Mayor, Marshal respond to public’s questions, suggestions from poll

Posted 10/23/19

 

In response to the citizens’ reactions to last month’s city meeting, the Maries County Advocate posted a poll to Facebook to gauge public opinion. Questions and suggestions were …

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Mayor, Marshal respond to public’s questions, suggestions from poll

Posted

 

In response to the citizens’ reactions to last month’s city meeting, the Maries County Advocate posted a poll to Facebook to gauge public opinion. Questions and suggestions were taken from the poll and presented to Belle Mayor Josh Seaver and Marshal Joe Turnbough to try and find answers.

 

BELLE — In response to the citizens’ reactions to last month’s Belle Board of Aldermen meeting, the Maries County Advocate posted a poll to Facebook to gauge public opinion.

Questions and suggestions were taken from the poll and presented to Belle Mayor Josh Seaver and Marshal Joe Turnbough to try and find answers. Seaver’s responses are included first in each question below and Turnbough’s are listed second.

Q: Some members of the public suggest giving the police department more funds to provide better service. Where would you suggest funds come from for the police department to have the amount it needs? How much more does the department need to implement those items you would like to see?

A: (Seaver) — “My first inclination when I was running was we need to rob from other departments to give police more money. Admittedly, I will say there is no money to be had. I am willing to eat crow on that one. There is no money.

“I would say that approximately 20 percent of overall operating budget is dedicated towards the police department. That is a substantial amount of money when you look at other departments. As far as short-changing one to feed another, we can’t do it. We can’t short-change the water system, streets, sewer or parks. We have one of the prettiest parks in the tri-county area. Where would you take the money from?”

A: (Turnbough) — “I would like to see the overall budget be revamped to have the police department be able to acquire more funds so that we could have 24-hour coverage and be able to properly provide our citizens with good, stable law enforcement.

“I figured up about $250,000 in real money (total, not in addition to the current budget). We should be able to run the police department, manage it good, and have 24-hour coverage and put a car into the budget to trade a car off every other year.”

 

Q: A majority of those polled on Friday felt the town needs 24-hour coverage. How, or what, would the police department need to have 24-hour coverage?

A: (Seaver) “I would love to see 24-hour coverage; it was one of my things. I know Belle isn’t that bad and I have heard stories of how past marshals have run things, but I will still hold to that. It is not how it was 25-30 years ago.

“We had the opportunity to fully provide that 24-hour coverage. One of the big push points was we will hit morning traffic, we will hit evening traffic, and hit patrols at night. It never happened. Not one time did it happen. And it all boils down to scheduling. When they were scheduled to work, say four to four, we were missing all the morning traffic and all evening traffic. By the time the officer in the evening times settles in with coffee, makes phones calls, figures out whatever calls have been held over from day shifts and things he needs to respond to in the evening, he has missed all opportunities to hit evening traffic.”

Seaver mentioned the board approved hiring two more officers in fall 2018 to fulfill a School Resource Officer contract with the Maries County R-2 School  District. But one of the two officers only lasted a month.

(Seaver) — “So then we lose an officer to another county. That’s fine, we have still got four officers. There was some discussion about how to provide 24-hour coverage with just three officers and the marshal. Not hard to figure out. Have to have the marshal work a 12-hour shift. I was never trying to take over the police department. When I made the comment ‘I gave them a schedule that would provide this town with 24-hour coverage and still not cost us any overtime,’ the only thing the marshal had to do was work an actual shift instead of being the 8-hour a day guy. It would require him to be the 12-hour a day guy a couple of days a week. But they refused to do that. Joe refused to let his officers do that. Shortly after we had a conversation about the schedule. It was very evident that he was not going to allow his guys to work that schedule.”

A: (Turnbough) — “We would have to be funded so that we could have 24-hour coverage. It is my personal belief that the town needs and deserves 24-hour coverage in this day and time, but without the funds, that is going to be hard to achieve.

Q: Many citizens felt the city and police department aren’t working together. What do you feel needs to happen for the city and PD to have a better working relationship?

A: (Seaver) — “Communication I guess is really the only thing we can do. This has never been a ‘witch hunt from the very beginning. ‘I don’t know how the previous administration viewed it. From outside looking in — it looked like it, but from where I am now, its not. All I ask of anybody is to do your job. I feel like if that was happening we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

A: (Turnbough) — “I think that the police department and the city needs to work together for the people who elected us to be there. Being elected by the community is a privilege and an honor and we are not doing to the citizens any good with all the fighting and arguing and bickering that is going back and forth. There needs to be better communication and work relations and the power struggle over the police department needs to cease. We have all been elected to do the jobs the people elected us for. We need to unite with one another and figure out solutions for problems without just pointing fingers playing the blame game. We do the citizens and our people a great injustice by acting that way.”

 

Q: Poll comments included the suggestion that the police department find a better caliber of officers. Do you feel this applies to your department? How does/should the department attract officers to employ?

A: (Seaver) — “Pay is obviously number one. You are not going to attract top recruits out of the police academy for what we can afford to pay, but I feel like we have got to be a little more selective. I will say this, Officer (Jerry) Coborn has been a good hire for us. I am pleased, the board is pleased. Officer Brennan is a very good police officer, a very intelligent police officer with considerable experience.

“But as far as hiring new officers moving forward, other than pay, I don’t know how to get them here.”

A: (Turnbough) —  “A: I think we need to be more competitive with the pay scale, and the officers need to feel like they are wanted and needed here. The citizens need to have the turnover rate not be as bad. It is my belief in a town our size, it is very important for the police and the community to know one another and to be able to do community policing.”

 

Q: Some poll answers suggested a police department tax to solve funding issues. Do you feel the department should have it's own sales tax? Do you plan to put the item on the ballot?

A: (Seaver) — “The suggestion has been made for taxes. Sales tax increases, extra taxes. As a citizen, person, human, I feel like I pay my share of taxes, so I am just about taxed out. I don’t care how many tickets they write. My thing is more to the crimes that don’t get solved and things there is never a resolution to.”

A: (Turnbough) — “Due to the limited amount of funds in our budget that the police department gets, I would love to see a police tax passed. I believe the people would support it, as I have discussed it with several of our citizens, but it will not work if it successfully passes and the city council takes away some of the money that we are already getting. Which one council member told me not to be surprised if that happens.”

 

Other suggestions the public had that city officials and the police department may want to address include:

Q: Improve the police department and equipment.

A: (Seaver) — No comment.

A: (Turnbough) — “I am trying to get more officers that would be willing to move here. It is very important to us to be able to do community policing and I want the community to know who their officers are. So we are looking for long-term.

“Equipment, like donations from the hospital, is very useful and any donations we can get to go towards equipment is very useful due to the fact that we are very limited on supplies and funds. Trying to stay up to date is a very difficult task. If you look at the new fire department and new EMS building directly behind it, and then look at what our police department is today, we are not growing enough to keep up with the times.”

 

Q: Improve response times for call outs and resolve more cases.

A: (Seaver) — No comment.

A: (Turnbough)  “It is my belief that if we had 24-hour coverage there would be an officer on duty at all times. It would help the response time at all hours around the clock, and it is my duty and responsibility to come out at any time that I am needed to help and assist those officers. On many occasions there are incidences that require more than just one officer.”

 

Q: Having more patrol in the evening hours.

A: (Seaver) — No comment.

A: (Turnbough) — “Right now, we only have myself and two full-time police officers, and a few part-time reserve officers for special events. As I have explained, we have one officer on at a time, and it is very difficult to have 24-hour coverage. We need another person or two.

 

Q: Is CAS Projects closing a factor in the increase in crime in your opinion?

A: (Seaver) — “I don’t think it is part of the problem.”

A: (Turnbough) — “I don’t believe so because it has not been shut down long enough to have a great, impacting effect on our community. It is my understanding that we are getting a food truck (fourth Tuesday of the month).

 

Q: Employ more officers.

A: (Seaver) — “Eventually, I am sure we will hire someone else to replace Elrod’s position.”

A: (Turnbough) — “With 24-hour coverage, I believe this can be achieved.

 

Q: Varied hours for officers.

A: (Seaver) — “If you have got 24-hour coverage, this is not a thing. I can agree to vary (hours), but someone needs to know when they are on and working. I should know, or alderman, or clerk, so if someone calls, (they) know who is working.”

A: (Turnbough) — “With 24-hour coverage, I believe this can be achieved.

Turnbough added a comment in closing, saying, “It is a great honor and privilege to serve as the Belle city marshal and our people are not just numbers, they are our citizens. It is my belief that community policing in our community is very important to our citizens and my staff.”