Council OKs hiring of school resource officer

CALEXICO — The Calexico City Council on Wednesday voted to authorize the city manager to approve the hiring of a school resource officer (SRO) as well as to continue to negotiate with the Calexico Unified School District to possibly hire additional SROs.

The council voted 4-0 to approve a two-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the CUSD, which would provide funding for the one SRO.

The Calexico Police Department was hoping that CUSD would be able to provide funding for at least three SROs for a three-year period, but was told by district officials that funding was currently only available for the one SRO.

The presence of an SRO at the high school campus here would allow the officer to establish a rapport and build trust with students, said Lt. Gonzalo Gerardo.

“(Students) report crimes before they happen,” Gerardo said.

He also indicated the CUSD officials were attempting to identify additional monies that could be used to fund the hiring of additional SROs.

The presence of additional SROs would have allowed for the officers to provide additional resources and services to the district, including presentations to students and staff.

The pending hiring of the just the sole SRO is expected to limit that officer to mainly enforcing laws, which would take priority over such presentations.

A previous agreement between the department and CUSD had funded several SROs in the past, but came to an end in 2013, Gerardo said.

The current MOU is expected to yield further negotiations between the city and the district.

“This is opening a door of communication for us,” Gerardo said.

Councilman Armando Real expressed concern that once the two-year MOU were to lapse, the city would be obligated to continue to pay the salary of the SRO, since the Calexico Police Officers Association wouldn’t likely agree to the officer’s termination.

Although district officials had agreed to fund the hiring of one SRO, Real said that CUSD was not shouldering their equally share of the financial burden associated with increased police responses to local campuses.

“The (MOU) needs to be at least five years,” he said.

City Manager Armando Villa agreed that a longer-term MOU would have been preferable considering that CUSD campuses are expected to increasingly rely on police services. “We’d really like to work on a long-term solution,” Villa said.

At a glance

Residents of the Hearthstone community facilities district went before the City Council to express lingering concerns about what they perceive to be neglect regarding infrastructure concerns and the payment of CFD taxes that have not resulted in improvements.