Discussions are taking place concerning the possibility of Alexandria and Campbell County merging their police departments.
This issue has now become a matter of public record.
In our original post we were questioning what seemed to be the hush-hush nature of discussions.
Thanks to Barbara Weber, councilmember and chair of Alexandria’s Safety Committee this issue has now reached the light of day.
We’re looking for more details as this matter develops.
What we do know is that this “merging” or “consolidation” if it does occur will forever change the City of Alexandria and the citizens of Alexandria must decide if they want this change.
The city needs to go slow on this matter resisting at every turn any attempt to speed up its decision to go forward.
Many, many details need to be worked on how this would benefit the city.
We’re looking for more details as this matter develops.
This above post was edited Thursday, July 21, 2011.
The following story by Chris Mayhew was published on Campbell County Connects Wednesday, July 20, 2011.
Alexandria, county considering police merger
By Chris Mayhew • cmayhew@nky.com • 8 :02 pm, Jul 20, 2011
ALEXANDRIA – It’s possible southern Campbell County will be served by one unified police force with an announcement of a potential merger of the Alexandria and the county police with the city in the lead.
Mike Ward, Alexandria’s chief of police, and Alexandria Mayor Bill Rachford discussed the idea of combining the two departments at a meeting of the City Council safety committee Wednesday, July 20.
Ward said he and the mayor met with Campbell County Judge-executive Steve Pendery a couple of weeks ago at the county’s request. The idea of the city taking over police services the county provides was raised.
“We discussed the possibility that the city might be interested in a merger of the county and city police departments,” Ward said.
Ward said he and the mayor felt they should inform the safety committee if the city was going to move forward with examining the idea.
“At this point I don’t know what in the heck I can tell you other than the question was raised and we’d like to look into it,” he said.
Ward said details of funding a joint budget and managing services provided by a merged department are not difficult duties for police administrators.
“The hard part is having two governments come to an agreement,” he said.
Barbara Weber, chairperson of the safety committee, said the 15-minute closed session at the start of the July 20 meeting was the first time the idea was ever mentioned in a meeting.
Prior to the closed session, Weber said any changes affecting the public should always be in an open meeting and the private meeting was going to be limited to a talk about police personnel.
“This closed session will be to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of individual officers,” she said.
Later, in open session, Weber said pension funding was something that was on her mind when it comes to any potential merger.
“That’s a ton of money, and it’s going to bankrupt a lot of cities,” she said of Kentucky’s pension system.
Ward said pensions are always at the top of the list of police lobbying groups when the Kentucky General Assembly meets.
“They know they’ve got to do something, and they’ve got the long session coming up next year,” he said.
And with any merger the county will have to pay a share of costs to run a combined department, Ward said.
“Depending on the agreement that you reach with Fiscal Court, the Fiscal Court has to pay their fair share as well,” he said.
Rachford said he sees four options for any consolidation discussions including:
- The city taking over the county police
- The county taking over the city police
- Creating a police authority with its own independent board
The option to do nothing is also on the table, Rachford said.
Rachford said it was too early for a public question-and-answer session in response to a request by Weber for a public forum on the merger issue. Rachford said the city was just beginning to gather information about the county’s pension costs and other financial costs of the county’s department.
Rachford said he was scheduled to meet again next week with Pendery. The city will go forward and see if the idea makes sense, Rachford said.
“At this point it is merely exploratory,” Rachford said. “No decisions have been made, but it’s something worth looking at.”
This story will be updated.
* * End of Campbell County Connects article * *
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