By C.J. Carnacchio
Leader Editor

The U.S. Department of Justice issued yet another request for the Oxford Public Fire and EMS Commission (OPFEC) to repay supplanted federal COPS grant monies, this time in the amount of $136,677 to be paid in full by Feb. 6.
A Dec. 23, 2002 letter from Deputy General Counsel Charlotte Grzebien to OPFEC Attorney Steve Gross stated that based on the Justice Department’s analysis of the hours worked by locally-funded officers from the now-defunct Oxford Police Department between 1995 and 1999, the determination that $136,677 worth of supplanting occurred under the former Oxford Emergency Safety Authority (OESA) stands.
Supplanting is defined as replacing local funds that would have otherwise been spent on law enforcement with federally-funded COPS grants, which are supposed to used to increase the number of police officers patrolling local communities.
Based on a 1998 Justice Department audit report that revealed the former Oxford Police used COPS grant funds to pay current officers’ salaries and fringe benefits rather than hire new, additional officers, Oxford’s safety authority was originally asked to repay $548,460 in November 1999.
Negotiations between the Justice Department and OPFEC attorneys led that figure to be reduced to $428,982 in October 2001 and $177,920 in May 2002.
The figure was again lowered to $136,677 in a Sept. 6, 2002 letter from the Justice Department.
According to the Dec. 23, 2002 letter, OPFEC tried to “negate” this latest supplanting figure using an analysis of the hours worked by locally-funded police officers between 1995 and 1999, provided by the safety authority’s auditing firm, Conway MacKenzie and Dunleavy.
Based on the figures provided, the Justice Department determined the amount of locally-funded police officer hours “consistently decreased. . .from a high of 36,082 hours in 1995 to a low of 25,313 hours in 1999.”
“Using these figures, it appears that the OESA decreased the amount of locally-funded officers’ hours from the 1995 level by 1,405 hours in 1996; 2,814 hours in 1997; 5,283 hours in 1998; and 10,769 hours in 1999,” Grzebien wrote. “We therefore do not find Conway MacKenzie and Dunleavy’s argument persuasive.”
The chart enclosed with Grzebien’s letter showed that as the amount of locally-funded officer hours decreased, the amount of COPS grant funds expended on officers increased from $18,584 in 1995 to $297,303 in 1999.
The chart also showed that the amount of local funds expended on officers between 1995 and 1999 decreased from $585,764 to $549,940. Only once did the amount of local spending surpass the 1995 level and that was in 1997 when $597,812 in local funds was expended.
The Justice Department determined $28,225 worth of supplanting occurred in 1996; $60,580 in 1998; and $47,872 in 1999, for a total of $136,677.
“It appears that our analysis, which focuses solely on the amount of local funding expended on sworn officer service (as does the statutory nonsupplanting requirement), may in fact be more generous to OESA than a similar analysis would be if conducted solely based on the number of hours worked by locally-funded officers,” Grzebien wrote.
Chairman Steve Allen said the OPFEC board will discuss the Justice Department’s latest letter and request during a special closed session meeting immediately prior to the regular meeting Wednesday, Jan. 15.
“I anticipate we’ll take action then,” he said.
However, Allen said he’s “not really sure” what the board’s action will be. “I just want it cleaned up and gone,” he said. “It’s been hanging over our heads for three-and-a-half years.”
“I’m sure the DOJ would like to get it over with too,” Allen added. “This COPS program has been a real mess for them.”
Attorney Gross said his “gut reaction” is it’s “time to begin exploring a compromise settlement” whereby OPFEC repays the Justice Department a lesser amount agreed to by both parties.
Although the COPS debt has decreased $411,783 since this ordeal began, Gross said he no longer believes it can be negotiated “down to zero.”