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Police chief urges council not to remove take-home cars, warns of staffing pressures
Summary
Chief Bass told the council he distributed an analysis and asked that take-home police cars not be removed, saying take-home cars aid emergency response and recruitment; council members discussed low starting wages and retention risks for police and fire staff.
Chief Bass told council members he had circulated a letter and supporting materials and asked them not to remove the department's take-home vehicles, describing the benefit as “one of the few benefits that we have.” He argued take-home cars speed emergency response and are a recruitment and retention tool: "I do ask that you all not take away our take home cars from us," he said in the meeting.
Council members replied with a longer discussion about compensation and staffing. A council speaker noted the city's starting hourly wage cited in the meeting ($12.16) is lower than neighboring jurisdictions; participants warned low wages create recruitment challenges. Speakers discussed options such as consolidation of stations or other cost savings, and emphasized the difficulty of competing when neighboring departments offer higher pay and benefits.
Council members said the recent service-fee increase was intended in part to support salaries and services. The transcript records repeated concern about maintaining adequate staffing levels for both police and fire amid limited budget flexibility.
Next steps: no formal policy change to the take-home-car arrangement was recorded in the transcript; the chief asked the council to consider the analysis he provided and to avoid removing take-home vehicles as a benefit during ongoing budget deliberations.
