Crestwood wins "meeting award!" Gee whiz I am thrilled , thanks "Your Honor!"
Please click on the header for a copy of the Sun Crest Call Editorial written by Mr. Burke Wasson. To say this is a dubious honor would not do us justice. I for one am thrilled that out of approximately 200 meeting per month in St. Louis County we were singled out for the award for the year!
We all owe "His Honor" a debt of gratitude for his unwavering leadership in the "Grinch" department all year long, but this award goes above and beyond even his call to duty! I would like to put him in for an award of the highest honor in recgonition of his ability to remain haughty, and nasty to his constituents no matter what their age, creed, gender, creed, or sexual preference may be!
May I humbly suggest we confer the "Order of the Napoleon complex," first class at the next Board of Alderman meeting!
Tom Ford
NO. 578
We all owe "His Honor" a debt of gratitude for his unwavering leadership in the "Grinch" department all year long, but this award goes above and beyond even his call to duty! I would like to put him in for an award of the highest honor in recgonition of his ability to remain haughty, and nasty to his constituents no matter what their age, creed, gender, creed, or sexual preference may be!
May I humbly suggest we confer the "Order of the Napoleon complex," first class at the next Board of Alderman meeting!
Tom Ford
NO. 578
posted by Crestwood Independent at 17:27
32 Comments:
Tom
I am a life long citizen of Crestwood and I am worried about what is going to happen to our police and fire departments. I feel we have an excellent police and fire department. Please don't bring in either the St. Louis County Police ar the Mehlville fire department. When you look at the firefighter that was arresed for murder and the other misfits that Mehlville has been dealing with. Our police and fire department looks very good.
What would you be willing to cut in order to keep?
Sappington House
Animal Control
Residential Code Inspection
I believe those areas can be cut. I'll check the budget and see what else I can find.
Will these cuts put the City in the black?
10:53 AM blogger: I am with you 100%! The last thing we need is for St. Louis County to take over anything!
Sure they have accreditation, they have dog's, they have helo's, and still they can't respond in less than 15 minutes!
You never ever want to turn over your community to people who have no vested interest in it, which is why we must keep our police, fire, para medics, and public works!
11:564 AM blogger: Glad you asked that! How's this for a laundry list of cuts that CAN and should be made.
1. Animal control
2. Sappington House
3. White cliff Pool.
4. Outsourced maintenance.
5. Salary adjustments to employees who have not yet earned their degree's.
I could go on but you understand.
Tom Ford
No, but what they will do is show the city is using fiscal restraint. Also the cuts will eliminate some long term costs (Sappington House). These cuts, while not putting the city in the black, will certainly help.
May I add the idea of cutting the number of our fire fighters or at least look into this concept in an open to the public meeting?
How many do we have now per fire truck, how many do we have per shift, how many shifts do we have? How does that compare with some of the Fired Districts and other City departments? With less action going on at the Mall, one of the reasons for our level of staffing in the past should have been reduced. Has anyone looked into that?
How about the sale of Crestwood Park? Too bad that wasn't looked into over two years ago when former Alderman Trueblood suggested it, as treal estate values have dropped so much now, it wouldn't produce much income.
Of course even bringing any of the ideas other than a tax increase at a Board meeting will show why his Honor won this years award from the Call
There are opportunities to reduce the city's expenses, but the majority of the board members have no interest in exploring them. The mayor has reinforced this position each time he responds to suggestions for cuts. According to the mayor's standards, if the cut is not enough to make up for the entire deficit, it is not worth making (as evidenced by his response to my inquiry about the Sappington House).
If the city's budget is being held to this standard, then why do the board and mayor support a revenue committee? Alderman Miguel already demonstrated that the city's major revenue streams are established, so that any ideas the revenue committee may have, while they may be beneficial, will not have that great of an impact.
The mayor and six board members have made it abundantly clear that they are not willing to take a closer look at expenses, and as a consequence are unnecessarily putting the city's finances at risk.
Martha Duchild
Tom,
You do so well until you try to defend the police department with inaccurate and misleading information.
St. Louis County “still they can't respond in less than 15 minutes!” that’s BS and you know it. Response time is manipulated from the rank and file up to the chief. It’s more luck of the draw where a unit is when they are dispatched. County officers will drive up and down Watson Rd just like Crestwood Officers do.
“You never ever want to turn over your community to people who have no vested interest in it”. This has been refuted over and over again. How many, one maybe two police personnel actually live in Crestwood. Heck , the Chief doesn’t even live here. The only vested interest anyone has is their paycheck.
Crestwood will not survive supporting the number of employees on the books today. Nickel and dime all you want. But personnel is where you save money.
I think Tom is very accurate on his persecption of both the police and fire department employees. Why have a city of you are not accountable for public safety and of course that takes employees to do the jobs of police officers and firefighters.
8:21 AM blogger: BS? I really don't think so, and here's why. County officers do not know the streets like our guys do. They will take as long as 15 to 20 minutes to respond (and you know it, or you should!)
I see our officers in the neighborhoods all the time. I really don't want Watson Road patrolled as much as I do the neighborhoods.
It's simple, with County the response time WILL go up, and crime WILL increase if for no other reason, they will be on Watson Road, or helping one of their own in (pick a town!)
I have seen it happen in North County, and believe me, it WILL happen here if we let it.
Vested interest? Why yes, our people have but one place to work (Crestwood,) the County officer could care less because he/she knows they can move to another local and still be with County.
Tom Ford
Alderman Robby has filled his papers to run again for his seat n April 2009!
5:18 Gee that's great news...not!
Any of the other aldermen take out papers and sign up?
Alderman Nieder has filed a petition to place his name on the ballot for Ward Four.
Mimi Duncan has filed a petition to place her name on the ballot for Ward One.
County will dedicate specific officers to patrol Crestwood, just like our police department.
It's not hard to learn the streets in Crestwood and will take each officer propbably 2 weeks, the same as it does for the constant new hires that are on the Crestwood PD.
The problem with new people running for alderman is no one wants to work or be around the mayor.
The Mayor does not run the City, the BOA does, per the Charter.
9:15 PM blogger: Before I voted to go to County, I would seek a merger with ?
County will fleece us pure and simple! I were going to contract out Police, Fire, and Public works, why have a Crestwood at all? We DO NOT NEED to contract out anything, we MUST downsize by attrition, or whatever until the crisis ends!
Ask some of the people who live in UN-incorporated areas what their taxes are, look it up, and for goodness sake come to your senses here!
Tom Ford
Tom, The short answer is that you are wrong,,,period!
2:11 PM blogger: Have you actually investigated this, or are you just saying it for the sake if reading your own words in print?
What part of my post upsets you you most? Do you want higher taxes, do you really want County Police (and if so why,) do you want a County snow plow?
Notice I did not say Fire Department. We live in a fire district that is Crestwood's alone, and there is no County Fire. So do you want to spend over $1.00 per hundred like Sunset Hills, or do you want Mehlville where they don't have a paramedic on every truck, and the squabbling is ridiculous?
By the way, if we must cut, I say cut hours at White Cliff until things get better. Have you seen the "lifeguard contract" for 2009? Would you believe we will be shelling out $219,000.00 for lifeguards?
You tell us what you want.
Tom Ford
Let us never forget that just about a year ago our Mayor told us we didn't need a tax increase because there were other cuts that could be made.
A year has gone by and our Mayor has not said anything different. Of course, as 1/3 of the Ways and Means committee he has not pushed for any cuts but that's because he was busy.
The PD is constantly losing experienced officers that were hired when Crestwood was a favorable place to be employed. Now its not and the applicant pool has shrank. Look at the force and see whats happening. The good ole boys won and look what a mess they've made!
10:20 PM blogger: Right you are! Why? Well I believe it's due to the lack of opportunity for promotion (unless you support?)
Crestwood has become a great retirement town for police officers who want (and need to) move into a less stress filled environment.
That's the "pool" of qualified officers we should be looking at, not the "newbies" right out of the academy.
Believe me there is a vast quantity of officers from north County Municipalities who would be thrilled to have a job here, and would stay here!
Don't give up hope quite yet, as we have the potential man / woman power needed, were just fishing for it on the wrong side of the dam.
Tom Ford
Tom,
That's a great idea! Then when you call the police you will get, if they can get their fat ass out of the car, an old, burnt out, bitter cop who could care less about you or the city. My God, that was the whole reason for education and fitness requirements that started in the 80's; to weed out that bunch. But going backwards is the PLAN for Crestwood, isn't it?
Did you know that there are more County officers living in Creswood than Crestwood officers!!!!
8:19 AM blogger: Clearly you know not of what you speak! I know several of "old" People you speak of who do not, and will not ever fit the mold you seem to think is the norm!
As for the more County officers living in Crestwood remark, well so what? Do you think all departments should be like St. Louis City where YOU MUST live in the City?
I think an officer deserves to get the most they can in housing, be it in Crestwood, or where ever, as long as they report on time, and do their job (and they do it very well, thank you!)
Crestwood going backwards? Well, folks like you who want County, and another fire department are the ones that will make it go backwards, not the rest of us, and that's A FACT!
Tom Ford
Sorry Tom, but the 8:19 blogger has a point. And the problem is we already are getting the cops that want an "on-duty retirement". Most departments want to get rid of that type of cop! But as the 8:19 blogger said, not Crestwood, going backwards is the PLAN. 10+years of mismanagement and still counting. How much longer?
11:16 AM blogger: How long? Well we now have a few new faces that have taken out papers for the Alderman race in April, and by May we can have the change we need!
Now the question is, how will we vote, not how long! We will have the good people to force change on City Hall if we get out and vote for them, so?
As far as the Police officers are concerned, there is still a SELECTION PROCESS, so why would we settle for less than our standards?
Tom Ford
This is Crestwood, Standards are low, over acheiving is discouraged!
Okay, how many police do we need? How many do we have? How many hang around the office? How many cars on the street at all times? What is our crime rate? What is the chance that we have or don't have in this city enough incentive and possibility to become great? How many police in this city are stressed by city crime, the daily possibility of being shot, car jacking, robberies and the many kinds of crime that affect city police?
If our stats don't lead to advanced positions and salaries and the fact that our checkbook is thin right now is not something that a dedicated policeman would understand, then perhaps we are losing the faint of heart. It would seem they are taking their morale or lack thereof with them when they leave, for their job descriptions could surely change as they move on and their morale could be compromised again.
Is it the community, the Chief, the BOA, the residents, the crime -what, what is it? What does it take to make the average cop happy?
I believe the BOA bases its actions on the reports made by the Chief of Police that are given to them through the City Administrator. That and any info they get from the Board member who sits on the Police Board as a non voting member is all they have to act on. This how I understand the questions poster 9:02 asks in their first paragraph of their posting.
The Fire Dept has the same process with the added factor of their Union connection.
In order for a BOA member to get outside the box information, they would have to do research on other Police Depts staffing.
With the Fire Dept staffing levels, I do recall former Alderman Madoxx wanted to reduce the number of fire fighter per truck by one at one time. Do not know how he came to that number or if his views could be now be put into place.
tim
trueblood
9:02 AM blogger: "What does it take to make a cop happy?"
Well for openers, how about the respect and admiration of the citizens they work for.
Most officers I have met, and worked with have only asked that they feel wanted and needed by those they are sworn to serve and protect.
How much crime do we have? Well very little, and that my friend is a great measure of just how effective our troops really are. Danger, there is always danger from the second you put on the uniform, but they know that going into the job.
A police department, or fire department staff's for the "what if," much like Laclede and Amren do, they have to because if it were all to fall apart at once (terrorist attack) they will need all they have and then some.
Tom Ford
The standard and beginning point to determine staffing for police is to use data reports from the FBI (part 1 and 2 crimes). The most recent report indicates that there are about 2.3 full-time sworn law enforcement officers per 1,000 population nationwide. In cities under 10,000 population, the rate rose to 3.3. In cities of populations 25,000 to 99,999, the rate fell to 1.8. The nation’s largest cities maintained a rate of 2.6. These rates also vary with various regions of the country.
That is a starting point. One would need the department call data to determine the type of calls and the duration of time required for each type of call. Crestwood does not have high or violent crime statistics; hence a low multiple is appropriate. Time on calls for a municipality like Crestwood is not valid, as officers are under no constraints and would lack motivation to improve their time management.
Given Crestwood’s population of around 12,000 and using the national average of 2.3 (high for Crestwood because of the departments work load) the staffing should be around 27 officers.
Mr. Ford is incorrect when he states the city should staff for ‘what-if’. Mutual response statutes are in place to address those events. (UE brings in workers and equipment from other states).
It appears that Crestwood is slightly over staffed for their environment.
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