City Should Contract for Police Services
Dear Editor,
I would like to say how proud I am of Morgan Hill police officers and the fine job they are doing with their current staffing. New Morgan Hill Mayor Steve Tate addressed the police department in his State of the City speech where he mentioned that the Morgan Hill Police Department is “already stretched thinner than most departments in the Bay Area.” I read every week about the problem with gangs and the problems caused by drugs in our city. The budget issues are always in the news with projected shortfalls for several years to come and no new money for much needed officers.
Mayor Tate seems to acknowledge we cannot continue demanding more of the police department without increasing their size (with what budget).
Have we looked into contracting out our police services? I believe Morgan Hill fire is already covered via county fire and has saved the city a sizable amount of money.
According to the fiscal year 2006-07 the MHPD budget was $9 million with a 2005 population of 36,423. It works out to an average cost per citizen of $252 and uses nearly 40 percent of our city’s budget.
I have several friends who live in Cupertino and their police services are provided by the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office. Their city is quite larger than ours (by about 18,000) but their police budget is lower than ours. Cupertino’s Mayor spoke highly of the Sheriff’s Office and their level of service in his State of the City speech.
According to fiscal year 2006-07 Cupertino’s police budget was $7 million with a 2005 population of 53,452.
I contacted the Sheriff’s Office regarding Cupertino and discovered their police budget provides:
- Day shift: Five patrol deputies, five traffic units, two SRO’s and one sergeant.
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Swing shift: Five patrol deputies, two late swing cars and one sergeant.
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Midnight shift: Three patrol deputies and one sergeant.
Would it make sense to save the city several million dollars AND increase the number of officers on the street? Over the past several months I have read articles in the Morgan Hill Times outlining problems associated with MHPD staffing (The fact Morgan Hill has one of the lowest officer to citizen ratios in the county).
Yvonne Davis, Morgan Hill
Longer School Year if Classified Employees Strike
Dear Editor,
I hope the boys and girls in our community get to read this letter. The children may be hearing the word “strike” being used among us and I want to explain what that would mean to them.
On Feb. 28, the bus drivers, aides, library clerks, secretaries, food service workers, health clerks and custodians voted to authorize a strike. A strike would mean these workers would not be at school to do their jobs at school.
No one wants a strike, but the bosses at the Morgan Hill Unified School District office are not respecting us. They are unwilling to listen or move one inch toward a fair agreement.
The strike is not mean to hurt kids. We want you to understand that. If a strike is called, t will mean that the service workers will not be at school. There would be no bus service, no food for brunch and lunch, no one to run the front office and no one to clean the school this could mean that the school would close for a day or days. But before you get excited about no school, I must tell you that a day we miss would mean we would go to school longer in June.
Jane Donnelly, Morgan Hill
Instructional aide at P.A. Walsh Elementary School
