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I have served the City of Isanti as Mayor since 2007. We have accomplished great things together and I look forward to building on our success. United, we move forward to a better future. You may contact me at 763-442-8749 or e-mail me at george@georgewimmer.com.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Possible Cost Saving Trend

I was informed in a meeting yesterday that 6 Minnesota Cities this past year have eliminated their police departments and are being served by their County Sheriff Departments. This has been a cost saving measure and as the State continues to cut Local Government Aid many more cities will be follow this pattern. Police are the most expensive part of the City budget.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

is the city not paying enough taxes for 4 or 5 county officers right now anyway ? that sounds like that would be a good cost savings to the citizens of isanti, i say you should look into this.

Anonymous said...

That would be the biggest mistake ever!! The city has invested too much in it's fine police department and now you want to just give up? Don't make much sense to me. The contract price may come in a bit lower at first but after a few years, they can raise it up and then what? This is our police department and they do a great job! St. Francis recently looked into it and found out that it would actually cost more money to the taxpayers. Their are other cities in Minnesota that did not go with contracting with the sheriff's office due to cost and losing local control. I would seriously look at all the facts first. I would hate to see the city lose it's police department, local control and all the effort and money that was spent over the years to make the department what it is today. Thank you!

George said...

Most comunities look at the rising labor and benefit cost vs level of service. Our police department does a good job and I was the driving force behind the new station and the hiring of the last police officer.

The cost structure including wages and benefits is in the current City budget which is on the City Website.

Anonymous said...

I would not like to see the city get rid of it's police department. Like they say, you pay for what you get. I agree that our police department does a great job and it's nice to see them in town.

Dan Collison said...

Don't forget about our schools in town and the the time our officers spend with the school kids. The County Dep. are a group of good officers to, but they don't know people in our community like the Isanti Police Dept. does. They know people by their first name! I for one am against the idea of eliminating the dept.

George said...

I agree Dan... Just have to control the roughly $95,000 in wages and benefits per officer we are at in the current budget so it does not make it to expensive to main and grow our police department....