The Haines Borough Assembly questioned the police department Feb. 28 on its request for a $63,000 budget boost, asking how the department was authorized to overspend in the first place.
“I think it’s important to point out that it’s unusual for a department in the borough to go over budget this much,” said assembly member Margaret Friedenauer.
Friedenauer said she didn’t think mismanagement was involved and that she would support the request, but said she was uncomfortable with being notified of the overruns this late in the fiscal year.
Assembly member Heather Lende asked how a department could spend $32,000 more than it’s allotted. “Who authorized that before it came to us?”
“There’s just a lot of unknowns that we ran into for this police officer situation,” said interim borough manager Brad Ryan, saying that staff has to look at the previous year and make predictions when creating a budget for the following year. “It could have been an oversight,” he said.
The department’s request was lumped into an ordinance with 10 other “housekeeping” budget amendments at the meeting. Assemblyman Tom Morphet said he’d like to see the police department item separated out for further discussion and its own vote.
While $32,000 of the department’s request is already overspent, the other proposed half is anticipated to cover possible overages until July. Morphet proposed offering the police department the $32,000 to cover the overspending, but “tell the police, respectfully, to stay within the budget for the next six months.”
Morphet said that he thought that was reasonable considering other major cuts in the community, such as to the magistrate, the public health nurse and the Alaska State Troopers.
Col. James Cockrell of the Alaska State Troopers recently announced that Haines’ blue shirt trooper position will officially be moved to Bethel. Ryan said he is still seeking reimbursement from the state to pay the borough for police response outside the townsite.
Assemblyman Ron Jackson brought up the ongoing discussion on whether or not the police should respond to calls outside the townsite, and how to pay for that service.
“So far I haven’t heard demand from up river or down river to provide those services,” Jackson said.
Ryan added that the police department set a precedent of responding, and would have to notify people who live outside the townsite if that were to change.
The Public Safety Commission forwarded four options last week to the assembly and manager to consider funding police service up the highway. Commission chair Jim Stanford said he thinks the most viable option is changing the medical service area to be called the “emergency services service area” to include police and search and rescue.
The commission also recommended the assembly “support the police chief and restore staffing requirements to an acceptable level in fiscal year 2018.”