Observations from the City Commission's Retreat

I had the opportunity to observe the two-day strategic planning retreat of the Lakeland City Commission and see first hand their discussions regarding critical issues that face our community. Some of the topics did not have a direct impact on the police department, but there were several issues which will effect our budget and operations in the next fiscal year.

Budget Shortfall

The impact of property tax reform under Amendment 1 and less-than-projected revenues from sales tax and communications taxes are expected to create a $4 million deficit in the General Fund in FY09. That has a direct bearing on our budget as public safety (police and fire) make up just over half of the entire $94 million General Fund. If you do the math quickly, that may become as much as a $1 to $1.5 million reduction to the police budget. We already made what we deemed to be significant budget reductions with the initial round of property tax reform, so this makes a looming second round of cuts all that less appealing.

Homeless Population

The City Commission engaged in some much needed serious dialogue about the problems facing our entire community when it comes to how we deal with the homeless. Chief Boatner participated in a panel discussion on a variety of quality of life issues, but homelessness was one of the primary concerns being addressed. The Chief gave a broad overview of the social problems related to the homeless.

The issue comes down to what our community wants to adopt as a public policy regarding how we treat the homeless -- with the critical point here being the importance to distinguish between our local residents who find themselves without a home versus the transients who come to Lakeland from all over the country to seek a free handout. The need to assist those who, due to unfortunate circumstances, find themselves on the streets is often times ignored because our compassionate assistance is being diverted to those who choose to be homeless but nonetheless scam the system for handouts. The overflow of transients (not our local homeless) affects the entire community when providers cannot meet the demand for services.

We need a community-wide discussion with all stakeholders to determine just how much assistance we will give the transients from all around the county who flock to town because the word on the streets is "Lakeland is the place to be." Let us attempt to focus our resources to assist our local homeless population and leave the other cities in Florida and the remaining 49 states to take care of their own homeless. There is only so much we can do.

Quality of Life

Lakeland enjoys a unique quality of life that encompasses a feel of a small town community within a large area with a growing popultion. We want to retain that small town quality of life.

Reported crime, fear of crime, traffic safety, and safe public spaces are priorities to our residents. While it rests with the police department to take the lead in respect to these problems, there are simply not enough police officers to go around and do it all. The community then becomes a critical partner in addressing the conditions which give rise to crime and help practice traffic safety on our roadways. Our challenge is to engage the community and share this responsibility -- something we like to call community policing.

Efficiency in Police Operations

It became painfully clear the probability of obtaining additional police officer positions was small entering the retreat and got a whole lot smaller once the fiscal forecast was given by Finance Director Greg Finch. This creates the need for every city department to ensure it is operating at maximum efficiency.

The Lakeland Police Department takes great pride in comparing our operations to national standards in an attempt to ensure we get the most from our resources. Benchmarking, reviewing management audits, and carefully watching our performance measures are things we are already doing to address efficiency concerns. The retreat made it painfully obvious that we will be called upon to do even more in this arena.

We look forward to these challenges and, as always, are open to your comments and concerns as well.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere