Board hears monthly reports from police, fire, parks, library, finance and water treatment

The La Verne Board of Mayor and Aldermen received routine monthly reports from city departments during its Feb. 4 meeting, covering policing, fire responses, parks and recreation programming, library attendance, municipal finances and the water treatment plant.

Police: Detective Durham and Director Patton delivered the department’s annual/statistical update, saying street proactivity increased in 2024 compared with 2023 and that arrests for adults, juveniles, drugs, DUIs and warrants rose with the department’s more proactive enforcement. Motor-vehicle thefts and vehicle burglaries declined. The presenters also said citizen complaints and internal affairs complaints declined, a trend officials attributed in part to officers’ body-worn cameras. The report noted an increase in speeding citations and said crashes and injury crashes were down from the previous year.

Fire: Deputy Chief Matthews told the board January was a “slight uptick” month for responses and ranked as among the higher months recently, with medical calls accounting for most of the increase. Matthews said overall activity “looks pretty much the same across the board as they usually do.”

Parks and recreation: David McGowan outlined maintenance workload (98 help-desk tickets; 562.5 man-hours reported) and upcoming community programs. The department will pilot a series of four free workshops at the multipurpose building (first: a build-a-bird-feeder class; later events include an auto-maintenance clinic in June, a painting class in August and a wreath-making class on Nov. 7). McGowan said the department is pursuing a partnership to bring youth soccer to La Verne and expects more details within a month. “We are actually going to branch out and start trying something new here,” McGowan said.

Library: Library Director Donna Bebau reported rising attendance and stronger program participation in January, with several upcoming events including live music (Hobo Road on Feb. 15) and a March “Bigfoot” presentation. She said family story times and the “Books and Babies” program were drawing larger audiences and encouraged patrons to submit e-book requests through the library’s OverDrive/Libby ordering process.

Finance: Finance staff member Danielle presented the December financial statements. The report listed a year-to-date general fund loss of about $3,800,000 but noted the city received a December sales-tax check for $1,500,000 on Dec. 31 that posted in January; Danielle said if that check had been reflected in December the reported loss would have been smaller. Cash balances summarized in the packet: total cash roughly $65,600,000; general fund about $30,000,000; water and sewer combined about $14,500,000. Danielle also reviewed year-to-date comparisons for water and sewer balances versus the prior year.

Water treatment: Danny Campbell reported a SCADA communications problem and a failed processor in a PLC that the vendor MR Systems addressed on site; Campbell said staff deployed a replacement processor and restored normal operation.

The departmental reports were received; no formal policy actions resulted from the presentations at this meeting.

Ending: Board members thanked staff for events and work across departments; the meeting then moved to old business and ordinance items.