Hello Mayor and council members. Finally seeing some sunshine here and there but it seems we just can’t kick the winter weather quite yet. Hopefully all of you are enjoying the few days of sun we are getting.
The police department continues to recruit for open positions. Offers were made to get us to full staff and then one of the candidates pulled out and took a job with another local agency. At this time, we have finalized one of the three open positions and have a start date for that candidate. I will be coming to council soon for the swearing in of that officer. We have a second candidate that is close to completing the process and I’m awaiting results for the psychological exam that was completed by the candidate last week. Were hoping this comes back positive and we can complete the process for her in the next couple of weeks. This would leave one position open and we are setting up an interview process for several candidates soon. It will take a couple of months to fill this final position if we get a qualified person from the interview process.
As all of you are aware, we had our first rally of the year on March 20th and another the following week. The last two weekends have not seen any events but we are preparing for a busy summer. Honestly, I was hoping this type of activity would slow down this year but all indications point to it getting even more busy than we saw last summer. I obviously do not condone these events but it is a major strain on my officers and our budget as well. We are working with other local agencies to update our training as it relates to these events and will be completing that training before the end of April. This is something that we started near the end of last year to make sure we could be more prepared. This will allow us to use other agency personnel if needed in an emergency and assure we are all trained equally and are using the same tactics to keep everyone safe.
Lastly, I was excited to be a part of the homeless task force discussion at our last council meeting. There are many folks who are very passionate about this issue. This will require much more work for all of us but it is nice to see some outside the box thinking and the many folks who are willing to put forth the effort to make an impact on this ongoing homelessness issue we continue to deal with in our community.
That is all for now. Hope all of you have a great month. Chief Roberts