That from Chautauqua County Executive George Borrello, who said during his July 19 interview with WRFA that the effort to consolidate and share public safety services isn’t dead, but the involved parties will likely have to come back to the table to rework a proposal on how it can be accomplished.

Borrello said that the proposal of consolidating the JPD and by gradually bringing in Sheriff’s deputies to provide public safety within the city through a process of attrition doesn’t appear to have the support of the majority of members in the county legislature, nor from rank-and-file members of the police unions involved.

As a result, he said it may be time for city officials to go back to the drawing board to consider another approach to finding a way to reduce costs via public safety.

George Borrello

“I’m open to any options, but we need to start over again there and take a fresh look at this and look at other options as well,” Borrello said. “The thing that I see, when I look at Jamestown and I look at – for example – the town of Ellicott, you see Ellicott police cars drive across Jamestown to get from one end of the jurisdiction to the other, to me this screams for the opportunity to create a regional police force. You’ve got Ellicott Police, Lakewood-Busti Police, and Jamestown Police. Now there are many challenges there and I’m not sure of the appetite for that, but just looking at it from a logical standpoint, that’s probably the best place to start.”

Nearly ten years ago Jamestown was awarded $400,000 from the New York State Department of State to develop a plan to consolidate the JPD with the Sheriff’s Office in order to streamline public safety services while also reducing city expenses. In 2012 the city entered into a contract with the Rochester-based consulting firm Center for Governmental Research (CGR) to help develop the plan and after five years of work and negotiations, a final draft intermunicapal agreement was completed. Total spending for the effort was just over $200,000, with the remaining unspent grant money returned to the state.

The final draft agreement involved the city contracting with the Sheriff’s Office, gradually adding deputies to provide public safety services within the city to replace JPD officers as they left the department, either through retirement or resignation.  Once fully implemented, the plan was expected to help save city taxpayers well over a million dollars in annual costs, with no additional costs to the county because the salaries and benefits provided to the Sheriff’s office are less expensive than those to the officers in the JPD.

But once the proposed intermunicipal agreement was completed, it didn’t appear to have majority support of the county legislature, which would be needed before Borrello could sign off on the deal. The city council would also have to approve it, but Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi has told WRFA it would be pointless to bring the matter up to a vote in the city unless the county was also willing to move forward.

Borrello said from what he’s learned, the majority of the members in the public safety unions also didn’t appear to favor the agreement. While their approval isn’t necessary to put the agreement in place, it does signify that a court battle would likely ensue with the union challenging the legality of the agreement, tying the process up in the courts and costing taxpayers money in legal fees. As a result, Borello said he’d prefer to see a plan that all sides – including labor – can agree on.

“You can sit around a board room or conference room with a bunch of executives and come up with a great plan, or what you think is a great plan, but if you don’t have the buy-in of the grassroots folks that are supposed to be executing that plan, you’re doomed to failure. And right now on both sides, I don’t see any support for this,” Borrello said.

The proposed public safety consolidation effort was one of a dozen proposed initiatives included on a $20 million shared services grant proposal that was submitted by the county to the New York State Department of State, and which Borrello helped to develop while serving as a county legislator prior to being elected County executive. While the county was a finalist for the grant, it eventually lost out, with the state instead giving the money to a community on Long Island.

According to the Post-Journal, the forum – which was hosted by the county executive Vince Horrigan and Regional Solutions Commission Chairman and county legislator George Borrello – highlighted 13 proposed projects that would be included in the application.

The projects’ list includes:

• Merging the Jamestown Police Department and the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office;
• Researching a possible merger between the Lakewood-Busti and Ellicott police departments;
• A comprehensive study on the delivery of fire services within the county;
• Dissolution of the village of Sinclairville;
• Consolidation of services among the towns of Gerry and Charlotte;
• Merging the Mayville, Dewittville and Hartfield fire departments;
• Sharing police and court facility in Dunkirk and Fredonnia;
• Sharing courts in the towns of Harmony and North Harmony sharing courts;
• Sharing a municipal facility for the Village of Lakewood and Town of Busti.

Several other north county proposals were also included in the outline.

The application detailing the projects and cost savings is due to the state June 28. The county is being assisted with the completion of the application by the Center for Governmental Research consulting firm. The winner will be announced in August.

“I think we’ve been making some good progress on it and in fact, we had a meeting last week in my office of all the involved parties and we are writing a final report back to the [Public Safety Consolidation Task Force] that was put in place, together with our consultant, the Center for Governmental Research (CGR) out of Rochester,” Teresi said during his July interview with WRFA.  “I think we’ve got the final details in place for the framework in accordance to what the task force had directed.”

The state-funded project involves developing a proposed plan to have the city contract with the sheriff’s office for deputies, with the sheriff’s office adding new deputies to serve Jamestown as the city gradually phases out the number of police officers in the Jamestown Police Department.  According to Teresi, the result of such a proposal would be lower benefit costs for the city with no additional costs to the county.

Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi

An initial 2012 report from CGR stated that the savings from such an agreement could be as high as $1.4 million annually, once fully in place. However, because the plan would have to be phased in, that amount savings for the city wouldn’t be immediate but would only be realized once the transition was completed.

“It’s not so much a consolidation of the two departments with one going away, but more of a contractual arrangement with between the city and county that as officers at the Jamestown city level retire or should otherwise leave employment would be replaced by a contracted county employee, because of the savings differential on salary, retirement, and other expenses,” The Mayor explained.

The preliminary plan has received support from Chautauqua County Executive Vince Horrigan, who says it’s part of the county’s overall effort to identify efficiency and cost savings in local government through inter-municipal cooperation.

“I’m looking to ask, ‘Can the county help in some way?'” Horrigan told WRFA during a recent interview on Community Matters. “People have to understand that this regional solutions approach is where you spread out costs and can help. What’s important for people to know is that this won’t cost a taxpayer one additional penny who lives outside of Jamestown. We just can provide the service at less cost.”

Chautauqua County Executive Vince Horrigan.

The Public Safety Consolidation Task Force is a joint task force that includes members of the Chautauqua County Legislature, Jamestown City Council, members of both the mayor and county executive’s administration, and union members from both the sheriff’s office and Jamestown Police Department. The committee first met in late 2012 to explore options for a possible police consolidation. Since then, CGR and city and county officials have worked to identify the best option to go with and then finalize details so the option can be brought forward for consideration.

CGR has been assisting with the development of the proposed agreement the past three-and-a-half years. Nearly $400,000 in funding for the project has been awarded to the city through the New York State Department of State, with just over half of that money being spent so far.

The mayor says both his staff and the county executive’s team are in the process of ironing out the final details of the plan which, once completed, will be presented to the Chautauqua County Legislature and Jamestown City Council for their review.

“We’re hopeful that in the next few weeks we can get the steering committee together so it can give its final review and examination and provide any final thoughts that they may have,” Teresi said. “We’d incorporate those final thoughts, if they are helpful and warranted and then get the final document ready to bring jointly to the county legislature and city council for its consideration. I’m hopeful that can be done in the next couple of months.”

On Friday, Jan. 1 the Jamestown City Council held its first meeting of the year, which focused mostly on approving mayoral appointments as well as appointing the council president and committee chairs for the new term.

Councilman Gregory Rabb (D, At Large) will once again serve as president, making 2016 the ninth consecutive year he’s held the post. The committee chairs will also remain the same as last year, with Tony Dolce (R, Ward 2) serving as Finance chair, Marie Carrubba (D, Ward 4) serving as Housing chair, Maria Jones (D, Ward 5) serving as Public Safety chair, and George Spitale (D, At Large) serving as public works chair. The only new member to join the council is Victoria James (D, Ward 3), who defeated Alphonso Pagan (R) in November’s general election.

During the New Year’s Day meeting, Rabb also took time to outline the council’s agenda for 2016. Among the items he mentioned was the recommendation to consolidate the Jamestown Police Department with the County Sheriff’s Office.

Jamestown City Council President Gregory Rabb

“I ask that we continue to work cooperatively to achieve potential savings in the way we police our community by implementing the recommendations of the City/County task force while always keeping public safety our number one concern,” Rabb said in prepared statement to the council and other city officials in attendance.

As for public safety, the council president said the focus needs to continue to be on the ongoing drug epidemic sweeping the region, treating it more as a health issue.

“I ask that we continue to work with our public and private sector partners by approaching the current national drug epidemic as first and foremost a public health crisis destroying friends and families alike, potentially sapping the strength of our community. We need to continue to work to find a way to provide for a local residential treatment center,” he said.

TROUBLED FINANCIAL OUTLOOK FOR 2016 AND BEYOND

Rabb did not specifically mention the city’s current financial crisis, which was brought to the forefront near the end of last year when the council approved a 2016 spending plan that all but reaches the city’s constitutional taxing limit. In addition, the city used its remaining fund balance to help close a budget gap and it appears there will be little to no additional aid coming in from Albany.  So unless new revenue sources can be found or the city’s tax base sees significant growth during the next several months, Jamestown will be in financial dire straits for 2017.

Some in the community have already hinted at the troubles that could come with financial instability – with the possibility of a state control board coming in to oversee city operations.Rabb told WRFA following Friday’s meeting he is aware of the possibility, and the council will do all it can to see that it doesn’t happen.

“The only thing I can assure you of is that the council is well aware of that,” Rabb said. “If anybody – other than the mayor – is aware of the potential for a control board, it’s us. We’re going to be doing our best to not to have that happen. But I can’t make any guarantees. Hopefully this will be good year for us with revenue sources and expenses, but I can’t guarantee anything. We’re going to be working very hard and monitoring expenses to make sure we don’t find ourselves in that situation.”

The City Council’s first work session of 2016 will take place Monday with various committees meeting starting at 7 p.m. The full council work session is at 7:30 p.m. in the mayor’s conference room on the 4^th floor of city hall. It is open to the public.

That’s according to Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi, who told WRFA this week that his office has been meeting with County Executive Vince Horrigan and his staff to review a tentative consolidation model and iron out final details.

“That model basically is built around the notion of not doing away with any department, but pursuing economies of scale in the hiring and employment practice, and effectively hiring off the counties employment contract as a way of bringing down the replacement cost of officers in Jamestown as they leave through attrition,” Teresi said.

While the mayor said that the plan (also called the Draft Inter-municipal Agreement) is being finalized, a specific date of when it may be completed and presented to the public has not been set.

Since 2012, representatives of a Public Safety Consolidation Task Force have been meeting to discuss and determine how to proceed with a consolidation plan that would allow the Sheriff’s office to provide police services in the city, with many services of the Jamestown Police Department being phased out over an extended period of time through the process of attrition.

Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi

Teresi said once the draft agreement is completed, the next step will be to present it to the Chautauqua County Legislature and the Jamestown City Council for consideration. In addition, it would then also be presented to the public.

“That concept is elevated now to conversations, discussions and negotiations with the county,” Teresi explained. “We’ll see if we’re able to bring it to a proposal standpoint at some point down the line to bring to the county legislature, jointly with the city council, and then also to the general public for vetting and decision making.”

In addition to the legislative bodies and the general public, the finalized plan must still be reviewed by the collective bargaining units for both the sheriff’s deputies and Jamestown police. The mayor says both groups have been involved in the process, but so far, no one has endorsed the concept.

“There has been no endorsement of the concept, made on [The Jamestown Kendall Club’s] part, although they have been open to, participated with, and in dialogue with us about the concept,” Teresi said. “There has been no decision made at the level of the city council or the administration here at the city. Just a good, general openness to the concept and seeing where it goes.”

The mayor says that the most important thing to keep in mind about a consolidation plan is that it needs to be cost-effective, with no additional costs being incurred by the city or county, compared to what each is currently paying for current law enforcement efforts.

Facilitating the consolidation study and tentative plan is the Center For Governmental Research (CGR), based out Rochester. Funding for drawing up the consolidation plan – which so far has exceeded $300,000 – comes from the New York State Department by way of its Local Government Efficiency Grant.

Teresi made his comments during his June interview with WRFA. To hear the complete interview, including comments about the effort to look into having members of the JPD wear body cameras while on duty – tune in Thursday afternoon to Community Matters – now airing at its new time of 5 p.m.