the new chief position was designed/described in a way that no current officer was eligible to apply. On top of all that, a move is at foot to seriously disrupt these officers jobs/career and no one has apparently discussed any of it with them. I have no inside knowledge, but it would seem that someone ought to talk to or get a feel for what the officers are thinking, because two potentially disgruntled groups could be emerging.
   

I'm sure more thoughts will come out on this and more information will be provided as this moves forward, but it appeared from last night's meeting that it could be a 5-4 or 4-5 vote. I'd imagine there will be some argument but at the least the motion to allow the solicitor to do what work needs to be done will be approved Monday. What happens next and how fast will depend on how much fact-finding (and the formula would top my list) will be done. I also wonder if the hiring of the new chief is contingent on having a force of 6 or 14, hence the rush to get something approved.

What do you think? What concerns do you have about police coverage, costs, or this process?