By Terry Miller
What appeared to be a slam dunk for Sierra Madre’s request for Arcadia PD’s help was quashed Tuesday night when council turned down the request. “Why are you guys coming to us with this request? Why haven’t you gone to the Sheriff’s? They’re right down the hill…” Sierra Madre officials were visibly surprised by Arcadia City Council Member Chandler’s comment, knowing that they had already discussed the option with LASD and that the Dept. is now in Phase II of their proposal.
According to a press release sent out by Sierra Madre, “Staffing levels within the Sierra Madre Police Department (SMPD) have reached a level where there are insufficient personnel to provide safe and reliable police services 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” This in itself, of course, is extremely alarming for any city, but especially one that has been recently plagued with residential burglaries, yet ironically just named one of the safest cities in California by a survey company.
The decision Tuesday was perhaps not an easy one, particularly after a long detailed staff report indicated that the plan would be a win-win for everyone concerned.
According to that report, “Sierra Madre PD is actively recruiting new police officers, but has been unsuccessful at filling full-time positions. The Department has only been able to hire part-time LAPD officers and three dispatchers. As a result of continuous short staffing, Sierra Madre PD is pursuing temporary assistance from Arcadia PD to provide adequate patrol coverage for their city.”
Sierra Madre PD and Arcadia PD had jointly drafted a Memorandum of Understanding, which was to serve as the temporary “Agreement” for police services between the two agencies for the remaining part of Fiscal Year 2015-16 (approximately five months).
Elisa Cox, Sierra Madre Assistant City Manager said, “We’re disappointed with the council’s decision but respect their need for coverage in Arcadia. With the recent rash of burglaries, we’re not surprised that Arcadia cannot assist us now. We will continue to search for candidates in house to fill our 9 full-time vacancies in the dept.”
“Why are you coming to us with this request? Why haven’t you gone to the Sheriffs? They’re right down the hill.”
– Councilman Roger Chandler
The troubles at SMPD have been long and serious, including multiple lawsuits both externally, towards the department from citizens, and internally, from the department against the former chief of police, Marilyn Diaz. Additionally, the tiny city has little sales tax base, unlike neighboring cities such as Arcadia. It is a tough time indeed for the embattled little city. Assistant City Manager Elisa Cox told Sierra Madre Weekly Friday, Jan. 22, that the city is actively seeking new police recruits from the academy but freely admits, “other cities pay considerably more than SMPD, so this is key in the dilemma the city’s chief executives face.”
Cox also said the election and the Utility User Tax (UUT) will, of course, play a crucial role in deciding the fate of the police.
According to our friends over at Sierra Madre Tattler, the evaluation by Arcadia was clearly not a surprise. “As predicted a couple of times here on The Tattler, the City of Arcadia has no extra police to spare for patrolling the now defenseless late night streets of Sierra Madre. And because of that last night the Arcadia City Council unanimously voted down City Hall’s request for help with its policing problem.
“While City Manager Elaine Aguilar and Chief Larry Giannone were in the house with him, Mayor John Capoccia did all of the talking. Predictably he blamed the sunsetting of the UUT (which at one time he advocated) and resulting low pay for the loss of half of Sierra Madre’s cops. Which, at least to me, makes no sense. After all, the pay City Hall offers its police officers now is pretty much the same as it was when the UUT was at 10% and hadn’t been voted down yet,” John Crawford said.
And finally, the Tattler had this to offer: “Now that Arcadia has shot him down, John Capoccia no longer has any other real options left. It’s the Sheriffs or nothing. No matter how concerned he is about the dotty old dears that send him emails proclaiming their love for the Sierra Madre Police Department.” Sierra Madre Mayor John Capoccia told Sierra Madre Weekly, “The City Council commissioned a study group to examine the Sheriff’s proposal. The recommendation from the committee was to keep our Police. The response from the public was overwhelmingly in agreement with that recommendation.
The City Council in performing its due diligence, ordered the Phase II study from the Sheriff so that all the costs can be identified, and so that it could be presented to the council in the form of a contract proposal rather than an “estimate”. A decision to contract with the Sheriff should not be taken lightly. It is irreversible. Nevertheless, we need to know the true cost so that a robust public discussion can take place so that we can put the issue to bed once and for all. The decision to order the phase II study is not to be interpreted that the council’s intention is to contract with the Sheriff.
The UUT measure will play a key role. If it passes, it will stabilize the budget and buy us time to take a hard look at the future of our PD so that we can plan for the long term future and get out of the unproductive cycle of addressing this issue every few years.
Sierra Madre deserves better than to be forced into rash decisions because of a short-term budget problem.”
“Of course I’m disappointed that Arcadia was not able to help Sierra Madre, but it underscores the problem ALL municipalities are facing: How to stem the tide of burglaries caused by AB109 and Prop 47 which put many career burglars on the streets and made the penalties for getting caught inconsequential. It also highlights the need to properly fund our respective Police Departments so that they have the resources to combat the effects of the AB109/Prop 47 and keep the people they serve safe.”
– Sierra Madre Mayor, John Capoccia.
