| Friday, January 27, 2012

Gerald Galvin, 69, has been police chief of cities ranging in population from 5,000 to 500,000 during his 40-plus years in law enforcement, including stints as top cop in Toledo, Ohio and Albuquerque, N.M.

So what’s the seasoned law enforcement veteran doing making a relatively paltry $58,000 a year as police chief of the small, agriculture-dominated town of Mendota in Fresno County?

Doing a lot with very little, it turns out.

In these challenging economic times, some cities are considering disbanding their police departments to save money by contracting services with sheriff’s departments.

Galvin, however, is representative of the opposite trend: cities canceling their contracts with sheriff’s departments to get a tighter handle on crime by running their own police departments.

The challenge, of course, boils down to funding.

So far, says Galvin, the plan is working in Mendota, which after nearly two decades of contracting police services with the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department started, in September 2009, its own police department.

At least three other California cities recently have done the same thing: Avenal, in King’s County; Orange Cove, in Fresno County; and McFarland, in Kern County.

Galvin and his counterpart in Avenal – Police Chief Jack Amoroso — say things are going well with their fledgling, municipal-run police departments.

“For what we’re getting done,” Galvin says, “it’s working very well.”

Mendota, located about 30 miles west of Fresno, consistently ranks among the bottom 10 cities in the state in economic categories, with unemployment as high as 40 percent in the winter and a medium average household income of only $24,000. And Mendota’s crime rate is among the highest in Fresno County.

“We have everything every city has, except per capita more of it,” Galvin says of Mendota’s crime rate.

Concern about crime was one of the reasons Mendota city leaders voted to cancel its contract with the sheriff’s department – a contract that was costing the city $618,000 a year for 110 hours a week of deputy patrol hours.

Now, with an annual operational budget of $950,000, Mendota has nine full-time officers, a police chief, seven reserve officers and two civilian support staff. Grants, as well as revenue from traffic tickets, DUI arrests and other sources, brought in $337,000 the first year, offsetting operational costs, Galvin said.

Officer turnover may become an issue, since they make only $40,000 a year, Galvin says. So far, however, the city is getting much more bang for its buck, with the crime rate dropping 11 percent in 2010 and 12 percent this year, through August.

To help make the numbers work, Galvin decided to pay himself only $58,000 a year when he could command, for a city of Mendota’s size, about $85,000.

Police agencies, he says, need to be creative and cut costs when times are tough. To save money, for example, Mendota contracts dispatching services with the Firebaugh Police Department, for $61,000 a year. The sheriff’s department would have charged between $150,000 and $175,000, for the same service, he says.

And the Mendota Police Department rents space in an aging building for a relatively modest $3,000 per month.

Amoroso, meanwhile, was sworn in as Avenal’s police chief in April 2010 after spending more than two decades with the King’s County Sheriff’s Department, and nearly a decade with the Hanford Police Department.

He was lured back to service after three months of retirement – and the desire to quell concerns in the city of 9,200 about gangs and rising crime.

“It’s an opportunity for me to do something special for the community,” says Amoroso, 55, who lives in nearby Hanford.

The city is paying $2.1 million a year for its new police department, compared to the $1.75 million annually to contract with the county. But Avenal now has three more officers than it used to — for a total of 16 — in addition to two civilian employees and one reserve deputy.

The extra funds for the start-up of its own police department were from city reserve funds. In addition, the city spent $500,000 to remodel an unused hospital for its new police department – a decision expected to save money down the line.

Amoroso handpicked the assistant chief, Rusty Stivers, and feels very fortunate to have three sergeants who each have more than 20 years of experience. In addition, the department has beefed up patrols, and officers are taking a proactive approach to battling gangs and drugs.

“Residents are pleased with the attention they are getting as well as more rapid response,’’ Amoroso says. “We’re a very energetic force. This doesn’t feel like a start-up department.”