On Our Manager’s Proposal for Dispatch and Inmate Housing

The City Manager’s job includes bringing a responsible budget to City Council for approval and Vince Pastue has consistently done a very good job of this.  Certainly that work includes the efforts of our Finance team, lead by Treasurer Chris Weber, and ideas and participation by all city team members.

Over the past several years, Vince has made significant and well thought out cost reductions, including headcount reductions and commitments to compensation and benefit sacrifices by all city employees. This year, and possibly for the years beyond, the city remains under the pressure of assessed values continuing to decline and persistent uncertainty about state shared revenues and the future status of personal property tax revenues.

Vince has studied the situation, and the budget he is proposing for this next year and beyond includes a cost-saving proposal of contracting with Farmington Hills to perform dispatch and inmate housing services for the City of Farmington.  His proposal projects savings of $100,000 per year.

Our residents have expressed great concern about this potential change. My view of my role as an elected representative is to represent the interests of the voters.  So far, the comments I am hearing, from many, many citizens (as compared with the volume of comments on any other issue during my time on council), are greatly in favor of keeping this function in our city offices, firmly attached to our Public Safety group.

The concerns I am hearing include:

• A possible impact on a "well-oiled machine," so to speak, that our Public Safety Department as a whole, having to change processes, and therefore, the perception that our rapid response times and great public safety service level are threatened.
• Our residents love the small, engaging environment in the City of Farmington, and worry that this could be the first step in a broader consolidation effort with Farmington Hills and that our small-town character and values would fade.
• That the savings do not balance the consequences of the change, the loss of the people performing the function who know Farmington very well, a loss of the city hall building being open 24 - 7; the ambiguity of a contracted relationship; and the difficulties in being able to reestablish the dispatch function if the contract relationship did not work out.
• And also, the feeling that a majority of residents would be willing to pay a bit more to retain the Public Safety as an intact unit, even though we recognize a need to have a competitive tax rate to support our economic development efforts.

I know from my years of experience on council that Vince is proposing what he feels is a necessary action for the city to take to protect our fiscal health and that he does not like that action, but it is thrust on him by our economic circumstance.  I also trust Farmington Hills Police Chief, Chuck Nebus, and Farmington Hills City Manager, Steve Brock, Assistant City Manager, Dana Whinnery, and the entire staff at Farmington Hills, and they are unquestionably the best partners to work with in implementing a change like this.  Additionally, I have discussed this type of change with other small city mayors who have endured it, and are on the other side of it, and the ones I have talked to indicate it has worked out.  Further, in none of those cases that I am aware of, has it led to a broader consolidation.

Over the next several days, there will be much discussion leading up to the City Manager’s request for Council’s action on this proposal on April 16.  We must all balance our interest in long-term viability with our love for the way things are today. And, if our residents strongly urge us to retain the function, that will be my vote. 

Tom Buck