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Boardman officials pinpoint uses for tax levy
BOARDMAN
If voters approve an additional police levy Aug. 2, township officials don’t just want to hire patrolmen.
They want to rebuild the entire police department.
“We keep hearing from residents that we need to keep the community safe. It’s been said Boardman is at a crossroads, and we truly are,” said Trustee Chairman Thomas Costello. “Aug. 2 is the day we will find out, do we continue to be, I think, one of the most progressive communities in the Mahoning Valley or will that end?”
In the early 1970s, Boardman voters approved a police district that included a continuing levy that now generates about $1.5 million annually. Voters in 2008 also approved a safety levy for both police and fire services, generating about $2 million annually.
Now, the township trustees, police chief and citizens’ group, Boardman Coalition Against Crime, are pledging to residents that if a 3.85-mill, five-year additional police levy is approved Aug. 2, then the following positions will be filled within two years: 10 police officers, one diversion specialist, one advocate, one crime analyst, one secretary, two records clerks and two dispatchers.
Police Chief Jack Nichols outlined a five-year budget that accounts for employee salary and benefits and the yearly increases in pay. He calculated that the average cost of those additions per year would be about $1.4 million, overestimating to account for unexpected expenses.
The estimated cost in 2012 for personnel, patrol cars, building upkeep and training totals $1,103,009.90, according current union contracts.
The 3.85-mill, five-year additional police levy is expected to generate $3,815,320 annually and cost the owner of a home valued at $100,000 about $117 annually, according to the Mahoning County Auditor’s office.
The $3,815,320 generated by the levy will be restricted and can be used only in the police department. The police department has a $7.1 million budget for 2011 — out of the township’s $17 million total budget — and if the police levy is approved, the department’s budget will increase to $8.5 million, said Costello.
About $2.4 million now going to the police department from the general fund will be returned to the general fund, Costello said.
The itemized list of jobs is “what we’re going to do” if the levy is approved, Costello said.
Nichols said the support staff is vital to the police department, which must continue to produce records and complete clerical work per state law.
“The support staff is so important. We’re easy targets for critics. People will say ‘I don’t want a secretary,’ but if you don’t have the secretary, the cops have to do their work. I’d rather pay someone a secretary wage than police- officer wage to do that job,” Nichols said.
The advocate guides victims and witnesses of crime through the judicial system, while the diversion officer works with juveniles who have been arrested for petty crime, he said.
The crime analyst uses data to predict when and what types of crimes are likely to occur, and has been successful in the past, he said.
“In the case of the analyst, that’s like a force multiplier. It frees up officers and is police work done in a cost effective-way,” Nichols said.
Currently only one dispatcher per shift is handling all emergency calls in the township, he said.
Township Administrator Jason Loree said the township has done its part to save money, about $500,000 from employee health-care insurance changes alone but that a levy is needed to add services.
Last year, the trustees moved $577,000 — paid by Ohio Edison for electrical aggregation — from the capital-improvement fund to the general fund, Loree said.
Trustees also returned the $650,000 usually given to the road department from the general fund back to the general fund, telling the road department to spend down its $700,000 equipment fund. The road department is largely self-funded through a levy.
The trustees then reduced nearly every line item in the township budget, cutting $350,000, Loree said.
“Were losing a lot from the state in the future. We know what’s coming. If we don’t get this money, the township will make some serious cuts. We’re anticipating a loss in revenue and we want to provide additional services. That’s the gist of it,” he said.
Fiscal Officer William D. Leicht said previously that the township expected to receive about $670,000 this year from the state’s Local Government Fund but will lose about $335,000 over a two-year period because of state budget cuts.