HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/07/2015 Police Department 4/7/2015
DEPARTMENTAL BUDGET REVIEWS 2015-16
POLICE DEPARTMENT
Kaua`i Police Department
Honorable Mason K. Chock
Honorable Gary L. Hooser
Honorable KipuKai Kuali`i
Honorable JoAnn A. Yukimura
Honorable Arryl Kaneshiro
Honorable Mel Rapozo
Excused: Honorable Ross Kagawa
The Committee reconvened at 1:01 p.m., and proceeded as follows:
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Welcome back. We have Police with us, and I
guess you guys have a short presentation for us. Then for the Councilmembers, we will
watch the presentation. If we have any questions on the presentation, we will ask the
questions. But again, if we can put the questions into any of the Divisions that they will be
going over later let us try to put the questions there. It is all you Chief. Thank you.
DARRYL D. PERRY, Chief of Police: Thank you. Police Chief Darryl
Perry, Kaua`i Police Department (KPD). I want to thank Council for allowing us to present
our budget today. As you know, all of the Departments including the entire County, are
facing difficulties with our budget, and it is up to each individual Department to be fiscally
responsible for how we manage our Departments. But within these challenges, there are
also opportunities to see how we can do things better and more efficiently. Our presentation
today, will focus on elements of our budgets, efforts to cut costs, causations of expenditures
including overtime, and cost savings. Towards the end we will also view three videos and
they are very relevant to today's environment, law enforcement, how it can impact the
County, and how revenues are brought into this County. With that, I will hand it over to
Assistant Chief, Michael Contrades.
MICHAEL M. CONTRADES, Assistant Chief of Police: For the record, Michael
Contrades, Assistant Chief of Police. The challenges for us exist yearly and the overarching
challenge, of course, is the fact that as we dueling streams of revenues. We are asked to do
more and to take on different challenges as the years go by. Calls for service increase,
increased crimes against property and person, and we do our best to try and deal with those
issues with the current budget that we have. I am going to give you a budget overview.
Overall, KPD has 2 funds: the Operational General Fund and the Criminal Asset Fund.
KPD's operating budget this year, we are asking for 92% salaries, overtime, and fringe
benefits with a balance of 8% for all other expenditures. KPD's Budget comparison Fiscal
Year 2016 request a net increase of 4.9% or $1,418,000. The net increase is due to collective
bargaining pay increases for KPD's Units 12 and 13, in a total amount of little over
$2,000,000 with KPD reducing its operating budget by $720,000.
In our Criminal Asset Fund budget, we are appropriating $91,000 a little over in
salaries and fringe to supplement the COPS (Community Oriented Policing Services) grant
to hire 6 new police officers to create a new beat in the Kawaihau District. We are also
budgeting $50,000 for unexpected training opportunities and $99,000 to create new office
spaces to accommodate our office of professional standards and our Crime Scene
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Specialists. Almost $143,000 for body camera equipment including partial match in the
event the Legislature is able to put forth and pass the bill to give funds to the Counties.
Another $100,000 is being budgeted for unanticipated needs throughout the fiscal year.
Again, this is all out of our Criminal Asset Forfeiture Fund.
We wanted to explain our lapse fund which will be roughly $1,900,000 total this
year... I mean returning funds this past year. Salaries and wages, overtime, additional pay,
and employee benefits, essentially what happened is that we were extremely conservative
doing our best to save funds where we could when we did not know where funding would
come from and how much funding would be needed for collective bargaining raises this past
year. So not knowing whether a money bill would go through and how much that would be,
we were extremely conservative in the costs expenditures overtime and what not. So, we
were able to be very stringent with our budget in anticipation of possibly having to fund
those raises through our own budget. The money bill came through. KPD received
Ordinance No. B-2013-755 to cover salaries in the amount of$561,861 in November of 2013
and then received official notification on March 13, 2014 for the second money bill in the
amount of$987,000 and almost $10,000, respectively. Those moneys were available to us in
March and that gave us roughly 3 years to expand all the funds that we had saved. So, that
is the bulk of what we will be returning or returned.
Utilities. KPD and Kaua`i Fire Department (KFD) shared utilities for the Hanalei
Station so we have some funds returned in that area. There was also a cost savings due to
moving into the Waimea Station in February of 2014. Then our Mobile Data Terminal
(MDT) is only 60% were issued so did not have to pay the wireless connectivity at that
point; so that is where we have another cost savings. Training. Some training was
postponed due to shortage in overtime needed for Patrol Officers to attend. Whenever we
have Patrol Officers attending training, somebody has to fill their slots. So backfill. We are
very cautious about spending our overtime. Mandatory Biennial Physicals contract cost
savings of above $58,000. We looked at the contract and excluded treadmill testing, which
was not covered by the collective bargaining agreement. Each treadmill test given is about
$1,200 and everyone 40 and over was required to take it. We only do that now in the event
of the doctor saying that they should get a treadmill test and DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid)
Services, Homicide, Sex Assault Services, we budgeted, but we use it as needed. So when
we return money, that is a good thing. Dues and subscriptions. We got rid of obsolete
subscriptions. We use web-based periodicals, and we no longer have the Directory of law
enforcement agencies. So, we did some cost savings there.
Consultant Services. We postponed our Transcription Services in anticipation of the
need for additional funding for collective bargaining raises. Special Projects, we budgeted,
but we only use those funds as needed. Rentals. Copier rentals began a new contract with a
4 year lease, which resulted in a cost savings. Then our helicopter and vehicle rentals for
surveillance, again, we budgeted for that, but you use it as needed. If you do not need those
services, that is a good thing. Repair & Maintenance. Postponed preventive maintenance as
much as possible without hindering operations. Cost savings was realized through recycling
parts from older vehicles. If we have a newer vehicle that needed a bumper and we had an
older vehicle that does not work anymore, we would take the parts off that vehicle. That is
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an idea brought up by Glenn Ebesu, our Fleet Coordinator. He has done a great job to save
money in that area.
Advertising. We only use it as needed, normally to dispose of equipment and notify
the public of those disposals. Travel. Minimize cost as much as possible and printing the
same. Supplies. We are very careful on the supplies we purchase. Of course we try to only
ordered what was needed at the time. So we are returning money there. Small Equipment.
Again, postponed in anticipation of the need for additional funding for collective bargaining
raises.
Collective bargaining. There is a partial return for subsidize vehicles for the
program that did not start exactly on July 1st. So, as the months went by, there is a savings
there that we returned $99,000. Fuel. Over the past few years we budgeted closer to
actuals. Other commodities, we reduced the number of Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS)
manuals that we purchase and only purchased emergency supplies as needed. Postage and
Freight. We have an agreement with (SHOPO) State of Hawaii Organization of Police
Officers to use E-mail as so called certified mail so we do not have to send them certified
mail. There is some cost savings there. Vehicle. Our contract was negotiated lower than
was initially budgeted. So, we are returning those funds in that area.
Fiscal responsibility and cost savings. We worked really hard trying to budget closer
to actuals and I am going to give you an overview of the different things that we have done
to be more fiscally responsible as a Department. Line by line review from fiscal 2013 to
present, the Chiefs office has initiated a line by line review and justification process for
each fiscal year. The Commanders of the bureau are tasked with developing their budgets
based on projected needs, they present their budgets to the Chiefs Office, and every item is
reviewed and must be justified by the Commander. Once budget direction is received from
the Mayor's Budget Team, reductions are made to satisfy the directive. Two to three cuts
are made in order to meet the mandates. This was possible in previous years because we
were not budgeted as close to actuals as we are today. But because of that, we more or less
have nowhere else to go except to cut into salaries. So we have reduced our operating
budget as much as possible.
Overtime reductions, $661,000 roughly in savings. We have been criticized over the
years for our overtime expenditures and we have worked hard to reduce those overtime
costs. One of the major things that we have done is our Patrol Services Bureau has
scheduled our Public Safety Workers on to rotating shifts and treating cell block as if it
were a beat that requires staffing by patrol squads. This alleviated the need to have other
bureau staff cell block and prevented Senior Detectives and higher paid administrative
staff from working in cell block, which greatly reduced overtime. We adjust schedules
whenever possible to accommodate community meetings and special events held after
hours, and we maintain minimal staffing on the holidays.
Reduction in Special Enforcement Projects. We try to exhaust all grant funds for
enforcement projects prior to using County funding. We changed our response to minor
traffic collisions. We have a triplicate form now that we use. The form is filled out right on
the street, copies are handed to each of the drivers, and the report writing aspect of it is
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done. Some minor reports such as loss properties are taken over the phone. This reduces
the need for the officer to actually respond to the scene. So, if you lost your wallet, you could
call that in and an officer would take care of that over the phone. We have strict mandates
for report writing on overtime. Generally, it is no more than 3 hours a day depending upon
your workload. We use a complaint and summons citation in lieu of arrest in some minor
cases. Through these efforts, as I stated, roughly about $661,000 in overtime saved.
However, this reduction does not happen without consequences. People wait for police
reports longer than they did before, complaints have been received because minor traffic
collision reports have limited information, reduction special enforcement projects mean we
are less proactive and more responsive which could lead to an increase in crime, handling
reports on the phone has led to complaints about a lack of professionalism because officers
were not physically present to take a complaint, and subject to issue citations for minor
crimes such as lower levels of theft and property damage are not arrested and booked.
Accountability to show up for court rest with them. So in other words, there is no booking
procedure, and no bail is set to ensure their presence, they are just required to do so based
on the summons that they received.
Other cost savings measures. Expedited hiring practices. Over the last 3 years we
worked really hard to improve our hiring practices to fill vacancies to minimize overtime.
We have continuous review of our hiring practices. We have worked very closely with
Human Resources (HR). They have been a tremendous help to us in revamping our
processes and helping us speed things up. We cannot say enough about the assistance we
received from them. Experience and motivated background investigators, they do a
fantastic job for us that helps expedite the process. In Administrative Training Bureau
(ATB) we have experience and motivated staff to help us with this process. Overall, again,
this helps us to reduce our overtime expenditures by filling positions.
Since December of 2012, we have hired 42 Police Officers, 12 Radio Dispatchers, and
4 clerical staff. For us that is a big accomplishment. Other cost saving efforts. As I talked
about earlier, Physical Examinations $58,000 savings. I would not go back into that, but
essentially looking at the process, we were able to save $58,000 there. Drug Screening of
Applicants. We changed our previous procedures and we do the drug screening at the end
when we are sure that this is somebody that will pass or has passed every other hurdle in
the hiring process. We saved $5,000 there. Removal and Installation of Mobile Radios.
$20,000 savings. What used to happen is when we purchase our vehicles, the people
installing the lights would take everything apart in the vehicle to do the installation, put
everything back in, and then the people installing the radios would come in, deconstruct the
inside of the vehicle, put the radios in, and then reconstruct the inside. After determining
that process was occurring, right now it is just done once. The same people put in the lights,
radios, sirens, and everything so that we have a cost savings there. Our Livescan
Morphotrak, which essentially is our booking system for fingerprints and photographs,
$39,000 savings. We entered into a multi-term contract with them and we want to thank
the Office of the County Attorney. They have been a tremendous help to us as well and
along with Purchasing, in trying to research this and helping us to implement this multi-
year contract. Vehicle Stripping and Disposal. Right now we are trying to work on an
agreement with the Kaua`i Community College (KCC) to provide them with a few vehicles
that they can work on and in return, they would strip all our older vehicles so we can sell
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them at auction. In the past, it was costing us about $250 per vehicle in order to strip it and
then we would sell it for $50, $100, or $200. That was a losing battle for us. So now, we are
going to be able to realize some cost savings there. Psychological services. No increase for
five years. Again, we use a multi-term contract so we can ensure that we will not have an
increase in funds to pay for that. Night Shift detectives. $30,000 to 50,000 estimate. We
have detectives that are scheduled to work in the evening hours up until 10:00 p.m. What
this did is it saved us some overtime because the calls they would get from 4:30 p.m. to
10:00 p.m. are now covered by someone who is on shift.
Procurement of Quality Copiers. We are utilizing our actual copy machines to do
our printing for the majority of the Department. We are trying to get away from those
individual printers. The cartridges themselves are very expensive. Repair & Maintenance of
Vehicles. As I stated earlier, our Fleet Coordinator salvages parts. It is about a $60,000
savings there. Sharing of Equipment. We transferred two of our used vehicles to Office of
the Prosecuting Attorney (OPA) and so the County did not have to procure new vehicles for
them for the time being.
Training. We reduced our training budget to meet mandated reductions. However,
we have implemented a system called PowerDMS, which is a software system that helps us
do online training. We also use webinars. Recently, our senior staff attended a webinar with
other Departments too I believe the topic was broken evaluation systems. We got tips on
how to improve our evaluation systems by attending this webinar right from our conference
room. We also try to bring instructors to Kaua`i to allow for more training of our personnel,
essentially getting more bang for our buck. Reorganization. About $50,000. Instead of
asking for these new positions, we looked internally within our department and we took
existing positions and we created Professional Standards Lieutenant, a Professional
Standards Sergeant, a Training Sergeant, a Deputy Chief Secretary, and our Police
Computer System Technician all with existing positions.
So what else can KPD do to reduce the budget? The only other thing left we can do is
to reduce services. One of the things we could look at would be stop providing special events
services to private non-profit organizations for parades, walkathons, and the like, private
for profit organization, State agencies and other County agencies. We tried last year. It
worked for the most part, but having these organizations hire our officers off-duty, what
that did essentially was they get paid a set rate that does not include fringe. The fringe is
almost double what the rate would be. So the County would save on the fringe. However,
certain things and certain events come up where the officers do not want to work and I do
not blame them. Sometimes it is hard work. If not enough officers sign up, the organization
will either have to pay the cost to the County or have the permits revoked and the event
cannot continue. So this is one area that could be looked into.
Stop responding to minor traffic collisions. No injuries or minor damages, no
response, and no report writing. That would save us on overtime and motorists will have to
work the issue out with their insurance companies. KPD currently is still a full service
Police Department. Many Departments on the Mainland no longer do this. If it is minor,
they do not respond.
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Stop responding to crimes on State land. Department of Land and Natural
Resources (DLNR) Department of Hawaiian Home lands (DHHL) no response to their lands
unless there is a in-progress crime. Calls will be referred to the Division of Conservation
and Resources Enforcement (DOCARE) and DHHL. As an example, car break-ins at Kee
Beach. That is all State land. KPD currently responds and takes the cases, but these are
one of the things we could do. Instead of us having to deal with that issue because it is
State land, they would be responsible to deal with those car break-ins. Two other areas
would be State harbors and airports. We still provide various services for them.
Stop responding to property crime reports. One of the things we are actually looking
at and we are in the process of procuring is something called Coplogic. Coplogic is basically
online reporting. Unless the property crime is in progress, KPD will not respond. Property
crimes will have to be reported on-line. No reports for civil matters, boundary disputes,
non-criminal property damage, industrial accidents, and landlord tenant. Generally people
ask for a report. We draft one. One of the things we are looking at is not doing that
anymore. If it is a dispute, of course we would respond to make sure that it does not turn
violent. But if it does not have any criminal attachment to it, then we would not be writing
reports for civil matters anymore.
These proposed methods to reduce services, of course, will have a serious impact on
the community and alter the way policing has been done on Kaua`i for as long as I can
remember. While cost savings may initially be realized, the impact of the reduce services
may contribute to an increase in crime and a declination in the lifestyle that the people of
Kaua`i and our visitors enjoy. We do not want to proceed on this path.
However, we are truly at a tipping point and neither overtime nor the number of
personnel has to increase or services have to decrease in order to stay within the confines of
the budget. Chief, would you like to talk about this?
Mr. Perry: Sure. We have gone through this before. Basically what
this talks about is the United States (US) Bureau of Justice National Standard Ratio
population versus Police Officers. The population they use is a population of 1,000. The low
ratio and is depicted up there it is 2.2 officers 1,000. Now, this relates to jurisdictions in the
Mainland where they have jurisdictions that surround your particular area of responsibility
or your County. That is a lower ratio that they normally use. If you do not have officers or
Police Departments that can provide mutual aid, you generally use the higher ratio which
is 2.34 officers per 1,000 population. So the average comes out to 2.3. Currently, Kaua`i has
a ratio of 1.79, which is below the national standards. We are using a defacto population of
90,000, which includes the visitors. According to Sue Kanoho, on a daily basis, we have
23,000 visitors on the island. Based on those numbers, we are currently 46 officers short
even at maximum strength. So again, on the bottom says no bordering law enforcement
agencies to assist KPD. So that is the issues that we are facing today and we are already
starting off on the low end, yet we are doing, in my opinion, a very good job in keeping our
community safe.
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Mr. Contrades: As Chief discussed, no bordering law enforcement
agencies, Essentially what Departments in the Mainland do is they have mutual aide
agreements. When something is happening they immediately can call upon these agencies
to respond immediately. Obviously, we cannot to that with the other islands. How does
Maui, Hawaii, and Honolulu handle that being the fact that they too do not have bordering
law enforcement agencies? The thing is, they have been allowed to grow over the past 25
years. If you look at Maui, Maui is just under 100 officers that they hired in the past 25
years and Hawaii Island over 100 something officers that they have hired. Kauai, down at
the bottom, we have hired somewhere under 20. So, the options that we have to continue
the current level of service that we provide is either overtime has to go up, or the number of
personnel we have has to go up, or we need to decrease in services.
A brief explanation about overtime. General causes of our overtime, all our overtime
is required to be paid by the collective bargaining agreement and of course the Fair Labor
Standards Act whenever an employee is required to work beyond their normal working
hours. This is just a list of things that we track. Some general causes of KFD's overtime are
investigations, report writings, of course holiday pay, if they do not get enough rest rest
period overtime, back-to-back or cancelled days off, call back from vacation, 6 or 7 day
provision, court, call-out, stand-by pay, training, special projects, meetings, and
administrative duties. As an example, in 2013 we had an attempted murder of a Japanese
visitor who was thrown off a cliff in Kalalau. The land is under the jurisdiction of the
Department of Land and Natural Resources. We investigated because they did not have the
investigative expertise to deal with an attempted murder case. Essentially, this case alone
cost the County $51,000 in overtime and fringe benefits and $15,000 in helicopter rental
and fuel, for a total of a little over $66,000. Of course this does not include KFD's overtime.
They were there to assist us the whole time. I do not think it would be a stretch to say that
this one case cost us probably over $100,000 to investigate. The actual cause of the overtime
though is just not enough people to do what is expected.
I am going to jump quickly to just our two main requests that are above what our
normal budget is, our priority funding request. That is our marked vehicles. What we are
asking for is 4 marked patrol vehicles. Right now Patrol Services Bureau (PSB) has 12 2005
and 14 2007 model year vehicles. 8 of the 2005s will be replaced this year. 8 new vehicles
are coming in from a previous fiscal year budget. However the 4 remaining 2005s and 10 of
the 14 2007s are showing rust and repeatedly breakdown. So generally the life of a patrol
vehicle is 7 to 8 years and, of course, we are well passed that. We are asking for support to
purchase the 4 marked patrol vehicles and then we are also asking for 8 subsidized
vehicles. Unmarked vehicles driven by Detectives and other administrative staff generally
take the back seat to our patrol vehicles. In the past, we have kind of ignored or I should
not say ignored, but we have prioritized patrol first and so now it is kind of come to do
where we need to provide vehicles for other staff as well. Several of the vehicles are 2005
and 2007 hybrid vehicles and they are at the end of their battery life and require expensive
battery replacements. ATB has six vehicles, Investigative Services Bureau (IBS) four,
Chiefs Office 1. In that group, there is one 2001 Ford Taurus, two 2002 Ford Taurus, five
2007 Toyota Camry hybrids, and (3) three 2005 Prius. The Subsidize Vehicle Program has
been successful for us. We do have some hiccups. It takes a little while to get the light bars
and the radios installed, but it is still much faster than if we went through the procurement
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process. By the time we are able to come to budget, procure the vehicles, have then built
and delivered, you are looking at anywhere from 2 to3 years. When you purchase a
subsidized vehicle, it is almost immediate. The officer is responsible for that. This also
reduces the burden on our mechanic shop because the officers are responsible for their own
maintenance and there is a cost savings on procurement because our personnel does not
have to deal with that aspect of purchasing the vehicle. I will turn this back over to Chief
who wants to take you on a short trip into the future if we go down the path of some of the
things that we discussed.
Mr. Perry: As I mentioned, not only are we providing you
with information concerning our budget, but we would also like to make you aware of what
other cities and other Departments are facing. In the first video, it talks about Chicago and
their concerns about their budgetary constraints and their need to take proactive measures
to reduce the costs of policing. If you could do the first one.
(Police video 1 played.)
Mr. Perry: We certainly do not want the inverse to occur
and of course you are talking about Chicago. Chicago, at one time, was the murder capital
of the world besides Washington D.C. In this next video, while people say this is Kaua`i
and it never happens, I will preface this video and we cleared it through the Office of the
Prosecuting Attorney and I will read this. It is a robbery case that occurred on
February 2, 2015 at about 4:21 p.m. A local looking male subject entered the Kapa'a liquor
store. The male subject later identified as Kawika Manaku requested cigarettes and 2
six-packs of Steinlager beer from the victim Mr. Lyle Koboyama, who is 70 years old. As
Mr. Koboyama goes into one of the refrigerators located behind the counter, Manaku walks
around behind the counter, and approaches Mr. Koboyama with what he described as a
pointed thin metal rod. It was later identified as a screwdriver. Manaku then tells
Mr. Koboyama that I am from Honolulu, I am going to rob you, and I am going to poke you.
Manaku then attacks Mr. Koboyama, pushes him to the ground, straddles Mr. Koboyama,
and Manaku punches Mr. Koboyama about 6 to 8 times in the head and facial areas.
Mr. Koboyama attempts to kick the suspect, but to no avail and Manaku reaches into the
cash register and takes an undisclosed amount of cash. Manaku then walks around to the
front side of the counter and Mr. Koboyama attempts to follow Manaku, but Manaku
approaches Mr. Koboyama and violently pushes him to the ground. Mr. Koboyama
sustained lacerations to his chin, front lower lip, left ear, and just above the left ear areas
with injuries that required stitching. Manaku was located the next day by KPD, confessed
to the crime, and disclosed that he had gotten away with $63. He is currently being held at
Kaua`i Community Correctional Center (KCCC). He pled guilty to robbery in the first
degree and his sentencing is pending. He is facing 6- to 20 years. If you could run the video,
I would appreciate that. Thank you. Now granted this is unusual, but it does happen here.
Also, that individual is a repeat offender who we have arrested on numerous occasions. The
final video talks about our relation to the visitor industry. We know that the visitor
industry is economic driven not only for the State of Hawai`i, but I think for Kauai it is
even bigger than the other Counties. This driver is impacted by public safety's ability to
control crime and respond to other disasters. This video talks about a vacation destination
that let crime to get out of control. Could you show that video please?
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(Police video 2 played.)
Mr. Perry: Thank you for your attention. We mentioned the
Japanese tourist that was injured, and that gained international notoriety. We address
that investigation swiftly and expediently, and we were able to address the individual
involved. Also in this recent case, the robbery case, we had to expend overtime to go ahead.
But we did find the culprit and was able to address this quickly. So we want to continue to
do that, but as you know, our work load continues more, responsibilities are being placed on
us, there are higher expectations, and so we will continue to do the best job we can. But
there is a tipping point, as the Assistant Chief mentioned. With that, I guess we can go
through the budget.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Thank you. Thank you for that presentation and
the videos. Wow. Again Councilmembers, I am going to open it up for questions. I know
there was a lot of information there and I do not want to get too tied up just on the
presentation. If we can kind of frame our questions to fit into one of the divisions that we
are going to be going through, which is Chiefs Office, Administrative and Technical
Bureau, Investigative Services Bureau, Patrol, and Criminal Asset Forfeiture Fund. If we
can try and get the questions out through there. But I am open to doing a little discussion
if you guys want just on this presentation. Councilmember Hooser.
Councilmember Hooser: Yes. Thank you for your presentation. The
efforts in cuts and explaining where the lapse funds came from and that sort of thing was
impressive. My question is kind of broad. You mentioned the national standards for per
capita police officers staffing. You compared where we stand and Maui stand in terms of
staffing. Do you have similar comparisons in terms of crimes in terms of percentages of
crimes committed or criminal statistics? The Fire Department was here earlier and they
had how many drownings, how many fires, how many Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
calls, and that kind of thing that we could compare year to year to see what is going on in
terms of the degree of crimes and how that has changed and how that compares with other
communities.
Mr. Contrades: We do not have that information readily
available. We could get that with their assistance. But, I think there is something that we
have to remember is that how they operate and do business is a little bit different than us.
For example, the Honolulu Police Department, when officers from that Department come
here, they are extremely surprised at what they are responsible to do. In Honolulu, and I
believe the other islands are similar, when you as a patrol officer take a case, you respond
to the initial call, talk to the victim and maybe get a witness statement, a team comes in to
take care of the evidence, and a follow-up team comes after you to do the follow-ups.
Comparing workloads, not just crimes but workloads it is very difficult because we do a lot
more than say a patrol officer at the Honolulu Police Department and the same goes up the
chain. I have the Chief of Police drafting letters and doing other administrative things that
does not happen on the other islands. They have people to do that for them. Here, because
of the number of people that we have had over the last 25 years, a lot of us have taken on
duties that other Departments do not do. We could get those statistics with their
cooperation if they were willing to help us with that. But I would just like everybody to
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remember that comparatively we do a lot more than a single person would do in another
Department.
Councilmember Hooser: Yes, I got it I guess there are two parts to the
question. One would be because we are comparing staff loads per capita, so one would be a
comparison with other Counties and the other one is just what Kaua`i County is doing year
to year. Again, how many calls and how many crimes are solved. I mean, there must be
some metrics that the police departments measure themselves by in terms of crimes, how
effective you are, and that kind of thing year to year.
Mr. Contrades: Kaua`i's call for services would not be a problem
for us to get. We have up until, I believe it is 2013. In 2013, we had 40,000 calls for service
as compared to 1990 where we had 19,000 calls for service. So essentially, over these past
25 years or so we have had a 92% increase in the amount of calls for service, yet we have
only had roughly about 11% increase in sworn police officers.
Councilmember Hooser: Okay. In other metrics, I do not know if you
could maybe come back off the top of my head, I think there would be crimes reported
crimes resolved, cases closed, burglaries, robberies, rapes, murders, and car break-ins. A
little more detailed than just the cars maybe for a year to year to give us something to
measure and if there was some way to measure against national standards or these other
islands, that would help, I think in evaluating where we are at.
Mr. Contrades: Sure.
Mr. Perry: It is not only crime statistics, but it is also
geographical locations. For example, if you look into Waikiki, it is a small geographical
area. But you have the same number of officers that you have in Wahiawa because
Wahiawa is a bigger area and for officer safety reasons, you need just as much officers in
Wahiawa that covers this big area as it does in a small area. So you have to look at not only
the statistics in regards to crime but you have to look at not only the statistics in regard to
crime, but you have to look at future growth and you have to look at the geographical
separation. So you may have an officer who is handling a beat that has only 3 cases. But
you need an officer there just in case something goes down. There is so many variables with
manning the beat or staffing the beat. I should not say "man" staffing the beat. But we can
look into that. We have taken those variables into consideration when we restructured our
beats just recently in the last couple of years.
Councilmember Hooser: Okay. Even something as simple as just a
breakdown of the different crimes, how many calls you got year to year, and then cases
closed or still open. Just something that we could have to look at to see about the work you
do. Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Council Chair Rapozo, you had a question?
Council Chair Rapozo: No, not right now.
April 7, 2015
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Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay. Councilmember Kuali`i.
Councilmember Kuali`i: With regards to your presentation handout that
we had to read in advance. The grant funded vacant positions. The 6 PO5 Police Services
Officers position. That is Federal funds Department of Justice COPS. Vacant since
01-23-2014, and the status is recruiting. Are we at risk of losing those Federal funds? How
long do we have it for?
Mr. Contrades: I believe we have to fill them this year, but we
are on target to do so. We have taken a little different approach to hiring with this last
class that is coming up. We are doing monthly testing that. We have worked out with
Human Resources to help us with that. Every month we are testing. Instead of doing what
we did in the past where every 6 months we would start a class and get a new class going,
because we are so close to filling all the vacancies, what we are doing is we are testing as
we go every month and doing the backgrounds, doing the processes, and we anticipate
starting a class probably in September or October or somewhere in there and it would be
totally full. That would include those additional 6 COPS grants. We will that we will be
able to make that and we are not in any risk of losing that grant at this point.
Councilmember Kuali`i: So the grant required us to create new positions?
Mr. Contrades: Yes.
Councilmember Kuali`i: But they are standard Police Service Officers,
PO5 positions?
Mr. Contrades: Yes. Part of the grant was to create a new beat.
So with that 6 additional police officers, we are creating a new beat in the Kawaihau
District.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Thank you. One other thing. On the report we
got from Human Resources on new hires from March 24th, there were 3 positions that had a
"T" in front of them. T-476, T-477, T-478. They are also P05, Police Service Officers and in
your justification it says "Section 24 position." What are those? They just started
January 1, 2015.
Mr. Contrades: Those are our temporary positions.
Councilmember Kuali`i: And so they are Police Service Officers but they
are temporary? Is that because it is tied to the grant or something?
Mr. Contrades: No. They are like temporary holding from my
understanding. As we do our promotions and open up the other positions, then we will be
able to move them into the so called"permanent."
April 7, 2015
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Councilmember Kuali`i: So new hires that are sitting in a temporary
position with all these vacant regular positions, I do not understand. Why would they be in
a temporary holding position when we have vacancies?
Mr. Contrades: Some of the vacant, they cannot be put into the
COPS grant position. My understanding is at the time of the hire, we did not have all of
them. Right now, we are doing promotions and as you do promotions, those create
vacancies in the lower levels. So eventually, that will create a vacancy at the officer level
and when that is necessary, then those people will be moved into those officers' positions.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: Your report on cost saving efforts is awesome. I
am just impressed by the creativity and resourcefulness in so many ways. I feel like you
could write a book for other police departments. It is also an example for other departments
within our County. So I really appreciate the extraordinary efforts and results. You talked
about not having bordering jurisdictions with which you could do mutual aid agreements.
Especially given the amount of enforcement we do on State lands, do you have mutual aid
agreements with the State sheriff and DLNR Officers?
Mr. Contrades: No, we do not. We have been trying to work with
them over the last 3 years to get them to do their part and for some instances it has been a
little successful, but overall, it could use some work. They have come out with us with
certain projects, but we would like them to take a little more responsibility on their own
land and that would be tremendously helpful to us.
Councilmember Yukimura: Yes. Okay. Well, it is good for us to know that
because if there is any way we can help move that along, it seems it would be appropriate. I
think in your assets fund. What is it called? Your second source of funding.
Mr. Contrades: Criminal Assess Forfeiture Fund.
Councilmember Yukimura: You show that you are using some of those
moneys to pay for salaries and given that it is not a recurring revenue source I am
wondering why we would do that.
Mr. Contrades: That is to offset cost to the County. Because it is
a new hire, we are able to use Forfeiture Funds for that. But once we use those funds, we
can no longer use Asset Forfeiture to pay for those positions. So because it is brand new, we
are using that as the part of the match for the grant.
Councilmember Yukimura: What is the grant called? Your COPS grant?
Mr. Contrades: Yes.
April 7, 2015
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Councilmember Yukimura: But that just then creates a bigger bill at the end
when we have to fund it all.
Mr. Contrades: That is the way the grant works yes. Eventually,
the County will have to pick up the cost.
Councilmember Yukimura: My understanding is we were going to use our
regular budget, General Fund moneys to pay our portion so that we would gradually...it is
sort of like vehicle weight taxes. You pay if there is a successive increase over the years
you. Like our bus fees they are going from $25 to $30 to $35 or $40 so we can all adjust and
get used to it. But now if we are using non-recurring revenues for our share when we have
to pay the whole thing, that is going to be a pretty big bill.
Mr. Contrades: The way it is set up now is to off-set cost so that
this year and majority of the following year, the second year of the grant, the County will
not have a big bill. So eventually, the County has to pay its share.
Councilmember Yukimura: When is that? The third year?
Mr. Contrades: The third year.
Councilmember Yukimura: So Fiscal Year 2017?
Mr. Contrades: Probably 2018.
Councilmember Yukimura: Fiscal Year 2018, what will our bill be? It will be
a combination of what we are paying right now from the Assets Fund and...
Mr. Contrades: No. The Asset Fund is only the first year.
Councilmember Yukimura: Oh. Next year, we will pay how much? What are
we taking out of the Asset Fund right now?
Mr. Contrades: I was not prepared to discuss the grants. So I do
not have those numbers today. But if you want, I can get that to you.
Councilmember Yukimura: Yes. I would like to know what our General
Fund bill will be next year for the COPS grant. I also want to know what the collective
bargaining increases are going to be next year for everybody because that is going to be
another pretty significant amount. What is the collective bargaining amount this year? It is
about $3,000,000?
Mr. Contrades: I thought it was with Units 12 and 13, I believe it
was a little over $2,000,000.
Councilmember Yukimura: And Unit 12 and 13 are Hawaii Government
Employees Association (HGEA)?
April 7, 2015
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Mr. Contrades: That is what we are asking for. Yes. SHOPO
and HGEA.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay.
Mr. Perry: On January 1st, it goes up another 2%.
Councilmember Yukimura: January 1st of 2016?
Mr. Perry: And in July, it goes up again, 2.5%.
Councilmember Yukimura: 2016 January, is what percent, Chief?
Mr. Perry: 2%.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay and then another...
Mr. Perry: July 1st, 2.5%.
Councilmember Yukimura: 2016?
Mr. Perry: And the last one is on January 1, 2017. It goes
up 3.3%.
Councilmember Yukimura: And this is all on top of a growing base, right?
Mr. Perry: Yes.
Councilmember Yukimura: Can you provide that for us?
Mr. Contrades: This year you are asking for?
Councilmember Yukimura: Yes.
Mr. Contrades: So, in this year's budget request?
Councilmember Yukimura: Yes.
Mr. Contrades: It is 2,139,113.
Councilmember Yukimura: Million?
Mr. Contrades: Yes.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: It is on page 3 of the presentation we just got.
April 7, 2015
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Councilmember Yukimura: I am sorry. Thank you. That is for this year. For
next year], which starts July 2016, we will be paying those collective bargaining increases
and our share of the COPS grant?
Mr. Contrades: In 2016.
Councilmember Yukimura: Fiscal year...oh, wait this is Fiscal Year 2016. So
Fiscal Year 2017.
Mr. Contrades: I believe the majority of that will come from the
grant itself. I do not have the exact numbers, but in the way we set it up was for the next 2
years to offset a lot of the cost from the County so the County would not have to bear the
burden during these 2 tight years.
Councilmember Yukimura: So it is going to be Fiscal Year 2018, which is
January 2017 when we will have the 3% collective bargaining, and we will also have
whatever our obligations are for full salaries for the officers?
Mr. Contrades: Like I said, I will get you the statistics for that
and the breakdown.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. I mean, we are just trying to budget more
than one year now. So just projecting what those figures will be. Okay. Thank you. I have
other questions, but I would like others to have a chance.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Again, I think if on some of those questions may
have been better in the Chiefs Office. I know we have a Criminal Asset Forfeiture Fund
section also which we could of... If you guys are okay I would like to move right into the
Chiefs Office section. Any questions regarding the Chiefs Office section Councilmembers?
Council Chair Rapozo.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you Chair, thank you Chief, and staff that
is here today. I do not know where to start. As far as the sheriffs on Kaua`i, they do not
participate in any law enforcement other than the judiciary security, correct?
Mr. Contrades: That is the bulk of their responsibility. We have
been trying to work with them to assist on more issues. Recently, several of their deputies
came with us to do a sweep of warrant services. But other than that, no.
Council Chair Rapozo: Maybe that is something we can help with a
letter because all the other islands, they investigate, they make arrest, and they do the
warrants. You guys do the warrants, right?
Mr. Contrades: The warrants responsibility is placed on us.
Council Chair Rapozo: Even the ones that the Judge orders?
April 7, 2015
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Mr. Contrades: Oh, absolutely.
Council Chair Rapozo: It makes you wonder why we have sheriffs. I do
not mean to pick on them, but I mean, your right. We are looking at cutting services, but
they get to watch the courtroom. Chief one of the complaints...I would not say complaints.
But one of the concerns I am hearing from both victims, officers, and detectives is the large
amount of cases that are not being pursued. It is either being flat out declined or reduced to
the point where officers, and this is just what I am hearing, they are feeling that they go
out, work hard, and the case is not being prosecuted. Are you guys seeing an increase in
cases that are being declined, in other words, the prosecution not being solved?
Mr. Perry: We have been keeping statistics on that from
2013, 2014, and 2015. 2013 and 2014, the number that we have is about 1,300 cases were
declined involving 1,100 defendants. These are issues that we are working out with the
Prosecutor's Office for various reasons, either they did not receive the report in time, they
do not have enough information to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, or the victims
refuse to cooperate. There are a variety of reasons. But we are looking into the cases that
are declined. We are also having conferences with the Prosecutor about that. It is a
concern.
Council Chair Rapozo: Well, I am hearing it from a few officers. So, I
am concerned as well. The other thing is I know with the new County Attorney there was
some restructuring and you lost...not so much lost, but the Deputy that was assigned to you
was relocated back to the County Attorney's Office. Are you still getting the service, I am
assuming, from the County Attorney's Office?
Mr. Perry: Yes. He is not available in-house. It was not so
much a convenient but very important for us to have direct communication with the County
Attorney. That was Nick. We could go into his office and say, "This is the situation we
have." My understanding is the restructuring took place and Nick is no longer physically
located with KPD. He is at the round building, but he is available to us. All we need to do
is E-mail him or call him. But he is very busy with other issues. One of the reasons why we
had asked and I believe you were a Councilmember at that time, we had received
authorization to have Legal Analyst within the Police Department, which was subsequently
removed from us and put in the County Attorney's Office. One of the arguments I had about
that was if there was a conflict with the County Attorney's Office than the individual who is
assigned to us from the County Attorney's Office cannot serve two masters. He cannot
serve the Chief of Police and the organization if it is contrary to what the County Attorney
says. So, we need somebody there with an open view and to looking at our organization,
how it is run, the problems that we face, and be a voice for KPD. While Nick and others
have been that voice, there has in the recent past, been conflicts that was not resolved and
therefore has created more problems. If you are asking me do we need a Legal Analyst, I
would say so yes. We would continue to need one. Other Departments throughout the
State, Maui, HPD and Hawaii, they have their own Legal Analyst. We are the only
Department that is and law enforcement is very litigious that does not have a legal
in-house analyst to assist us, not only on that aspect, but also towards the accreditation and
the rest. More than you wanted to know.
April 7, 2015
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Council Chair Rapozo: Well, I was going to ask you. I mean, because I
vividly remember. I spent a lot of time putting that job description together and I thought
the compromise was that you would not be allowed to get a position, but the County
Attorney's Office would provide an in-house County Attorney. In speaking with the new
County Attorney, I am actually very pleased with the restructuring. I have spoken with to
a few of the attorneys, the Deputies, and they are all very excited. We, here on the Council,
have not seen a single request for Special Counsel funds yet because of the new direction
that much is going to be done in-house. But now it is back to where we were several years
ago where I think that you need to have...we have two here in Council Services, Legal
Analysts. It is for many reasons. What resurfaced it in my mind chief was the issue with
the cases that are being declined or pled out. If there is an issue with training, if there is an
issue with process and policy, then you need a resource person that can assist with that,
that can actually find out what the issues are so with a Legal Analyst, develop that policy.
We all understand that the County Attorney is the only legal advisor for your Department.
So we cannot create a position for someone that going to give you opinions, but to do your
day to day at the Police Department with the Department of your size and the issues that
go through again, more specifically. We see those videos and it bothers me when victims
are telling me, "How come he is out?" Then I make a phone call and find out that the case
was declined. The case was not even taken to get a shot and this guy is out doing things like
that. That troubles me. So, if there a way, and this is a question Chief, do you believe that
would help in that respect, where you could have Legal Analyst that can come up with some
kind of policy or training plan or what have you so we can address those issues so these
things can be resolved?
Mr. Perry: It certainly would. We do not want to burn our
bridges with the Prosecutor's Office. We want to make sure our relationship is actually
enhanced and I believe a Legal Analyst will help us because they speak the same language,
the legalize language, and they will be able to communicate better. If we have an Analyst,
they will be able to express our needs based on his understanding of the organization and
so, as I believe it will be a plus for everyone. It will be a plus not only for KPD, but also for
the community as a whole.
Council Chair Rapozo: Okay. I think we still have that information, I
would assume we still have it in our records. Deputy Chief of Police is, your intent to fill
that? The reason I ask is that obviously if I can get support for a Legal Analyst position we
would have to fund it somewhere. I am not sure that is an available source. The Fire Chief
just told us basically this morning that he is in no real hurry to fill his Deputy position. He
is looking for the right person. Same like you folks, because of the pay inversion, there is
not too many Assistant Chiefs or even Captains that would want to take a pay cut for that
promotion. So what is your plan on that position and if you do not have one right now that
is fine too, Chief.
Mr. Perry: We are working on a plan right now.
Council Chair Rapozo: Okay. That is all I have for right now. Thanks.
April 7, 2015
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Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any questions from the other members?
Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: The overtime you have, which I guess is quite
significantly cut from last year. Last year when some Councilmembers were suggesting
across the board cuts at the Council level after you folks had cut substantially, you
distinguish between some overtime which you actually did not have any control over and
some overtime where maybe you had some management discretion. So the regular overtime
under the administration right now is $2,100,000. I just wondered of that, how much is
non-discretionary?
Mr. Contrades: Some of the discretionary that was cut, will not
be doing the Citizens Police Academy next year. So that is funds that were removed and of
course, Underage Activity Investigation was dollar funded as well. The only other thing
that is left that is so called "discretionary" would be Kaua`i Police Activity League (KPAL)
overtime.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay.
Mr. Contrades: Everything else has to do with operational need
and KPAL overtime would be your last so called"discretionary."
Councilmember Yukimura: So the operational need that you described is not
holidays though because you have another holiday line? Sorry. You delineated a holiday
line under it.
Mr. Contrades: Yes.
Councilmember Yukimura: But all the rest and training...so the $1,300,000
is time that is really not subject to management discretion?
Mr. Contrades: Well, I would say under the $1,300.000 we do not
have under here a list if those things that I showed earlier: report writing, investigations,
cancelled days off, and back fill. I mean, those are all the type of things that...
Councilmember Yukimura: They are all necessary.
Mr. Contrades: Yes. They would go under here.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. I do not think anybody would question
your KPAL overtime and the value of that in terms of upstream prevention of all juvenile
crimes. I wondered though, how many of your calls are related to juveniles?
Mr. Contrades: We could get that for you. I would not have the
statistic like that off hand.
April 7, 2015
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Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. That would be interesting. Do you have
an estimate of how much KPD's work, in general, is related to juvenile activity? I am not
talking about the KPAL prevention type of activity, but more of the enforcement.
Mr. Contrades: We do underage drinking investigations and we
have School Resource Officers in the school that deal with that. This is their primary duty,
is to deal with juveniles. I would not have the amount of hours or times that was spent
doing that. We can come up with an estimate if you would like. We probably could put
together all the cases that were juvenile related, but that would take some work to do.
Councilmember Yukimura: I know you have a Juvenile Counselor on your
staff, right?
Mr. Contrades: Yes.
Councilmember Yukimura: And it used to be, as I recall long ago, a Juvenile
Unit which I understand Maui has. I am just wondering in terms of deployment of
resources, what is the most effective way to address the issues of juvenile delinquency and
truancy. Those types. How much of that takes up your time, how much is addressed by
School Resource Officers versus other officers, and what might be the most effective way to
address the juvenile issues? Councilmember Chock and I are part of Keiki to Career and
that is one of the issues we are looking at. So just wondering how that all fits into the
overall community response. We will follow-up with a question. Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Kuali`i.
Mr. Contrades: I am sorry.
Councilmember Yukimura: Yes.
Mr. Contrades: I was just going to say if I had the answers to the
questions you asked earlier, if you wanted that at home point regarding the COPSGRANT.
Councilmember Yukimura: Oh yes. We will follow-up with those questions
too. Oh you have the answers now?
Mr. Contrades: Yes.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: You can get it after or are you going to have more
questions on the grants?
Councilmember Yukimura: I think it would be important for everybody to
know what the projected cost would be over time.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: That was in the Criminal Asset Forfeiture Fund?
Mr. Contrades: Yes.
April 7, 2015
Police Department (lc)
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Councilmember Yukimura: You want to do it then?
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Will hold off on it until then.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Sure.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: If we start to go into any subjects you think
might fit in like ATB, ISB, or Patrol, just let us know and then we will hold off on the
questions just so we can get through each section. Councilmember Kuali`i.
Councilmember Kuali`i: In looking a little bit deeper at the recent
Quarterly Report from HR on positions, there are 2 different positions where I see they are
reallocations. You had mentioned in your presentation about creating new positions with
existing positions. So, one position is 532 and the old position was Clerk and the new
position is Accountant Trainee. That salary is going from $27,000 to $38,000. So its
$11,000 more. So it is kind of significant as far as the salary goes. The other position is 312
which is Supervising Emergency Services Dispatcher to Police Sergeant. So it is going from
SRS-26 to P0-11, $39,000 and $67,000. Both of them say "pending classification review."
Both of them, I guess, were positions that may have been vacant for a little while. My
question is obviously you are making the changes based on your operational needs. I want
to know if some of these operational needs are a result Human Resources changing things
around so now you do not have the staff in-house to help with accounting of hours,
timesheets, and functions that you need to do for Human Resources to support that
function.
Mr. Contrades: In both cases, no, It has nothing to do with
Human Resources reorganization. This is us looking within our Department to see where
the needs are. In terms of the Accountant Trainee, there are new things that are occurring.
For example, the false alarm bill. Right now, no one is tracking that. So there are revenue
streams that could be coming into the County through fines and what not that is not
happening. So that would be part of the Accountant Trainee's duties. The other thing is of
course looking at our vehicle mileage, charting our gasoline usage, and that kind of stuff to
try and alleviate and improve our services. So alleviate some of the burden on our current
fiscal staff as well as improve our auditing in ability to make sure what we are doing is
correct.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Okay.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any further questions for the Chiefs Office?
Councilmember Yukimura: This may be a traffic question. I noticed that one
of the Chiefs goals is traffic violations Chief?
Mr. Perry: Yes.
April 7, 2015
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Councilmember Yukimura: Reduce traffic fatalities by 5 % as compared to
2013 by increasing enforcements, speeding, driving under the influence, reckless. It is a
very good goal. I just wondered if you were aware of our Multi-Modal Land Transportation
Plan because it addresses traffic fatalities and it is not one you would commonly think
would be in it. But there is an increasing attention and Representative Chris Lee and the
Legislature pointed it out to me too. There is an increased attention to traffic fatalities and
injuries that Transportation Planners are looking at. So in the executive summary of the
Multi-Modal Plan it shows that if we implement this plan, there will be a 15% drop in
fatalities over a 20 year period. It is partly because of what they call" mode shift" that you
will be getting some cars off the road and people will either be walking, biking, or in public
transportation. I guess in Copenhagen, where 40% of the trips are bicycles, there traffic
fatalities have dropped tremendously so there might be some non-police ways which we
should cooperate and work with you to help you achieve your goal on that.
Mr. Perry: I remember back when they reduced the speed
limits in the Mainland from 70 to 50 miles an hour or 55 and the traffic fatality rates went
way done. I have always asked this question to our legislators. If our speed limit here is the
maximum at 60 miles an hour, why do we have vehicles that can go 120 or 140 miles and
an hour? Why is this speed limit not within the cars regulated so that cars cannot go that
fast? Nobody has ever answered that question because if at 60 mph and you give someone a
car that can go 120, somebody is going a 120 and kill themselves or others. That has never
been answered except for somebody that said that it is an economic situation where
manufacturers build cars to go fast.
Councilmember Yukimura: Yes.
Mr. Perry: But a simple solution. If you bring a car into the
State, it can only go 60 miles an hour maximum.
Councilmember Yukimura: Interesting. I know that the drop in the speed
limit between Lihu`e and Kapa`a, and I think Chair Rapozo noticed it once before recently,
has seem to really make a difference in terms of fatalities.
Mr. Perry: Yes. As long as we make sure our officers are out
there enforcing and because eventually as you know, the speeds will go up, and up, and up.
If there is not a presence there to make sure they are within the speed limit. It has helped.
I was skeptical about that but it has helped a great deal.
Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Council Chair Rapozo.
Council Chair Rapozo: I am not sure who can answer this but your
Fiscal Officer and Department Personnel Assistant, what do they do? What is their
function?
April 7, 2015
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Mr. Contrades: Probably the best thing to do is bring that person
up to explain that.
Council Chair Rapozo: Oh.
Mr. Contrades: She was waiting all day for that.
Council Chair Rapozo: There is a Fiscal Officer and a Personnel
Assistant?
Mr. Contrades: The Personnel Assistant is supervised by
Daurice.
Council Chair Rapozo: And this is the Fiscal Officer?
Mr. Contrades: Yes.
DAURICE ARRUDA, Fiscal Officer I: For the record, Daurice Arruda,
Fiscal Officer. Let us start with the Personnel Assistant. We have two Account Clerks. One
handles all of the payables, the Pcard payments and all of our monthly bills and the other
one handles the payroll entry. The Personnel Assistant oversees and kind of balances out
the payroll. So that is every two weeks during payroll, she will take care of the worksheets
and reconcile it before payroll closes. She also works hand in hand with HR as far as
assisting with departmental position descriptions anytime we have payroll certifications
that type of thing. All of the transactions going back and forth. She is also the person who
works with the employees with benefits. She directs them to HR. But basically, she kind of
the contact person for all of the police officers with their shifts and what not. So she is kind
of the liaison with HR as well. As far as for me, I kind of handle the budget side, the grants.
So all of the grants with Department of Transportation (DOT), the traffic grants, Vice Unit
have grants and just maintaining the accounting side, the current budget, appropriations,
and that type of thing.
Council Chair Rapozo: And that Personnel Assistant, was that always
there?
Ms. Arruda: Yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: When HR started did you not lose a position?
Ms. Arruda: We did, but they actually took the position that
helped with the recruitment side of HR. So they left the transactions, but they took the
position that we had that helped with the recruitment.
Council Chair Rapozo: Okay. So you guys do not participate in the
recruitment anymore?
Ms. Arruda: Well our...
April 7, 2015
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Mr. Contrades: No, we still do. We still do.
Council Chair Rapozo: To what extent?
Mr. Contrades: Probably, Rob, if you want to come and answer.
Council Chair Rapozo: I mean, has it decreased?Is your work the same?
Mr. Contrades: The Assistant Chief of that bureau who is
directly involved in that.
ROBERT GAUSEPOHL, Acting Assistant Chief: Rob Gausepohl for the
record. I am sorry, Mel, what was your question again?
Council Chair Rapozo: How much involvement does the Department
have in the recruiting?
Mr. Gausepohl: As soon as the names are referred to us then we
take it from there. So basically, Personnel accepts the applications screens the applications
for being acceptable, conducts a written test, and then we take it from there. We do
everything else.
Council Chair Rapozo: You do everything?
Mr. Gausepohl: Everything else other than that once the names
are referred. I am sorry. Except for the drug testing. I believe that is supervised by HR.
All the duties that were being done, I would say 99% of them we just absorb which is
another source of overtime.
Council Chair Rapozo: You see, that is the frustration I get. I almost
just want to shut my mouth because the passion is going to overtake my common sense.
99% you absorb. 99% we have to pay with overtime. Again, the selling point for HR was we
were going to take everybody from the departments. We are going to have one place. We
going do everything. I will take it up later. It is not your fault. It is not your guys fault. I
can honestly feel the hair on the back of my neck stand up right now.
Mr. Gausepohl: My personal opinion is that it is an excellent
plan and we are just in the process of executing it.
Council Chair Rapozo: Well, the plan has been in place for several years
now.
Mr. Gausepohl: Yes, sir.
Council Chair Rapozo: And 99% of the duties you absorb within your
organization and we pay overtime for.
April 7, 2015
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Mr. Gausepohl: Well, that is not a lot of overtime. Like the
Assistant Chief said, we have some very dedicated people that work very hard to try to
make it work.
Council Chair Rapozo: I understand Rob, and I understand we are in an
environment here where we have everybody in the room and nobody wants to say the wrong
thing. But I am just going to say it like it is. I am frustrated because I believe...that is all I
will say. Thank you.
Mr. Gausepohl: I hope we get there soon.
Council Chair Rapozo: They have enough man power/women power.
Mr. Gausepohl: They do offer to help and there is certain things
that it is so inefficient to try to transfer that duty over to them.
Council Chair Rapozo: That is what I was trying to say years ago, Rob.
That is why I am so frustrated because I was told "No. We got it. We going save money."
Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Follow up question. Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: So are you saying that the plan transfer is still
happening or do you thing you found the equilibrium in terms of what is the appropriate
role for HR and what is the appropriate role is for KPD.
Mr. Gausepohl: I think we are still working on it. I think HR is
trying very hard. I thing people over there work hard and they are trying to accommodate
us. They have bent over backwards to help us in many different ways. It is just what
duties can we give them that they can accomplish efficiently? We have been under a lot of
pressure. We have been hiring people at a pace that we never had before.
Councilmember Yukimura: Yes.
Mr. Gausepohl: So at what point does it become
counterproductive to train somebody from another Department to do the work that we are
doing in half the time? Everybody knows that it takes way longer to teach somebody how to
do it then do it themselves.
Councilmember Yukimura: Right.
Mr. Gausepohl: So at this point were not in a position where we
can just hand that over and say, "This is how you do it" or "This is how we demand that you
do it."
Councilmember Yukimura: Could it be too that you are actually discovering
what is best with KPD and what is best with HR and maybe some of the originally planned
handoff may not work as well as just keeping it?
April 7, 2015
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Mr. Gausepohl: Yes, because I think it has been an evolving
process. We are getting better as we go which everybody tries to do. But we are doing it at
such a rate that it is difficult. We all brainstorm. Darla is involved. We get all the
background investigators. We have to look at a lot of different laws, regulations, and what
our requirements are. At no point are we going to lower our standards. It is a difficult
process that we are trying to get better and better and better and better at. Maybe we will
reach a point someday once we are completely full, where we can start really getting them
involved. But at this point, it really is just not efficient to do that.
Councilmember Yukimura: Every Department is going through this
transition, but you are doing it at a pace that probably exceeds the other Departments
because your higher rate. Your recruiting has been so accelerated and I think we all really
appreciate it. I mean, given where we were three years ago, it looks like a miracle.
Mr. Gausepohl: If you count the class before 2012, it is about 52
officers which is one-third (1/3) of our work force, basically.
Councilmember Yukimura: That is extraordinary.
Mr. Gausepohl: So it is tough. The Chief and Deputy's mandate
was "go take care of this."
Councilmember Yukimura: Right.
Mr. Gausepohl: And so collectively, this Department has really
moved forward.
Mr. Contrades: I mean, the reality is that we could not have
done it without collaborating with HR.
Councilmember Yukimura: Right.
Mr. Contrades: They have been helpful in that aspect to try and
get this process moving.
Councilmember Yukimura: Excellent. Thank you very much.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Follow up question. Councilmember Kuali`i. Oh
new question. Councilmember Kuali`i.
Councilmember Kuali`i: So two final position questions and it is pretty
specific. Part of my frustration is I am using a document from HR which is March 24th. So
that is only two weeks ago and then when I am talking with the Fire, they are like oh it is
not current and they are giving me more current information. HR's information is
outdated. Now, I want to know if your information is outdated because HR says that
position 520, which is a Police Officer I, is vacant as of 03-24-2015 and is currently
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recruiting. But in your report and I am really glad you did this because nobody else
provided us with a breakdown of the vacant positions. You do not include position 520. So
is position 520, Police Officer I in HR, they have it as a PO7 but in your budget, you have it
as a PO9. The PO7 is $75,000 and PO9 is $81,000. It has to be one number or the other. It
cannot be both I do not think, it has got to be either just now vacant and recruiting or not.
So either HR or you have it wrong. Which one is it?
Mr. Contrades: 520 was a position that was a recent termination.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Recent termination. So it is currently vacant?
Mr. Contrades: Yes.
Councilmember Kuali`i: I mean, is the position changing from 9 to 7 or 7
to 9?
Mr. Contrades: It goes back down to a 5.
Councilmember Kuali`i: So it is being recruited at 5?
Mr. Contrades: Yes. So what happens is it goes back down to a 5
so that we can hire a new officer.
Councilmember Kuali`i: So why would the budgeted amount not be at the
amount that you are going to hire at? Why would it be higher? Do you go at the top level?
Mr. Contrades: I believe once that submission was made, that is
afterwards is when that happens so we did not have an opportunity to change it.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Something that need to be corrected.
Mr. Contrades: Yes.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Okay. The last one, I cannot for the life of me,
understand because it is three positions but you changed the bureaus and I am not sure if
one of them is vacant or maybe it is because Deputy Chief of Police moved back down into
one of the Police Captain positions. I do not know. There is 3 Police Captain positions. The
numbers are 350, 403, and 433. In the Human Resources report of transfers, they list the
position and then in parenthesis they put the old position. Well they list Police Captains
433, changing in bureau and in parenthesis they have 403, and they also list Police Captain
350 and parenthesis they have 403. So I do not think two different Captains could trade
with another Captain. But what happen with those three Police Captains? Is there any
vacancies because on their report is shows that 350 was vacant?
Mr. Contrades: We have one Captain vacancy.
Councilmember Kuali`i: So one of the three is vacant?
April 7, 2015
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Mr. Contrades: Yes.
Councilmember Kuali`i: And that is 350?
Mr. Contrades: And the reason for those movements was my
movement from Deputy Chief return to Captain and then, of course, promotion to Assistant
Chief.
Councilmember Kuali`i: And the vacant position is currently being
recruited?
Mr. Contrades: Yes, sir.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Position 350?
Mr. Contrades: Yes.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: On the automobiles, is that what you talked
about in your PowerPoint, the eight unmarked...
Mr. Contrades: Our request. Yes.
Councilmember Yukimura: And then in your cost saving efforts on
reorganization, which is $500,000 per year, that is your slide 26. You renamed or recreated
positions, but this Professional Standards Lieutenant is a salary of$130,000?
Mr. Contrades: That is with the fringe benefits.
Councilmember Yukimura: Oh, it is with the fringe.
Mr. Contrades: Yes.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. I thought it was just a base salary.
Mr. Contrades: I would be upset too. Just kidding.
Councilmember Yukimura: I was just going, "Oh my God. Inversion." That
is a lot. Okay that explains it. Thank you very much.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any further questions for the Chiefs Office?
Okay we will move on to Administrative and Technical Bureau. Did you want to say
April 7, 2015
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anything or we can just open it up for questions? Any questions from the Councilmembers?
Councilmember Kuali`i.
Councilmember Kuali`i: The line item that is Other Services, last year it
was $88,000 and this year it is $128,000. So $35,000-$40,000 increase is pretty significant.
There is one $60,000 for mandatory physicals. How many physicals does that represent?
•
Mr. Contrades: We are required by collective bargaining
agreement to provide physicals for all our police officers.
Councilmember Kuali`i: So how many is that?
Mr. Contrades: If we were full, 161.
Councilmember Kuali`i: If full, 161.
Mr. Contrades: Yes.
Councilmember Kuali`i: So you are budgeting $60,000 divided by 161,
that would be about approximately what each physical cost. Is your physical as thorough or
as involved as the Fire's physical?
Mr. Contrades: I am not sure what their physical involves. As
we presented earlier, we really looked at what we are providing and we felt we were
providing things that were above what we needed to. To satisfy those that may need it,
there is extra moneys in there in the invent we need to provide a treadmill for someone who
has been identified with an issue that needs to be looked at a little closer. We try to reduce
that as much as possible, but there is some extra funds in there in the event we have to
provide the treadmill services. I believe electrocardiogram (EKG) if I am not mistaken.
Councilmember Kuali`i: For new hires too. Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any further questions from the members?
Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: I feel like I should know it, but what are
transcription services?
Mr. Contrades: Transcription services is when we have long tape
conversations, we have a service that we send the tape conversation out to and it comes
back to us transcribed. We have both in-house as well as a company we work with.
Councilmember Yukimura: In house you mean?
Mr. Contrades: We have Clerical staff that does it.
Councilmember Yukimura: Clerical staff that can do the shorter jobs?
April 7, 2015
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Mr. Contrades: Right.
Councilmember Yukimura: And you showed some savings in that too or
there was some discussion in your PowerPoint?
Mr. Contrades: Yes. The turnaround is rather quick and when
you really need it, you could have like 24 hour turnaround.
Councilmember Yukimura: Yes, I can understand that. Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any further question members? We can move
on. We can move on to ISB. Any questions on ISB? I had a question on public safety. We
have $49,000? Investigative Service Bureau. Public safety, I think, is the very last line
item.
Mr. Contrades: That is for our Self-Contained Breathing
Apparatus (SCBAs). The SCBAs require replacement. They are old and we want to be
more in line with what Fire has as well for interchangeability when we are working
together. So it is time to replace the ones that we have. Those are the tanks with the
facemasks. I cannot think of the acronym offhand. Sorry.
Council Chair Rapozo: Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus.
Mr. Contrades: Thank you, sir.
Council Chair Rapozo: Like scuba without the underwater.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Got it. Any other questions Councilmembers?
While Councilmember Yukimura is checking her notes, Patrol is next. Do you have any
questions for Patrol? Are you ready? Okay Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: One of those is disrupt and dismantle at least
two or more major drug trafficking organizations and you say that staffing continues to be a
concern because of increased proliferation. You do not have enough man power in this or
human power?
Mr. Contrades: Are you talking about our narcotics division?
Councilmember Yukimura: Yes.
Mr. Contrades: Yes. We are doing our best to fill those
vacancies. But like anything else, they are overworked as well and so their major goal is to
disrupt drug trafficking organizations. Over the years, they have been very successful in
doing so. Several years ago, two major drug trafficking organizations were dismantled, one
which dealt methamphetamine on the island and the methamphetamine was tracked all
the way back to Mexico via Philippines via Las Vegas, California. So that is their constant
April 7, 2015
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goal is to work on those major types of organizations to stem the illicit drugs from coming
into our island.
Councilmember Yukimura: And that sounds like a major success story, I
think, for which we are very glad because of the overall concern about how drugs disrupt
families and lives.
Mr. Contrades: Absolutely.
Councilmember Yukimura: Are you proposing new positions there? Is that
one of the solutions?
Mr. Contrades: At this year, no. This fiscal year, no.
Councilmember Yukimura: Your priority is with patrol at this point?
Mr. Contrades: At this point, our priority is to fill all positions so
that eventually we can fill those. Patrol is a priority in terms of saving overtime. That is
where we have concerns. Whenever there is not enough officers in the Patrol Division, that
is where the bulk of overtime comes from. So we try our best to keep the patrol services is
full. Please know that our patrol officers are very cognizant and capable and have done
some amazing cases in terms of dealing with drug traffickers as well. So it is not just the
narcotics unit alone. It is our patrol officers who are very experienced and knowledgeable
in that area too.
Councilmember Yukimura: Yes, and it is important, I think, that it be a
cross sector team effort.
Mr. Contrades: Absolutely.
Councilmember Yukimura: Within the Police Department.
Mr. Contrades: Some of our best cases were initiated at the
patrol level.
Councilmember Yukimura: Excellent. Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any further questions for Investigative Services
Bureau. Councilmember Kuali`i.
Councilmember Kualii: On the line item that is Other Services $192,000.
I see that the bulk of it is for coroner's expenses at $177,000. Is that the realistic amount of
what we have budgeted and expended over the last three or four years?
Mr. Contrades: We just discussed this yesterday. My
understanding is it is very close to what the actual is. Of course, when we return money in
that particular area, it is a good thing. That means that we did not have to use those
April 7, 2015
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services. But I am told that these past few years, we are on par. We are very close to what
we have budgeted for.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any further questions?
Council Chair Rapozo: I have a follow-up to that.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Council Chair Rapozo.
Council.Chair Rapozo: The year to date is $243,000 on that Other
Services. Now, I am not sure how it is split up with the items on there. The coroner's
expense is just a part of it. But it looks like already you are at $243,000. $192,000 is the...
Mr. Contrades: I am not sure if I am looking at the right one. Do
you know what number...
Council Chair Rapozo: I think we jumped to Patrol. I am sorry.
Kipukai, you sent me down the wrong road.
Councilmember Yukimura: That is where we are going right now.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any other questions for Investigative Services
Bureau? Okay we will move on to Patrol. So in Patrol Other Services.
Council Chair Rapozo: The line item is 1005-551.30. So year-to-date is
$243,000 and the budgeted request is $192,000. So if we are on par...
Ms. Arruda: So the reason for that is the autopsy contract
goes over to the next fiscal year. So that contract carries over. When you look at the
adjusted budget, it is actually $258,000 and that is the other portion of the autopsy contract
that carries over. So we are going to encumber for this year's contract for the $160,000 and
it will take us to half of next year.
Council Chair Rapozo: Okay.
Ms. Arruda: But when we closed out the contract there was
not a lot returned.
Council Chair Rapozo: So the $192,000 should be sufficient?
Ms. Arruda: Yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: Okay. Thank you.
April 7, 2015
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Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay, we are on Patrol. Any further questions
for Patrol? I have a question and it was mention a little earlier. Patrol verses overtime.
Was there ever an analysis done, and it may be a simple yes. But is it more cost effective to
hire a new body then to spend on overtime?
Mr. Contrades: I think that was looked at last year.
Mr. Perry: Yes, it was looked at last year. But we found
with the fringed benefits and the like, it would be more expensive to hire a new body. The
problem that arises is that officers get burnt out because they work too much overtime, they
spend time away from their families, and then their sick leave begins to rise. We are trying
to find a nice balance between that. But it is actually a cost savings for the County with
respect to using overtime as opposed to hiring a new body.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I know throughout the presentation it was
always mentioned all we can do is increase overtime, or increase personnel, or decrease
services and I think that is the difficult spot we are in here. For us, it is like we can
increase overtime, increase personnel, or decrease services but then we are going have to
increase real property taxes. We are going need to get the money somewhere. So it is a
difficult balance and I do not know if the collective bargaining process, and I hate to say can
we say try and slow down the increases or something. You figure we have, I think, 6%
increase in the next couple years. Even if the thing was 1% and you allocate it though out
everyone's salary I am sure we could probably hire a few more people. We could get a few
more bodies and not have to spend more. But I know collective bargaining, we are where
we are. I think that is why we get into a difficult situation of should we hire more bodies,
do we still work overtime, and how do we work the whole system.
Mr. Contrades: If I may, one thing to consider is that with the
raises, we are able to hire more people. There was a certain point in our history where
people did not want to be police officers and the pay was much less. To some who may have
wanted to do it, they might have thought it is not worth the risk for the type of pay that
they are giving. What our officers receive today is good. Nowhere near compared to what
some places pay on the Mainland. We are able to fill our vacancies partially because of the
fact that it is more enticing now. But we fully understand. Those are the things that we
are looking at internally to figure out what can we do stay within budget, and can we be
team players in this budget crisis that we have. That is how we came to the conclusions of
all these different things that we have tried to do. Essentially, it comes down to we may
have to decrease services in order to remain within budget and that is just something we
need people to understand that if it needs to be done, it needs to be done. The only other
things we can see is either the officers need to work more or we just need to hire more
people to do the job. We do not foresee a slowdown in crime unfortunately.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I think the number that stood out in your
presentation is 92% of your budget is salary. That is a huge number. Any questions for
Patrol? Councilmember Yukimura.
April 7, 2015
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Councilmember Yukimura: You mention a slowdown in crime. What
indicators are we using to measure crime rates?
Mr. Contrades: We have our yearly statistics that we look at.
But again, as I showed earlier, over the last 25 years there has been a 92% increase in the
calls for service that we have. 92%, yet only 11% increase in staffing. That work had to go
somewhere.
Councilmember Yukimura: You are assuming that the 92% of calls is
number one, it all represents increase in crime or work. It may be some calls that could be
prevented by other non-police work or other...
Mr. Contrades: Yes, I am not making an assumption on what is
crime and what is not. What I am saying is that the Police Department is getting busier
and busier. We are being asked to do more things. If you want to talk strictly crime alone,
I mean, we can resource the statistics for you to show crime rates in 25 years ago as
opposed to today. But an easy number for us to come up with is calls for service. Basically,
calls for service encompasses everything the Police Department is responsible to do. If your
child does not want to go to school today, that is not a crime per se. It is a status offense but
yet, we still go there and we help deal with that situation. Traffic collision is not necessary
a crime. Minor traffic collisions are not criminal in nature generally and yet we still
respond to those things.
Councilmember Yukimura: Right, and I think I have sighted examples of a
Police Department in California address some of those non-status crimes.
Mr. Contrades: Status offense.
Councilmember Yukimura: Status offense and other in way that actually
was partnerships with Social Services and approach. That is why I have been asking for an
analysis of the calls. I think many Police Departments are doing much more data related
work and so I guess I am raising questions about the solidness of numbers of calls as the
best indicator for the need for police work. I mean, you can solve my doubts by breaking
down the calls and showing which ones...there are two things. One is are they really police
related calls and do they address the core of your work, and the other question is, is our
response the best most collective cost effective way to address those response given the
technology we have now and et cetera. This thing about work smarter not more and doing it
smarter. Some of your cost reductions have shown that kind of thinking to do work
smarter. I really commend you for that but I am not sure that just raw number of call is
the best indicator of work load.
Mr. Contrades: What I tried to explain in the presentation is
that up until this point, we have been a full service Police Department. So if you call, we
respond generally most of the time depending on what it is. We are looking at changing
that to stay and be fiscally responsible. But the reality of it is that majority of the calls that
come in require some type of response and some of that leads to overtime and some of that
April 7, 2015
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leads to different investigations. So that is why the call of service are an important factor
to look at. But again, one factor.
Councilmember Yukimura: So crime rates are, I think, an important factor
you know nationally and even worldwide. That is the measure. Then you can go beyond
that to solved crime as another indicator and I think we need to have a series of key
indicators to look at as we evaluate what the need is and what the work load is.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Follow-up question. Councilmember Hooser.
Councilmember Hooser: Yeah just a follow-up on what Councilmember
Yukimura. I think it is similar to what I was asking earlier in terms of statistics and that
kind of thing. I understand the raw number of calls coming in cover a wide range and it
would be helpful to have a breakdown of that so many are domestics, some many car
break-in or what you are saying right now, which ones are crime related, which ones are
not. If we have that, I think that would help us understand a lot more about the work load
in general.
Mr. Contrades: Not a problem.
Mr. Perry Too muddy the water a little bit more, the
victimization studies has indicated that about half of the crimes are not reported. So the
statistics that we can provide for you only gives you a tip of the iceberg as to what is really
going on in society today. For example, domestic violence. Normally, a case will not be
reported until the third or fourth time. The prior incidents are not recorded, yet they do
occur.
Councilmember Yukimura: Yes, but were measuring response and in order
to have a response, you have to have a call first. I agree that we may not be addressing
everything and you may want to create a pilot project to see if we can get to that level of
unreported crime. But the other thing I just wanted to add is I commend you looking at
what services we can cut because I think all the Departments are looking in that and I
think we all want to cut what we can cut or address differently and not cut what the core
mission is and that is the discernment or the things that you have to weigh and we have to
weigh. We appreciate how you have laid it out so we can make some of those tough choices
wisely.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I think we got to a great spot. We will take a ten
minute caption break. Any remaining questions on Patrol we will take and then if there
are not any questions, we will move right on to Criminal Asset Forfeiture Fund. So ten
minute caption break.
There being no objections, Committee recessed at 2:57 p.m.
The Committee reconvened at 3:12 p.m., and proceeded as follows:
April 7, 2015
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Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Welcome back. To carry on where we left off, we
are on Patrol. Councilmember Kuali`i.
Councilmember Kuali`i: I just wanted to ask or comment about the
discussion about the data and seeing it broken down. I think that would be really useful to
know what we are responding to. Like with Fire, we were interested in, especially like with
the helicopter responses, who are we actually serving as far as visitors or people not from
Kauai. So, how we are associating those different costs and how we are taking it all on. I
mean, the response has to happen. We agree on that. Clearly, you can distinguish between
crimes against property versus crimes against individuals. But I would ask at least too,
even when you are looking at DLNR and DHHL and the possibility of breaking that out for
trying to get the sheriffs or the State to assume some of the kuleana that we still do full
service in a sense as far as it goes with crimes against people because anybody on this
island at the time to me, is our kuleana and you will continue to see it that way, correct?
Mr. Contrades: Yes.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Then the only other question I have, and it is
more general, is there were comments being made about needing raises so that more people
would be willing to apply. I just wanted to ask if you are working closely with Human
Resources to make sure that we are promoting each position and all of the benefits and
values that come with those positions because the entry-level position I am going ask, is the
Police Services Officer the entry level position?
Mr. Contrades: Yes, sir.
Councilmember Kuali`i: PO5.
Mr. Contrades: Yes.
Councilmember Kuali`i: And the salary is showing at $56,604.
Mr. Contrades: Yes.
Councilmember Kuali`i: So, that calculates to $27.21 an hour and clearly,
it is an entry-level position. So, you can get trained and work your way through the ranks
over the year, you are getting raises based on training and experience. In addition to that,
one other directly paid benefit is premium pay, correct?
Mr. Contrades: Yes.
Councilmember Kuali`i: We have a line item of$1,600,000, basically. It is
increasing $360,000 this year. Just to break it down to the dollar figure for the people
interested in applying, that adds another $3.60. So, an entry level Police Services Officer
can make $30.81 an hour, just to get started and not even talking about health and all of
the benefits that come with it. So, come on people, apply. Thank you.
April 7, 2015
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Mr. Contrades: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Council Chair Rapozo.
Council Chair Rapozo: Well, now since we are recruiting, I do not know
if you touched on the premium pay. Was that the Standard of Conduct? Is that the one
that you were talking about?
Councilmember Kuali`i: Yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: Yes, okay. The $7,048.
Councilmember Kuali`i: What is it called? Standard of Conduct.
Council Chair Rapozo: Yes, right here. This one here is for the patrol,
the entry level. I am basically trying to put the word out there to the millions of people that
watch this thing, that it is a good opportunity. There was a time there was a much better
deal do work hotel security because of the medical package and the hourly rate, but it is
obvious today. Keep in mind though, and again, the work is a lot different than the hotel
security. It is a lot different than working real estate or any other opportunities, even the
Fire Department. It is a tough job. I think people have to appreciate that. I asked Scott to
put up a slide just because that is the problem right there. You got the right slide? That is
the problem right there. I know you were asked the question, what is cheaper, hire a new
body or pay overtime? If you are looking at a snapshot in time, I think, yes, you are right.
But looking long-range or you are looking long-term, that when you hold a Senior Officer, a
PO9, back at the salaries that they have and you pay that person overtime and you do that
over and over and over again because we do not have enough people to cover the beats, you
have people staying over 3 hours or 4 hours because they have a late call and that guy has
20 years in Department, we are paying him or her a lot of money. It happens often because
we just want the coverage. If years ago, we had the foresight like we do with every other
Department that grows and grows and grows, except the Police for some reason. We may
have had 20 beats today. I tell you, I am not really good in math, but I will tell if you paid
20 beat officers straight time, no overtime because everybody is covered, we would save
money. Rather than paying 10 beat officers mega bucks in overtime because they are
putting in a lot of hours. These people are working 60, 70, 80 hours. You do the math.
Then you also have to take in account the retirement benefit afterwards. We keep on
paying that. I think when you look long-term, we best start filling up these beats and
putting more beats. But for some reason, there is never that interest and I will just say
there is never an interest. I am not saying by you Chief, because you folks are told "cut."
You cannot come up here and say, "We need 5 more beats," but there has never been the
serious interest in making that happen. Every year, it is hard. But if we do not start doing
that really, 10 officers, 10 beats on this islands? 10 officers. I mean, people see all the
police cars and think we are littered with police officers, but we only have 10 beats and
people have to understand that. As we start can you tell us cutting, there is nothing else to
do but reduce services. That is a hint again, to the Administration that we have to start
somewhere. I know the Chief has a great plan that he spoke of. But for whatever reason,
the economic forces...
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Mr. Perry: About 4 years ago, we put together a team that
made a projection on how many beats we need in the next 20 years and we plotted it out,
and worked with Planning and the rest. We found out the projection, the population
growth, and the like would be. We actually designated 20 beats and it was supposed to be
implemented within a period of time. Right now, in the last 4 years and it was in the last
20 plus years, we just added 1 beat and that was because the COPS grant. If we did not
have that, then we would not have had a new beat. So, yes, we have a long ways to go and
hopefully we can start soon.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: Do you have a follow-up?
Councilmember Chock: Yes, I have a follow-up question.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Chock.
Councilmember Chock: Thank you. I want to actually appreciate you
folks for the presentation. I think the approach of cost-savings upfront puts it into
perspective, but also something that should be acknowledged I think in terms of us
reaching our goal. The question is about the discussion about crime rates and the needs.
We had a presentation from Fire earlier about the focus on EMS. I just wanted to get a
sense. I know that we do not typically respond to EMS calls in the Police Department;
however, there is a response. We are trained in BLS services and first responder. I just
wanted to know what triggers a response to EMS and how much of that in perspective to
the other calls that we take on are EMS related?
Mr. Contrades: The Police Department responding to EMS
related calls, generally we do not.
Councilmember Chock: Yet, we do have police officers at scenes where
there is medical needs. I have seen police officers at scenes even when there is someone in
need. Basically, we respond to anything. We dispatch Fire and the ambulance, but there
has many times where I see the Police Department there as well. Is there something that
does trigger it? Is it because they are in the area?
Mr. Contrades: Yes. They are the closest person in the area or
they were responding to something else that turned in a medical call or if there was
perhaps a use of force incident that required medical treatment or any other type of call
that somebody had a medical episode, the officer would be there to assist as best as
possible. But for general medical responses, we rely on Fire and EMS to deal with that.
Councilmember Chock: We do not track that at all? It is just basically if
it is related, it occurs, and we provide the service?
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Mr. Contrades: There are many things that we are not tracking
per se and that might be one of them. But I will check on that for you.
Councilmember Chock: Thank you.
Mr. Perry: There is a terminal nexus, obviously we will
respond. In cses, for example, unattended deaths and the like that somebody passes way in
a facility or drowning, we will respond. But in calls for my husband is having a hard time
breathing, we will not respond to those. We will let Fire or EMS take care of them.
Councilmember Chock: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: So, if those calls that you have shown up on the
screen, they exclude EMS calls?
Mr. Contrades: Yes. My understanding is that that has to do
with KPD responding to calls for service.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. So, the statistics that you are using are
non-EMS calls?
Mr. Contrades: Yes, for KPD.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay.
Mr. Contrades: It might include something that we went to for
whatever reason, but that has to do with the Kaua`i Police Department.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. There is some nexus or relationship to
police. Just as a follow-up to Chief on your story or the history about the 4 years ago and
your plan for 20 beats. What is the unspoken limitation is how much it costs in real
property tax increases and we just went through a year of huge controversy that way.
When you submit the 20 beats, you have to show us what it will cost and what it will take
to increase real property taxes.
Mr. Perry: Yes. I think you are absolutely right. There is a
disconnect here because my mission is different from your mission although I am on board
with you. But my mission is to keep the community safe and what it takes to do that. So
coming up with a 20 year strategic plan to meet the needs of the community, that is what I
am charged to do.
Councilmember Yukimura: Right.
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Mr. Perry: You are charged to come up with the bucks. You
are coming up with the money and that is my kuleana, too. But it is my responsibility to
bring you the information, to bring you the facts, and say, "This is where we are going."
You can say, "Well we cannot afford it. So, deal with it," and that is what we have been
doing for the past 20 plus years.
Councilmember Yukimura: Well, I think what we are also asking is given the
changing times, are there different ways to do policing that might achieve your goal without
the 20 beats because the 20 beats are based on sort of a conventional model of policing.
Just like Fire Chief Westerman came in and told us, the Fire Department started to fight
fires. But now the ems calls are...what is it? 70% or 80% of their response requirements.
So, he is looking at different models, which is now named a Fire-Based EMS and he is going
off to look at some of those models. I have been reading, too, about some of the larger cities
and not all those models are applicable, but they are not going the regular patrols driving
cars around the whole district. They are using statistics to see where the hotspots are. The
question, because it is your expertise and not ours, is are there those ways that we might
look at that might leverage our resources better and achieve the goal, your goal, and our
goal, too, of a safe community but not necessarily with 20 beats, which is pretty much an
impossibility?
Mr. Perry: Yes, I realize that. In the video, New York tried
that and it did not work. They had to hire new officers because they cutback and the crime
rates skyrocketed. I am not going say it is happening here, but like the frog in the boiling
water, if you keep...
Councilmember Yukimura: No, and I am not saying that is the solution. I
am saying there must be rural area solutions. I am also saying that is why we would like to
track crime rates though. That is one of the conventional indicators that we should really
have in your report every year as to how we are doing.
Mr. Perry: Sure.
Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Council Chair Rapozo.
Council Chair Rapozo: It is very difficult to do anything without
manpower. There was a time where KPD even when they had 8 beats and then 9 beats,
there was a time when there was enough downtime where officers could get out of their cars
and they could walk down the street. They were encouraged. In fact, they were required to
turn in those...and I do not know if you remember this, the field interrogation cards. They
were required to make personal contact with the neighborhood. They were required. That
was a quota. You cannot do that anymore because you do not have the people. So, I do not
know what more innovative ways. You do not have the people. Software is not going to
solve the problem. It is not. Again, going back to the chart, we are so far behind the 8-ball
with manpower and beats that I do not know what you are going to do. You just got to do
what you got to do and it is very difficult to expect anything different. The Fire Chief is in a
April 7, 2015
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wholly different situation because he has a ton of people, a ton of stations, a ton of trucks,
and a ton of resources. So he can do pilots. I do not know where you get the people to do a
pilot project. I do not know how you do that. You cannot squeeze any more out of people
that we have working on the street. I know that. That is why it is tough for me to sit here.
Poor things. The criticisms are always out had for the police, but really, 10 people to
handle the workload? Think about that. There are more people go to McDonalds than there
is on the street on any given time as far as patrol is concerned. Does that make sense?
That is why you get your Big Mac so fast. You have to wait so long for policeman. What is
the priority? That is all. I am sorry, Mr. Kaneshiro, you have never seen me in budget
when it comes to Police. But that is how I am. Everybody wants the police to be here to do
this and do that, but there is no money. It is not impossible. It is not impossible. Yes, 20
beats this year is. But if we started when we suggested it. It is hard, Chief, for you to come
up here after you get that direction or your marching orders is no new positions, cut 6% or
8% or whatever it is. I am not dissing the Mayor. It is just we have to do that because we
do not have any money. But do not expect any improvements in the service if we cannot
even give you folks the basic necessary tools. That is just the way it is. Thanks, Chair.
That is all I will say.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any further questions? We are on Patrol. No
more questions? We will move on to the Asset Forfeiture. Any questions for Asset
Forfeiture? Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: I am looking your graph on page 11 of your
budget presentation, and it is the huge red line for "operations" showing that this year
compared to previous years, we are spending most of the forfeiture moneys that we are
spending on operations. I am just a little concerned because we are using non-recurring
money for recurring costs and you have explained, Assistant Chief, that it is a deliberate
plan to minimize the cost for the next two years, and then cover it with General Fund
moneys, right?
Mr. Contrades: Yes. This Fiscal Year 2016, the grant would pay
$600,000 and the Forfeiture Funds would cover the $91,357 to take care of this fiscal year.
Fiscal Year 2017, the grant pays $150,000 and County funds would be $614,847. The after
that, the County would pick up rest of the money.
Councilmember Yukimura: Which is a pretty big hit in the 2017.
Mr. Contrades: 2018.
Councilmember Yukimura: 2018. Okay. I do not know what your timetable
is for the new beat and also collective bargaining. I do not know what the projected bill will
be.
Mr. Contrades: Yes. We are committed to the grant and I do not
think we can push it back any further. We could ask for an extension, but we are in a
position right now to hire those 6 COPS grant officers.
April 7, 2015
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Councilmember Yukimura: Yes.
Mr. Contrades: We are striving to do that hopefully by
September or October.
Councilmember Yukimura: I am not asking you to not go ahead with the
grant. I am just trying to project our needs in three years so that we can somehow prepare
for that. I have been lobbying very hard for the excise tax for the transportation, but that
will free up $3,000,000 or $4,000,000 in General Fund knowing that we have all of these
needs that we need to address. But I just wanted to point that out because unless we have
a plan, it is sort of dangerous to do this non-recurring revenue. But I hear your plan and I
presume our Finance Department is trying to develop a long range 3 year plan for how we.
are going to juggle all of these needs. Thank you.
Committee Chair Chock: Councilmember Chock.
Councilmember Chock: Thank you, Chair. I just had a question on the
$50,000 in training. You might have talked about it. Can you share what you are covering
on that?
Mr. Contrades: We plan ahead for certain things that require
training. As an example, when our self-defense instructors need to be re-certified, we kind
of know when that is so we can plan ahead for that. Same thing with our armors and our
firearms instructors. We can more or less plan ahead to put it in budget for their training.
Training opportunities come up throughout the year though, and if we are not budgeted for
it, it is difficult trying to get approvals and get acceptance for that or get funding for it
essentially. We need to move thing around in order to prioritize our training. Utilizing the
forfeiture funds will give us that ability to use moneys there, not touch the County coffers,
and give us the ability to participate in that training that we feel is necessary. There are a
lot of opportunities throughout the year that we cannot anticipate and we cannot budget
for.
Councilmember Chock: We have not had it in previous years. We expect
$50,000 will be a line item moving forward in future budgets?
Mr. Contrades: Yes. I mean, that is something that we would
like to see, yes.
Councilmember Chock: Okay.
Mr. Contrades: Again, it depends upon the availability of the
funds as well. It is not reoccurring.
Councilmember Chock: Right.
Mr. Contrades: We do various cases, but what comes out of that
is not a guarantee. So forfeiture funds is not a steady stream.
April 7, 2015
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Councilmember Chock: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Kuali`i.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Can you describe a little further what the line
item "Small Equipment $168,000" would cover? "Other Small Equipment $248,000 total,"
but the "Small Equipment" is the detailed $167,963.
Mr. Contrades: Those are funds that we are setting aside for the
body cameras.
Councilmember Kuali`i: What is the line above that says "Body Camera
Equipment Match?" There is a grant?
Mr. Contrades: That is in the hopes that the legislature is able to
pass the Bill that would provide funds to the various County Police Departments in order to
start a body camera program.
Councilmember Kuali`i: So if not, then we still have funds available?
Mr. Contrades: Yes.
Councilmember Kuali`i: That is going to be for how many?
Mr. Contrades: I believe 105 if I am not mistaken.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Okay. Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: So that is to me, a perfect use of your Asset
Forfeiture Fund, a pilot project and a new innovation. That is great, and a match for bigger
moneys it will leverage. I know when we had the discussion last on body cameras, I think
you brought in one of the experts, a woman.
Mr. Contrades: Stacey.
Councilmember Yukimura: Yes, Stacey.
Mr. Contrades: Stacey Perreira.
Councilmember Yukimura: Yes. She mentioned there were a lot of issues
that had to be worked out. Is that happening in terms of body cameras?
Mr. Contrades: We believe we have worked out a majority of the
issues. We had an original policy that we met with SHOPO to do the pilot project itself and
April 7, 2015
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based on the data that we have collected and the continued research that we have done, we
will be altering that policy. We are also looking at what the national standards are and
then we will be go back to SHOPO to discuss the changes in that policy.
Councilmember Yukimura: Is this happening statewide given this statewide
grant possibility or are you doing it mainly between KPD and SHOPO?
Mr. Contrades: KPD is, I guess, leading the way in a sense with
the body cameras. The other islands of course are looking at it. It is a hot topic at this
point in law enforcement. I think they are kind of waiting to see how things go with us and
kind of let us work the bugs out first per se.
Councilmember Yukimura: Good for you that you are pioneering this. It is
not an easy role, but that is what leadership is about. Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any further questions for the Criminal Asset
Forfeiture? Councilmember Hooser.
Councilmember Hooser: I had a question, not about Criminal Asset. Staff
was kind enough to get me a copy of the annual reports for Maui and Hawaii County. Does
the Kauai County do an annual report?
Mr. Contrades: Yes. I was reminded our statistics are actually
in our annual report as well as on our website, the crime statistics.
Councilmember Hooser: Good because they have everything, rates per
thousand, murder rate, violent crime rate, juvenile rate, robbery rate, and all of that. So,
we have similar information?
Mr. Contrades: Yes.
Councilmember Hooser: Okay.
Mr. Contrades: I was reminded that we do have that annual
report.
Councilmember Hooser: Okay. Great. We will get that.
Councilmember Yukimura: I have it.
Councilmember Hooser: Okay. Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Less homework for you folks.
Mr. Contrades: Yes.
April 7, 2015
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Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any other questions before we end the day?
Again, I just want to thank you for folks coming out. You folks had a great presentation.
We appreciate all of the cost-cutting you have been doing. When I mentioned salaries are
92% of your budget, it shows that it is all manpower. I mean, there is really no more
cutting and from what we hear, we are already short staffed. I appreciate all that you have
done as far as trying to keep the budget tight. I think as Council Chair Rapozo said, we
have got to keep our police officers safe, too. If our crime rate is going up and we have you
folks running all over the place, we cannot have you short-staffed because I know you guys
are put in difficult situations. I appreciate everything that you do and thanks for coming
and spending the day with us. With that, I would like to recess the Departmental Budget
Reviews. We will reconvene 9:00 a.m. on Thursday where we will have a discussion on
revenues, charges, and fees.
There being no objections, the Committee recessed at 3:35 p.m.