Police chief pleads for city’s help

Budget discussion centers around department’s manpower

Manpower concerns and outdated equipment at the Lorain Police Department were debated on Dec. 13 in budget discussions.

Police Chief Cel Rivera pleaded for help from Lorain City Council as the department faces an ongoing shortage of officers and updated equipment, forcing it to make difficult decisions. Rivera said despite overseeing the most dangerous city in Lorain County, Lorain officers are also the lowest paid, calling it a matter of priorities. The department pays officers at a rate of about 15 percent below the average for other Lorain County police departments, and face heavy face competition in hiring.

“We don’t even have enough manpower now to go back to 8-hour shifts. We’re stuck on 12hour shifts,” Rivera said.

With the department down 17 officers and nine dispatchers, there is also a dire need for equipment with more than 60 cars at over 100,000 miles and a need for funding to the department’s communications center, the records department and the

Lorain City Jail, the chief said.

“It’s not only manpower. Take a look at our cars. We have over 60 cars that have over 100,000 miles. If in this budget we put in 33 cars we will still have a whole bunch that are over nine years old. It’s cars, it’s vests for my SWAT team,” Rivera said. “It’s our communications center. It’s so many things. We have a record room that is closed at 4 p.m. and isn’t open evenings or weekends. We have a jail that we can’t afford to run because we are understaffed (check). Our MDTs are outdated, our cars are outdated. We need help. We really do.”

According to the draft budget, the Lorain Police Department is set to spend $11.21 million out of the city’s general fund, with additional funding from a levy.

With improvements to downtown business and Meijer set to begin construction in 2019, Council-at-Large member Mary Springowski said a growing municipal tax base should consider making improvements to the police department.

“I think this has to be one of our No. 1 projects for 2019,” said Springowski. “We have a habit in this city of training people to go on to other communities, because we have the best training. We do all the hard work and then another community benefits from it.”

Mayor Chase Ritenauer acknowledged challenges in recruiting and retaining officers in the department with a number of factors in play. Ritenauer alluded to trends nationwide with fewer people taking police civil service exams and the amount of departmental infrastructure involved in training and preparing officers for duty and intense recruitment competition between departments.

“I think the nature of police work, and we sit here and don’t acknowledge and how it perceived now in the news media is having an impact nationwide,” Ritenauer said. “And we’re seeing it here. From a budget standpoint, we’ve got budgeted staffing levels moving it the right direction. The actual filling those positions, keeping those people and training those young officers and then being here for a long time is a real challenge.

Ritenauer said Lorain is set to end 2018 on a good note with Moody’s upgrading the city of Lorain to stable and the general fund expected to have a $1.3 million rollover into 2019.

“Barring any surprises, we’re going to end the year in a pretty good place,” Ritenauer said.

He said revenue is expected to remain flat and the city is anticipating cost increases in health care, including prescription drug prices and hospitalization.

The city will push for additional money to cover more health services such as wellness and preventative care.

The mayor sees positive developments in the retail sector on Leavitt Road and downtown development with the potential to yield some additional revenue.

“Little by little in the aggregate as we add them together, as we add together our mid-size employers adding employees, I think it will yield some additional income taxes,” Ritenauer said. “But again, we’re budgeting just a bit of an uptick.”

With the $1.3 million rollover, Auditor Karen Shawver said the city is expecting to move $250,000 into Lorain’s rainy day fund.

Council is working off a 127-page spreadsheet with figures submitted by city department heads and compiled by Auditor Karen Shawver and Ritenauer.

According to the draft budget, general fund revenue is projected to be about $29.68 million.

Income tax is expected to be the city’s largest single source of revenue, coming in at more than $20 million.