Hello Council,
I’m writing a public email as a follow up to my two emails to the Police Chief and you related to the Police Department and
salaries. I still have the following comments:
1. Staff Reports related to salary increases. Could these kinds of reports first go through the F&A Committee for review and
public input -- before they go to Council. The public’s concerns would likely then have a chance to be addressed and included
before Council saw the report. “Peer review” via the F&A Committee would also be helpful when considering broader implications
such as MP’s overall pension liabilities. If you added this step, Council would almost certainly see higher quality reports before
they arrived for your deliberation.
2. 2014 Police Operational Review Report. I noticed references to this report at the City’s website, but I could not find the
actual report. The only related document that I could find was ashort list of follow-on action items
[https://www.menlopark.org/DocumentCenter/View/9172/Police-Department-Service-Recommendations-Completion?bidId=] from the report.
I have submitted a public records request for this report. I mention it here as our new council members (especially) might like to
see this report.
3. Staffing levels. The Dec 2018 Org chart lists a total of 77.5 people in the Police Organization with perhaps one more to fill
the spot listed as Vacant.” However, the Police Staff Directory [https://www.menlopark.org/Directory.aspx?DID=8]only lists 27
people. This makes it difficult to match people to titles. The City’s most recent Certified Annual Financial Report (CAFR) also
listed 70 public safety employees, which is a discrepancy. On a related note, the Police website also stresses its robust
volunteer program [https://www.menlopark.org/299/Police-volunteers]. I would like to know the size of the Volunteer organization
as their “job duties” make them seem like part-time staff. Your website also listed a requirement that these volunteers commit to
working at least 15 hours per week. How many volunteers work for the police? On average, how many total hours do volunteers
contribute to the Police Department? How do you protect the public’s privacy in your use of volunteers? Do you also have temporary
employees? If so, how many and for how long?
4. Average Size of Police Department. According to a Governing Report
[http://www.governing.com/topics/public-justice-safety/gov-cities-police-officers-hiring.html], in 2015 Police Departments serving
cities with populations exceeding 25,000 employed an average of 16.8 officers and 21.4 total personnel for every 10,000 residents.
In response to my original email, the Police Chief supplied a link to a DOJ report
[https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/nsleed.pdf] regarding average staffing levels, which returned similar numbers when
considering that the DOJ report seems to have lumped police and professional staff together. Is our Police Department the right
size for our population and general crime levels?
5. Management-level Demographics. The Chief and his two Commanders all appear to be Caucasians. In response to my earlier emails,
the Open data Portal [https://data.menlopark.org/]has been updated with demographic information. However, no names are given so
one cannot independently verify the details. Of the nine full-time positions funded as part of the Sergeants Association successor
agreement union, I would like to know the demographics of each person.
6. Police workload. Recently, the Almanac wrote an article, "Should Police Protect Facebook Bikes"
[https://www.almanacnews.com/square/2019/02/19/should-police-protect-facebooks-bikes]that prompted much public response. I would
like to better understand how the Police spend their day-to-day time. The most recentMP CAFR
[https://www.menlopark.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/8885] lists Operating Indicators for the Police Department but only gives
the below broad categories on page 207:
·39,553 Incidents
·22,659 Calls for Service
·16,894 Officer Initiated Incidents
> Could these broad categories be broken into smaller sub groupings that would help us all to better see how the police spend their
time? A deeper level of information would be helpful when considering overall Police staffing levels. Comparative data for
benchmarking purposes would also help Council and the public to put the MP Police Department’s performance into context.
7. Police Unions. Is it customary to have two separate police unions in a small city? If not, can these unions be consolidated to
save bargaining and administrative costs? For the record, this is what I see so far:
·MP Park Police Officers Association. According to the Jan 29, 2019 staff report this union represents 42 employees “in the sworn
classifications of police officer and police corporal, and the police academy participant position of police recruit.”
·MP Police Sergeants Association – According to the Feb 26, 2019 staff report, this includes 9 fulltime positions in the 2018-19
budget and an additional “new unit” of 5 officers that is fully funded by a development agreement [with Facebook] for five years.”
·The above total equals 56. That exceeds the “sworn” total of 54 listed on the Dec 2018 Police Organizational chart. The data
discrepancy needs resolving. Are the 23.5 professional staff (listed on the Dec 2018 Org chart) are represented as part of another
MP union?
8. Police Pay. According to the California Transparency portal, [https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2017/menlo-park/]in
2017, the MP Police were the highest paid employees after the City Manager and the Assistant City Manager. (We also need 2018 data
to be submitted.) According to the recent CAFR Report (pages 78 and 83), the Police pension appears to be 50% more generous than
the one for the other city employees. The City also contributes more to the CalPERS Safety Plan. While the contributions may be a
CalPERS requirement, it also raises general questions of pension fairness with the rest of MP's overall staff. The Police Chief
article [http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/millennials-and-improving-recruitment/]conveys that this is a common problem now
across the U.S. and it will take new approaches (i.e. not just more money) to solve. This article is just one of several recently
written on the topic.
Before agreeing to higher pay, I hope that Council will use the contract negotiating process as a way to bargain for good
government reforms related to Police operations such as increased transparency and diversity. No doubt you will hear from others
with additional suggestions.
Lynne Bramlett
