JAMESTOWN – Mayor Sam Teresi says the long-discussed inter-municipal Police Consolidation Proposal between the Jamestown Police Department and Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office could see action by the end of the summer.
“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.”
The response time of police in Jamestown is terrible, so now they want to bring in the sheriffs dept. to do what they can’t seem to. Chautauqua County Sheriffs are going to need more man power to make this happen. Plus have a larger presence in town than JPD has. If there was more visible police presence patrolling the streets maybe criminals would have a harder time.
I have a couple of questions in regards to the aforementioned article. The article says the task force includes union members of the Sheriff’s Office and the Jamestown Police Department. Do members of the Sheriff’s union know about this? How many meetings have Sheriff’s union members been to? Can the City of Jamestown contract out union work without negotiating with the union? Once all members of the Jamestown Police Department retire or otherwise leave, the sole burden of policing the City of Jamestown will be on the Sheriff’s Office. The taxpayers of Jamestown eventually will not have their own police department. It will be fully staffed by the Sheriff’s Office. Are the city taxes going to decrease? What is the actual benefit to a city taxpayer? Is there going to be a larger law enforcement presence?
Glad to hear the executives are the only ones involved in this matter. There has been limited to no inclusion of the officers/deputies that will be impacted with a consolidation. This is a complete political move by politicians who have limited knowledge on public safety. Those working the streets for both departments and that will be impacted greatly by a consolidation are left in the dark once again. The focus should be on protecting and serving the community and tax payers rather than increasing the political powers of those who sit behind a desk.