Aragon Council back in session tonight over police schedule

The Aragaon City Council couldn’t resolve their differences with Mayor Garry Baldwin during their regular session for July on a matter of how to schedule the police department, and will need to come back for another round of discussion and a potential vote this week.

Expect the council to gather on Wednesday, July 24 at 7 p.m. for a special called session at Aragon City Hall to allow for a more full discussion of how to handle police department scheduling with only a handful of officers on duty to provide 24-hour coverage of the city.

Baldwin was challenged during public comment over the schedule by Colette Mazzuca, wife of Police Chief Paul Mazzuca during the July 18 session of the council. She specifically questioned what experience he had in law enforcement, and why if Baldwin is allowed to

determine the schedule for officers is there a point of having her husband serve as chief.

“Safety of our officers should be a top priority, and they should not be working alone on any given shift,” Colette Mazzuca said to Baldwin and the council. “Why would you make a schedule to have an officer work a 12-hour shift alone, not knowing if there’s backup from another agency?”

Baldwin at first promised answers in writing to her questions, but then got into a much broader discussion with council members Debbie Pittman, Judd Fee and Candace Seiz over the issue. Especially since within the governing bylaws of the city charter, the council has final say over what hours employees work.

Fee added that he felt the “safety of the community ought to be a priority here as well I do understand the safety of the officers as well. I’m open to discussion on any medium there. That’s why we discussed looking into reserve officers.”

He pointed out that with the city still low on available funds on hand and with as small as Aragon is as a city, they can only do so much.

“I agree, but how how can we keep our community safe if we aren’t keeping our officers safe,” Seiz replied. “If they don’t have backup and are searching a car or something, if they aren’t safe then a community isn’t going to be safe.”

She also raised concerns about officers having to travel to pick up prisoners and leaving the city without any coverage at all. Pittman added when Baldwin said backup from the Polk County Police would be available that they too are shorthanded.

“When they are short staffed, their response time is not would like to see as a citizen myself,” Seiz added. “

The schedule that went into place on Monday after press time was set by Baldwin.

Seiz asked for an special called session to discuss the issue and talk about additional schedules that Chief Mazzuca said he provided the Mayor.

“The schedule that he picked is the one that the mayor wrote up himself,” he said. “I have given him schedules that had us with coverage with overlapping shifts. That wasn’t 24-7, but it covered the most important times that we need to have somebody out there.”

The council will also have to address an error they made in approving an item that wasn’t included on the agenda. They approved a second reading of the updated Animal Control ordinance to be made official in the city code, but did not include the item as old business on the agenda as part of two different second readings.

Council members will have to give the second reading a second vote before it becomes official during the special called session this week.