Given the choice between repaying the U.S. Department of Justice $136,677 or hiring additional police officers, the Oxford Public Fire and EMS Commission last week voted unanimously to explore the latter option.
The DOJ sent Oxford officials an Oct. 9 letter – which they must respond to by Monday, Nov. 24 – offering them options as to how to resolve an outstanding matter involving $136,677 in Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant money paid to the former Oxford Emergency Safety Authority in the mid-to-late 1990s.
The federal grant was supposed to be used by the now-defunct joint township-village Oxford Police Department to hire new, additional officers. However, the Justice Department determined the money was instead used to replace local funding of existing officers, a practice known as “supplanting.”
To rectify the matter, Oxford officials were given three choices: 1) provide documentation proving the amount OPFEC owes should be lowered; 2) submit a proposal for repaying the full amount to the DOJ; 3) spend $136,677 on hiring additional police officers.
Officials ruled out the first option claiming it wouldn’t be cost effective given the potential reduction of what’s owed to the DOJ could be offset by OPFEC legal fees accrued in gathering the necessary documentation.
Left with the second and third options, OPFEC attorney Chris Lievois summarized things for officials – “The issue is it’s either put the money in OPFEC and give a check to the DOJ or put the money in OPFEC and pay for additional police force.”
“From a practical standpoint it certainly seems a lot better to get something for the $136,000 then to just write a check and get zero for it,” Lievois said.
Commission Chairman and township Supervisor Bill Dunn asked if the money could be spent on “police equipment” or “police dogs.”
“It would have to be police officers,” Lievois said because that’s what the COPS grants were intended for – hiring new, additional officers.
With regard to the option of hiring more officers, Lievois said the Justice Department is “saying this is what you should have done. If you do it, that would be okay.”
Commissioner and village President Steve Allen asked, “Are we legally able to do that (hire more police officers) since OPFEC no longer operates a police department?”
OPFEC stopped operating a police department in 2000, when the village formed its own police department and the township began contracting with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Department. For the last three years, the safety authority has only operated a joint fire department.
“It wouldn’t necessarily have to be that OPFEC is operating a police department,” Lievois explained. “It would just be OPFEC arranging or funding (police officers) for that amount ($136,677). The budget (for those officers) would have to float through OPFEC.”
The money to fund police officers to satisfy the COPS debt would have to be transferred from the township and village coffers to OPFEC because the safety authority is the legally responsible party in this matter and it levies no dedicated police millage.
“We have to pay OPFEC, so we can pay ourselves,” Dunn said seeking clarification.
“The money would have to float through OPFEC in order for them (the DOJ) to accept it,” Lievois said.
Commissioner and township Treasurer Joe Ferrari said the township’s share of this funding would be 77.17 percent, while the village’s would amount to 22.83 percent. Those percentages are based on what each community was contributing (based on State Equalized Values at the time) to the former joint police department when it dissolved in 2000.
Since then “that’s how we’ve always done police funding” in OPFEC, Ferrari said.
During the meeting, Ferrari pointed out that the township has already budgeted money to add a sheriff’s deputy to its police force in 2004. He said the money to be spent on that new deputy (a contract cost of $96,424, which includes salary, benefits, equipment, vehicle and dispatch costs) could be applied against the COPS debt through OPFEC.
The possibility was also suggested that the village could add a police officer to its department to help eliminate the COPS debt.
“As long as there are new funds being paid toward a new body,” Lievois said the DOJ should be satisfied.
“What they’re looking for is if OPFEC provided funds toward a police officer or police officers. That’s their concern,” the attorney said. “They’ve stated explicitly that adding a police officer would be an acceptable solution.”
Oxford Fire Captain Pete Schultz, who was in attendance at the meeting, suggested using the $136,677 to bring back the school liaison officer position that was eliminated due to school budget cuts. He reasoned that such a position would serve both the township and village.
In response, Allen said the attorneys could explore “all possibilities.”
However, if a school liaison was hired, Dunn said the question is would the village want to continue funding a school liaison officer after the COPS debt had been satisfied?
The former school liaison officer was jointly-funded by the township and school district. The village chose not to contribute because it was felt its police department could adequately serve the two elementary schools (Daniel Axford and Oxford Elementary) within the village boundaries.
Under the COPS grant regulations, “you can’t just hire (an officer) for a year and get rid of them,” Dunn noted.
Once the $136,677 was completely expended on the additional officers hired by the township and village, the communities would be obligated to continue employing them using local funds, according to the COPS grant regulations.
“You are strapped with that person (officer) well after this is paid off, and over and done with,” Allen said.
Lievois told officials they need to talk to the DOJ about “exactly what they want” and “exactly what we have” in order “to make sure those two ideas coincide and they’ll accept it.”
Allen agreed. “Before we ever move in to looking into divying up that $136,000 and some odd change and using it toward police, I would like to see it neat and tidy in a letter from the DOJ saying, ‘Yes, this is absolutely well within the guidelines and this is what you’re going to have to do after that money is expended.’ Not that I don’t want to get creative, but I don’t want to get creative again and get in trouble again,” the village president said.
A motion was made by Allen to direct OPFEC’s attorney to contact the DOJ, discuss the option of hiring more officers with them and “get a written synopsis in detail from them of just how best that could be executed.”
“What’s the bottom-line?,” Allen said at the end of his motion, which was unanimously approved by the commission.