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Lewiston council reviews police budget; drone insurance, staffing and opioid-funded crisis workers draw attention
Summary
City staff presented a proposed $386,687 increase to the police budget, citing higher fixed costs including drone liability coverage, salary steps and COLAs, and requests to use opioid-settlement funds for crisis workers. Councilors asked for more detail on insurance increases and staffing unfreeze procedures.
Director Roy presented the Lewiston Police Department portion of the draft fiscal-year budget, saying, "Tonight, we're gonna start with police, which is on page 47 to 50. The overall increase is 386,687." He broke the department into divisions and attributed most of the increase to personnel step increases and fixed costs.
Chief Dave St. Pierre and Director Roy described particulars in police administration, including an increase in fixed charges tied in part to liability coverage for the department's drone program. Director Roy said fixed charges rose "an increase in 17,876 and liability and drone coverage for police." Councillors asked for clarification on the size and scope of the drone insurance increase and what it covers. Chief St. Pierre explained the coverage is for drone liability — "if we have one of our pilots flying one of the drones, the drone hits a house, injures a person in flight. All of those things, any injury, property damage, that those are all covered" — and said the department uses the drone for searches and other operations.
Multiple councillors pressed for a detailed breakdown of the insurance line. Councillor Harmon asked whether the entire administration insurance line was for the drone; Director Roy replied it was part of the police liability and could be split out on request. Councillor Nagy requested that staff "reach out to MMA to just get an understanding of why the coverage had gone up so much." Director Roy said Lewiston participates in the Maine Municipal Association insurance pool and that the pool obtains coverage for multiple municipalities.
On staffing, Chief St. Pierre said the department is currently "8 people down" from its authorized strength and that some recent retirements contributed to the shortfall. He described active recruiting and called the department "78 currently right now" of an 86 target. Councilors asked whether frozen positions could be unfrozen midyear; Administrator O'Malley said the administration would return to council for authorization if the department wanted to unfreeze and fill positions during the year.
Patrol and CID budget details were presented: Criminal Investigations had an "overall increase of $215,738" primarily for personal services, and Patrol had a net decrease in the base budget offset by higher overtime and vehicle capital requests. Director Roy noted a capital request funded from fund balance for multiple patrol vehicles and equipment.
Councillors asked about use of opioid-settlement funds to cover two crisis worker positions originally requested in the police miscellaneous services line. Director Roy reported the opioid fund balance as $391,075.77 and said that applying $221,868 to cover crisis workers would leave approximately $169,207 in that fund.
The presentation closed with Director Roy offering to return with split-outs for insurance and other clarifications. The council did not take a final vote on police budget items during this session.
