Dear Editor, I have read both articles regarding the Morgan Hill
Police Officer’s Association and the Morgan Hill Community Service
Officer’s Association proposing the city of Morgan Hill become
a
”
contract city
”
with the Santa Clara County Sheriff Department, a fine
department.
Look for alternatives to contracting MHPD with sheriff department
Dear Editor,
I have read both articles regarding the Morgan Hill Police Officer’s Association and the Morgan Hill Community Service Officer’s Association proposing the city of Morgan Hill become a “contract city” with the Santa Clara County Sheriff Department, a fine department.
These articles were read with great interest both as a member of the Morgan Hill community and a former Morgan Hill police officer.
The POA and CSOA are obviously attempting to maintain as many positions as they can and apparently are attempting to keep the citizens of Morgan Hill in mind as well.
If the county would agree to make Morgan Hill a contract city, the first thing they will do is look at the cost. The first thing that would happen is the chief of police and both commanders would not be included in a proposed contract. At best one commander may remain and that position would be reduced to a lieutenant or sergeant.
The records portion of the department would more than likely be transferred to the main records section of the Sheriff’s Department in San Jose. It is highly doubtful that any personnel working for Morgan Hill as a clerk would be absorbed into that portion of the contract.
Current police dispatching functions would more than likely be absorbed by the county.
True, the majority of the police officers would be absorbed but the sheriff’s department and county decision makers would determine the most effective number of officers to be kept within the city limits of Morgan Hill.
More than likely all current MHPD officer’s would remain until the end of the original contract expired.
Everyone must keep in mind that once this contract was signed we would have very little control over the enforcement level for this city and response time for assistance. This would not be an intentional act, but is a fact based on the responsibilities of the sheriff’s department for all unincorporated area residents. I would be willing to bet that at the end of the first contract we would see the contract extend to all of South Santa Clara County. Again, this would require longer response times for the citizen’s of Morgan Hill to receive law enforcement assistance.
Not only that, but the prior MHPD officers would possibly be moved from the Morgan Hill area and into various areas of the county as more senior deputy’s transferred to South County.
Cost of future contracts would increase, that is a given, and cannot be avoided. Level of service would decrease unless the people of Morgan Hill would be willing to increase taxes for more deputies in South County.
If the city of Morgan Hill decided later that they want their own department, the cost to re-establish would be three to five times the cost of their current annual costs.
There is no way the police department will be able to avoid losing positions and should explore how they can best minimize loses. All departments have found a way to work with the city and swallow that hard pill of cut positions. It is time for the police department to step up and protect their future with the city.
As a possible solution I would suggest any MHPD officer currently eligible for retirement do so immediately. Any officer that has less than two years before being eligible for retirement should be contacted by the association and explore a possible buy out to be negotiated.
Give up the negotiated pay raise(s) for the next contract or two.
Take a hard look at how work may be consolidated to cover positions that will be lost. Talk with Gilroy Police Department and see if there are any tasks that could be shared.
The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department is a fine agency, but do we really want to give up our police department? I do not.
There are ways to continue as a department. Look for them. Talk to the “old troops” and get their input, they have been there and worked through the problems.
Leonard Long, Morgan Hill
Attend a Tea Party, feel the spirit and exchange ideas
Dear Editor,
“While we wait for the wealthy to hire us, loan and invest their money into Main street …” These few words from Daniel Kenney’s letter of April 20 explain his inability to understand why “hard working middle class members” join and support the tea parties. The helplessness and dependency emanating from those words are alien to Tea Partiers, because those people are not “waiting” for manna from heaven, a handout from the government or crumbs from the wealthy. They are independent, self starters who look for jobs instead of waiting for one, and if there aren’t any they try to create them, and if they need help, they would rather get it from their family friends and neighbors than “the government.”
The only thing they want from the government is for it to stop controlling their lives – to go back to what the founders intended. They value freedom and personal responsibility more than security and believe that compassion is not something you delegate to the government or use other people’s money for. They don’t trust politicians, for good reasons, don’t trust big companies either, but have greater faith in the free market system and the rule of law.
His statement that the tea partiers “… rally to support tax cuts for the rich” is beyond ludicrous and spotlights his ignorance. I invite him to attend the next tea party and talk to the people there and ask them why they’re there, instead of watching the propaganda in the MSM. Trust me, it’ll be an eye opener. His only risk is that he may end up joining them.
Lastly, his list of government “programs” to help us out is nothing but short-term gimmicks that do little more than make it look like it’s solving the problem when more often than not it’s exacerbating it.
What Mark Twain had to say about government still rings true and captures the spirit of tea partiers. So Daniel, read the following carefully and you’ll finally understand what those “hard working middle class members of the Tea Parties” are rallying for.
“The mania for giving the Government power to meddle with the private affairs of cities or citizens is likely to cause endless trouble, through the rivalry of schools and creeds that are anxious to obtain official recognition, and there is great danger that our people will lose our independence of thought and action which is the cause of much of our greatness, and sink into the helplessness of the Frenchman or German who expects his government to feed him when hungry, clothe him when naked, to prescribe when his child may be born and when he may die, and, in the end, to regulate every act of humanity from the cradle to the tomb, including the manner in which he may seek future admission to paradise.”
In the spirit of understanding, I invite all the Daniels out there to crash the next tea party, talk to the people and feel the spirit of the movement, exchange your ideas with theirs … you may be pleasantly surprised … and you might even run into some of your neighbors.
Aldo Alesii, Morgan Hill
