The Redding City Council voted Tuesday to accept a $145,000 COPS grant that will be used for mobile data devices and also to meet unfunded personnel costs for the Police Department. Northstate Public Radio Reporter Kelly Frost has the story.
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Chief Robert Paoletti told the Council that about $50,000 of the grant will be used for ongoing Integrated Public Safety needs. This allows officers to communicate with dispatchers via their laptop computers. The remainder of the money will be used for unfunded personnel needs. The grant, known as the Citizens Option For Public Safety or COPS is a yearly grant that the City has traditionally received in addition to Vehicle License Fees. However, this year as part of a State Budget Cutback, the City received only the COPS money. City Manger Kurt Starman explains.
“What the State did was essentially was divert Vehicle License Fee revenue from other City General Fund purposes and applied it toward here. Last year we would have gotten about $300,000 Vehicle License Fee revenues and this money. This year, the State funded this program but it has eliminated the other funding. So as you see we’re gonna lose about $330,000 in Vehicle License Fees and that was what the State Legislature and Governor Brown did to fund this program. So it’s kind of good news. We’re getting $145,000 it’s gonna be used for very good purposes, the bad news is on the flip side of the coin we’re losing $330,000 out of our general fund. That’s how the State chose to fund this program”
That didn’t sit well with Council Member Rick Bossetti who thought the State was being heavy handed towards the City.
“Just a statement about how the State is treating us. If we were their child we’d be sent to Child Protective Services”
On a separate agenda item the Council voted to allow the City of Anderson to join the Shascom emergency dispatch center which currently dispatches for the City of Redding Police and Fire Departments, and the Shasta County Sheriffs Department. The Anderson City Council has asked for permission to join Shascom as it consolidates it dispatch operations in an effort to cut costs. The item must also be approved by the Shasta County Board of Supervisors before Anderson can join the joint dispatch operation. For Northstate Public Radio News, I’m Kelly Frost in Redding.
