Grapevine - Colleyville - Southlake | January 2023

TOP STORY

Colleyville police ocers building relationships

BUDGET FOCUSED ON EMPLOYEES The biggest chunks of Colleyville’s public safety budgets go toward personnel,

FIRE DEPARTMENT BUDGET: FY 2023

Colleyville’s Fire Department budget increased from $6.74 million in 2022 to $7.16 million in 2023. Transfers: $26,700

while the remaining funds cover supplies, contractual costs and the transferring of funds.

For Police Department Chief Michael C. Miller, there are three goals for the department in 2023: recruiting, retention and building relationships. Colleyville “Looking forward to 2023 brings excitement for us, as a department, to bring in new faces and ideas … as we con- tinue to improve our ocers’ quality of employment ... and continue building rela- tionships in our community through positive interac- tions,” Miller said. Sgt. Dara Nelson said the city’s ocers are encouraged to build relationships with residents. That comes in part from the hostage incident at the Congregation Beth Israel syn- agogue Jan. 15, 2022, which Nelson said set the tone for

the year for some department members. “[Our goal is] continuing the relationship building that we always have and continu- ing the high level of service that we’re known for,” she said. The department faced hir- ing and recruiting challenges in 2022. Nelson said recruit- ing has been done at local career fairs and at Texas and out-of-state universities. “We’re looking at every possibility that we have to recruit,” she said. Nelson said there are a lot of changes coming for the department, including lling open positions and adding six SROs. The funding for SROs comes from the Col- leyville Crime Control and Prevention District, which is

$7.16M total budget

Personnel: $6.52M Contractual: $449,300

Supplies: $161,000

SOURCE: CITY OF COLLEYVILLE COMMUNITY IMPACT

POLICE DEPARTMENT BUDGET: FY 2023

funded by $0.005 of city sales tax revenue. “Our City Council made it their top priority to increase school safety [by] getting an ocer in every single school,” Nelson said. The new SROs will bring the department’s total to nine, and ocers will be assigned to all schools within Colleyville’s city limits. “We’re still doing really good things and making the impact that we need to,” Nel- son said.

Colleyville’s Police Department is funded by the city and the Crime Control & Prevention District.

$8.38M total budget

General fund: $5.79M

Crime Control & Prevention District: $2.59M

Budget Breakdown

Personnel: $6.65M Contractual: $1.37M

Supplies: $84,300 Fixed assets: $278,700

New vehicles, recruitment planned for Grapevine’s re and police departments

GRAPEVINE BUYING VEHICLES

During a Sept. 20 Grapevine City Council meeting, Chief Financial Ocer Greg Jordan said the 2022-23 vehicle replacement program will remove end-of-life vehicles with comparable replacements.

FIRE DEPARTMENT

$5.6M will be spent on

Recruitment and retention are two goals for Grapevine’s public safety departments. Grapevine Fire Department Chief Darrell Brown said hir- ing and retaining employees was one of the department’s biggest challenges in 2022. Brown joined the department in 2014 and said since 2018, the department has had three to four job openings a year, which he called “unprece- dented.” Brown said there are several reasons for this, including diculty attract- ing applicants to the job and Grapevine not having its own training programs. “The stang for re departments across Amer- ica is more dicult than it ever has been,” Brown said. “We’re not immune to that

here in Grapevine.” As of early December, the re department had 92 peo- ple in operation with a min- imum of 26 staed on every day across the city’s ve re stations. Brown said the goal is to have 96 sta members with 32 on each shift. Police Chief Mike Ham- lin said the department is looking to “cultivate” a team committed to physical and mental health. This will help Grapevine’s residents, busi- nesses and visitors, he said. The Grapevine Police Depart- ment has 97 ocers. “As we look forward to 2023, I believe we will see even more focus on wellness and the impact on commu- nity safety,” Hamlin said. Another issue facing the

departments is acquiring new vehicles. Brown said get- ting vehicles in a timely man- ner has been dicult due to the supply chain issues auto- mobile manufacturers are facing. During a Dec. 6 meet- ing, Grapevine City Council issued about $6 million in certicates of obligation, or debt, to pay for city vehicles. As part of the debt program, the 2022-23 vehicle replace- ment program will replace vehicles at the end of their useful lives with comparable replacements. Grapevine Chief Financial Ocer Greg Jordan said the city needed to order vehicles as soon as possible because of the delayed delivery times. Previously, it would take

2 100-foot ladder trucks 1 pumper truck 2 ambulances 5 pickup trucks

SOURCE: CITY OF GRAPEVINE COMMUNITY IMPACT

about 10-11 months to receive new vehicles, but Brown said it takes about 24 months for ambulances and 28-30 months for ladder trucks. The police department will also receive seven new pur- suit and patrol vehicles as part of the program. “It’s our goal to continue to serve our community as best we can,” Brown said. “We exist to care for the families and visitors of this community.”

POLICE DEPARTMENT

$545,000 will be spent on

7 new vehicles

COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM