Draft budget calls for 2 layoffs at police department

The draft budget before the borough assembly includes eliminating two positions from Wrangell’s seven-member force of certified police officers.

The spending plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1, Borough Manager Mason Villarma said, is constrained by flat property tax revenues, a decline in sales tax receipts, a long list of deferred maintenance projects and declining reserve funds.

The layoffs, proposed for Sept. 30, would result in the department pulling back from 24-hour coverage, Villarma explained at a borough assembly budget work session June 5.

Over the past year, he said, the department has received only two calls between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m., advising the assembly to “look at the call log in terms of tax dollars.”

Villarma also tied the proposal for a smaller police force to the town’s shrinking population. The 1990 federal census counted about 2,500 people in Wrangell, but that number has been steadily dropping, with the latest state estimate at 2,039 residents last year.

“We’ve lost 600 people,” Assembly Member David Powell said. “You’ve got to scale down your departments.”

He added, “This is a hard time for our city.”

Reducing payroll by two full-time officers would save almost $160,000 for the nine months of the fiscal year if the layoffs occur Sept. 30, one quarter into the fiscal year. With the reduction, the department’s budget for the year would total just under $1.1 million, of which almost 80% is personnel costs.

“This is probably the hardest part of the budget for me,” Villarma told the assembly.

Assembly members can propose amendments to the budget, which will come before the body for discussion and adoption at the June 25 meeting. No one asked any significant questions about the layoffs at the June 5 work session.

The police department budget is the largest single expenditure in the proposed spending plan for the next fiscal year. With the cut in personnel, it’s about 15% of the borough’s overall general fund operating budget of $7.167 million.

The borough has hired a new police chief to replace Tom Radke, who retired in April, and the manager said he plans to discuss with the new chief the timing of the reduction and which two officers would be laid off.

Gene Meek, the finalist for the police chief job, was in town for a community open house on Friday, June 7. Villarma later announced he had hired Meek for the job.

Regardless of the staffing level for officers, the dispatch service will continue to operate 24 hours a day, ensuring that any emergency calls are answered and, if needed, an officer called out to respond, Villarma explained in an interview the day after the assembly meeting.