Council Member At Large Jeff Russell, Council Member Andrew Faulkner, Police Chief Tim Jackson

Concerns over police staffing and use of police officers at UPMC were discussed at Jamestown City Council‘s work session Monday night.

Lieutenant Sam Piazza, speaking at privilege of the floor, said that 65 officers is full staffing for the department and right now they only have 56, “We’re currently in need of four officers to be hired, to be compliant with the police impact staffing award that is agreed between the police union and the city. The staffing levels include police officers, detectives, supervisors, two captains, and the Chief’s actually included in the staffing criteria.”

Piazza said a military member on leave and a School Resource Officer count in that current staffing even though they’re either not active or available for use in road patrols. He added two officers are assigned light duty due to illness or injury as well.

Piazza said the case load is overwhelming in the department and is contributing to retention and recruitment issues, “This is not just a problem in the City of Jamestown. This is a problem all across the country. You see it on the news, you see it everywhere else. We’ve talked about it at City Council meetings. We’ve talked about it in private meetings, in negotiations. It’s here, gentleman. It’s here.”

Council member at large Kim Ecklund requested that details be provided to council regarding the number of police calls and arrests.

Council member at large Jeff Russell brought up a concern following the recent serious injury of a Jamestown Police Officer by a patient at UMPC about what happens when officers respond to the hospital. He said due to liability concerns, former Police Chief Harry Snellings had ended the practice about five years ago where officers would help physically restrain patients at the hospital so that they could be chemically medicated, “Yet I don’t agree with the practice of the Police Department being called down to the ER and asked to physically restrain a patient so that a chemical restraint can take place. And if that is taking place now, or it’s happening again, then I encourage the Chief, I encourage your Command Staff, to meet with the hospital, and refuse to do that anymore.”

Police Chief Tim Jackson confirmed that Officers are helping assist, if needed while responding to the call, with restraining patients so they can be medicated. Both Council members Russell and Marie Carrubba expressed concern over why the security team hired by UPMC wasn’t being used for these practices.

Council President Tony Dolce ended the discussion recommending that due to contractual and possibly confidentiality issues that City Administration and UPMC discuss the policy concerns.

Kendall Club President Sam Piazza addresses Jamestown City Council

Jamestown Police Department officers appealed to City Council again to designate more American Rescue Plan funds toward public safety.

Kendall Club President Sam Piazza said the wish list created by Police Chief Tim Jackson was the bare minimum needed and made a case for using funds to hire more officers, “When you train a new officer, that officer is probably not going to be comfortable for the first two, three years where he’s actually on his own or need to make a life-death situation right off the bat where a brand new guy, there’s a lot of responsibility in his actions. Again, it just doesn’t happen overnight so we need to make sure we have the staff as well.”

Piazza also requested that any patrol cars that are added to the budget be “front line patrol cars” due to the heavy, daily use.

Council members did not discuss any specific capital projects to be funded under lost revenue funds.

Council member at large Kim Ecklund did say in regards to the resolution to adopt the American Rescue Plan Act Recovery Funds Master Plan that she recommended that Comptroller Ryan Thompson provide break-out information on how much money was being allocated for each category.

Ecklund said the goal is not to vote on a “bucket” of ARP projects, “Every project will have its own vote, just like we do in the general fund. So once we vote on that allotment, every project is going to have its own vote. Every project is going to say yes or no, just like the budget. The cost associated with it will be in the form, just like the county did, here’s your plan, here’s how much is going to be spent, here’s the vote for it.”

Ecklund also requested council members send their recommendations on ARP funded capital projects to her by Wednesday.

Jamestown resident Doug Champ said he has a problem with the Jamestown Police Department only receiving $177,206 dollars for one police car and new radios under American Rescue Plan lost recovery funds, “If I haven’t seen a budget that wants to defund the Police Department, this is the budget that does that. And my question is why? Why when the ARP fund is supposed to be for public safety, public health, and economic recovery and we have these auxiliary projects as I mentioned before like a dog park and frisbee golf and whatever else you want to call this quote ‘possible projects.”

Kendall Club PBA President Sam Piazza spoke, mentioning how Police Chief Tim Jackson was asked to submit a wish list for capital projects that included five cars, virtual reality training, updating the shooting range, trauma kits, and how almost none of it was funded, “My question is, without these funds from the American Rescue Plan were we not going to budget anything for the Police Department? And you know, Doug kind of.. you know nobody came out and said we’re going to defund the Police Department but where is the funding for the Police Department? The guys and girls that come to work every day downstairs need the equipment to make sure they do their job safely.”

Jamestown resident and former City Council member Tamara Dickey said she is thankful for the Jamestown Police Department following an incident that had happened on 10th Street this summer, “We’ve got to give the Police officers the resources, both human and capital and system resources, that they need to make sure that they have the intelligence and they have the equipment and the weapons that they need.”

Doug Champ also made a recommendation that Council consider changing the City Charter so that the public hearing on the budget always occurs on the Monday before Thanksgiving so that it’s on the same day that council typically meets and is easier for the public to attend.

Finance Chair and Council Member at Large Kim Ecklund said council members are working with the city’s Finance department on separating out the general fund and American Rescue Plan monies. She said the plan is for Council to just vote on the general fund budget on Monday, November 29th.

Council President Tony Dolce said Council will be looking at public safety concerns more under the American Rescue Plan funding, “You know there have also been people that have asked us about where those funds are going to go and when we’re going to put that out there. We will be shortly after the budget is done putting out a vote on the actual categories, the amount, and then as different projects come up or equipment purchases whatever then we would be voting on them piece by piece, a la carte.”

Dolce said at this point City Council will have to bring amendments to the floor to be voted on next Monday.

Parks Manager Dan Stone at City Council Meeting

Parks Manager Dan Stone presented an updated plan for a proposed dog park at Bergman Park that reduced the cost by 53% from $269,950 to $126,000.

Stone said they eliminated a walking path and changed over to a stone dust base that has been used in five dog parks in the Rochester area. He said other cost savings came from removing equipment like dog toys and tables, “And we’ve looked at reducing some of the costs, rather than having four water stations available, reducing that down to one water station which is actually going to replace an existing drinking fountain in the park right at the main entrance there. We’ve also reduced by taking out shade pavilions and the concrete that would be needed to put those structures on. As you can see that is a considerable savings of $65,000.”

Stone said trees would be planted to provide shade instead. He said the size of the proposed park is just a little wider than the dog park in the village of Lakewood. Councilmembers Tom Nelson and Jeff Russell both expressed that the revised plan is much more palatable from a cost standpoint.

Kendall Club PBA President Sam Piazza

Kendall Club PBA President Sam Piazza spoke at privilege of the floor to council, saying this is the opportune time to purchase police equipment and cars, “Give us the opportunity to do our job better. Again, we have cars downstairs that have 134,000 miles. The front line cars, on average, are right around 90,000 miles on it. That’s just the miles. These cars are worked 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They don’t shut off. So not only do they have miles on it, they sit and idle. The engines are getting bad in them.”

Piazza said the $144,000 worth of 60 new radios just purchased by the city don’t have the capacity to talk to other police agencies, “We have to get a trunking system to update for us to talk to the county and the sheriff’s department. Jeff [Russell], you were a cop on the streets for many years. We rely on outside agencies when we’re at minimum or below what we should have on the road. Again, we can’t talk to a guy that’s out back if a guy is running out with a gun. You don’t know. Okay? So again, we need to make sure the money that’s here. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for us to make good on public safety.”

Niether Piazza nor Police Chief Tim Jackson had an exact cost for how much the trunking system would cost, but Jackson said it was significant.

Piazza also presented photos that showed water leaking into the police department’s indoor range. The range was included in proposed capital projects at a cost of $190,000, but was not funded in the proposed 2022 budget.

Finance Chair Council member at Large Kim Ecklund requested council members send her their budget proposals by Wednesday ahead of the budget public hearing that’s set for 6pm, Friday, November 19th. Council has not outruled an additional special meeting on Monday, November 22nd to continue budget deliberations. Council is scheduled to vote on the budget with amendments at its Monday, November 29th voting session.

UPDATED: AUG. 25 at 4:12 p.m. to reflect statement from Jamestown Kendall Club

JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown City Council held a work session Monday night and spent a great deal of time discussing a proposed residency requirement for city police officers.

During the half-hour discussion of the proposed local law, council members were generally in agreement that a police residency requirement would be a good thing for the city. In fact, the council felt so strongly in favor of the requirement that they increased the proposed term for how long the residency requirement would be in place, bumping it up from the original five years to ten years.

During the conversation, Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist and city attorney Elliot Raimondo said that state law allows municipalities to institute a residency requirement for officers when the police force has less than 200 officers and it doesn’t have to be negotiated into a collective bargaining unit. They also explained that several communities in Western New York already have such requirements on the books.  In addition, they explained that police and fire employees are the only labor groups where some type of residency guidelines can be put in place, while other groups of workers would have to have such requirements negotiated into their labor agreements with the city.

According to Raimondo, Jamestown Police have the lowest number of members who currently live in the city, at just 24%. Fire is at about 40%, although many of the firefighters who live outside of Jamestown still live close enough to be able to respond to emergency calls in a timely fashion when necessary. All other labor groups in the city have residency rates at or above 80%.

A hearing on the local law will take place next month, with more details on the specific date, time and process to be announced.
Following the hearing, the council would vote on the proposal to put the local law on the books.

If approved, the residency requirement would only be applied to any new officer hired after January 1 of next year. Those currently on the police force would be exempt.

Both Jamestown Acting Police chief Tim Jackson, who is the former president of the Kendall Club police union, along with retired Jamestown Police officer and current city councilman Jeff Russell are in favor of the local law.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday afternoon the Jamestown Kendall Club released the following, announcing their opposition to the proposed local law:

“The City of Jamestown did not succeed in seeking a residency requirement for new hires during the last Arbitration. The Arbitration panel, including the City’s own panel member, did not rule in favor of the City’s residency requirement proposal. Two Courts have already affirmed that ruling. Once again, the City is trying to impose a requirement for which they should work with the Kendall Club, PBA to find a compromise.

The Kendall Club, PBA stands ready, willing, and able to engage in meaningful discussions with the City. As has been stated to the City, Police Officers and their families should enjoy a reasonable degree of privacy. Requiring newly hired Police Officers to live in the County (as the great majority do) as opposed to within the City, provides a fair balance. Restricting the rights of new hires will reduce the pool of qualified applicants available to the City. Addressing this issue is critical to maintaining a highly qualified work force, especially when potential applicants can obtain better wages and benefits in other local departments.

It is truly unfortunate that the City did not work with the Kendall Club to resolve this issue, but rather chose to unilaterally attempt to make this change, possibly requiring the taxpayers to pay yet more legal fees to address the inevitable legal challenges that will follow. The Kendall Club is also disappointed that it learned of the announcement through the media. The Kendall Club is disappointed the City ignored the negotiation process regarding this critical issue. “