(PRESS RELEASE FROM MAMMOTH LAKES POLICE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION)
The Mammoth Lakes Police Officers Association (MLPOA) would like to thank the residents, business owners, visitors, and part-time residents of Mammoth Lakes who have been supportive of us for the past twenty-six years. We would also like to express our sincere thank you for your support over the past couple of weeks during these trying times.
The MLPOA is very concerned about the decisions of the Town Council. We are concerned for your safety and ours if the Town follows through with its plan to lay-off 7 of the 17 sworn officers and eliminate 2 of the 3 field supervisors. The Town Council’s plan also eliminates the Police Lieutenant position. This plan will result in a 46% reduction in sworn personnel from 17 to 10. It is apparent that the Town Council would like to have the Mammoth Lakes Police Department be responsible for more than half their annual payment on the lawsuit they lost at the rate of $2 million a year. Currently the budget for the MLPD is $4,820,415, which represents 27%of the general fund budget. The Town’s proposed cuts to MLPD would equal 56% of the annual payment this year, 58% next year and 64% the following year.
Some have concluded that Mammoth Lakes doesn’t need so many police officers, and that it’s a nice quiet town with little crime. Don’t be fooled by not knowing what you don’t know. The Mammoth Lakes Police Department handles hundreds of felony assaults, rapes, robberies, domestic violence, and burglaries. In 2011 alone, the department handled 7,422 incidents which required police action; of the 7,422 incidents, 3,154 of them were radio calls. Thanks to our dedicated, skilled, and competent police force we are able to solve many of these crimes. It is only due to current staffing levels that MLPD can handle these crimes and incidents in a timely manner in which perpetrators are arrested. Such will not be the case with the proposed lay-offs. Not only will the proposed reduction hamper the MLPD’s ability to quickly and competently solve crimes, other services the public has come to expect from the department will not be possible with a force of 10 officers. Those include but are not limited to:
- One of many recent examples involved a child molestation case. In this case, officers arrested the suspect as he was leaving the scene at the time of the event. If services were reduced at the time of this incident, there wouldn’t have been sufficient officers to respond in a timely manner and make the arrest.
- Officers will be very limited and may not be able to provide regular public service activities such as, helping tourists put on chains and/or pull people from a snow bank, jump starting cars, assist with lockouts, returning dogs to their owners, giving people rides home, and the other daily activities that are part of the reason we live in Mammoth Lakes.
- Proactive activity that reduces crime will be substantially impacted. These activities would include bar checks, DUI patrol, and an overall less visible police presence. We can anticipate an increase in drug activity, thefts, property crime, assaults, drunks, and juvenile crime.
With the proposed plan, there will no longer be a School Resource Officer (SRO), or an officer assigned to the narcotics task force. In recent years the SRO prevented a planned school shooting by a student in which the student was arrested and handgun was recovered along with other evidence of the pre-planned event. The drug problem in Mammoth Lakes is significant; however it is curtailed by the narcotics task force. Without narcotic enforcement, the drug problem will be out of control. A recent example was when a young person overdosed on heroin. The narcotics task force was able to work the case and ultimately arrest the individual who had supplied the victim with the drugs that killed him/her. This will lead to more thefts, more property crime, and more assaults. Not to mention the gang member drug dealers who will come from Reno, Fresno and Los Angeles area to set up shop in an un-policed Mammoth Lakes.
Some have concluded that officer’s are overpaid and over benefited. Professional, quality law enforcement service is not cheap. In comparison, there are many agencies that have lesser benefit packages and many with higher. The existing MLPOA contract was approved by the Town Council and has been changed several times through negotiations. The contracts are through mutual agreement. Nothing has been forced upon Council. What you don’t hear at the Council meeting is that during the last pre-bankruptcy mediation the MLPOA was asked to concede 24% in salary/benefits/personnel, while the other Town associations were asked to concede 10%. The MLPOA gave up 23% in salary/benefits/personnel, while the other creditors and associations gave up 10%. Because of the cuts given up by the MLPOA, the budget was approved by Council and the police department is operating within its approved budget. It should also be known that the MLPOA and other employee associations voluntarily negotiated with the Town two years ago to help the Town meet their budget. Again, the other employee groups were asked to concede 10% while the MLPOA was asked to concede 24% to avoid layoffs. This isn’t about the police department causing the Town to go broke. This is about a political need to layoff police officers.
The employee associations were told by the Town during pre-bankruptcy that they “just need one last cut”. We all gave the Town what they wanted, and here we are two months later and they want to cut nearly half the police force? What about the clause in the MLPOA contract signed by the Town that states that the Town will maintain a staffing level for the police department at 17 officers?
This proposed plan will jeopardize the safety of our residents, visitors, and officers. The Town definitely has a problem, but the money for the down payment and annual installments already exists within the Town’s budget outside of public safety and other “essential services.” One would have to ask themselves, why no cuts to other departments such as Housing, Tourism or Transportation? All the advertising in the world or free transportation will not sell an unsafe community, even if the skiing is great. Who wants to have their skis stolen, car burglarized or become the victim of an assault? As those problems grow, tourism will shrink.
Whatever the final decision of the Council is, the damage to the police department is already done and may be irreversible. Many officers are seeking employment with other law enforcement agencies and will likely be hired, while others are retiring early. These vested officers will be difficult to replace in a Town where public safety and officer safety are not a priority. Hundreds of thousands of invested dollars will be unnecessarily lost because of the Council’s political decision to continue to attack the MLPOA.
The problem is that the County has no one to spare and is down three deputies. Sheriff Scholl is responsible for policing 1,200 square miles. Help for Mammoth could be over an hour away. The deputies go off duty at midnight and the CHP go off duty at 10:00 P.M.… Read more »
Looks like the city will have to consider contracting with the county for services, because there is no way they can provide for the safety of visiters during the tourist season with numbers that low and in California, thats just asking for a court settlement for preventable damages aka negligence….
MLT before safety… get rid of John Urdi and his crew. They are not needed!
You know what they say – the fish stinks from the head.
The honorable thing to do is resign.
I don’t live in Mammoth Lakes but having been a visitor for decades, if I did live there, I would be the first one trying to recall those crooks. I bet they say that this is their last term. What a legacy to go out on, let the citizens make… Read more »
I hope we don’t start seeing excessive tickets for rolling stops, 5 mph over the speed limit, breathalyzer tests for anyone exiting a bar or restaurant …
It’s hard to believe that Mammoth survived all those years before incorporating, with no MLPD at all.
There were fewer people coming up here then. The people themselves were different. You can’t compare 1980 Mammoth with 2012 Mammoth.
If you can’t attract the wealthy ski crowd in these terrible economic times – all you will attract are the younger snowboarders who don’t spend a whole lot when here.
Rather than paying Ballas anything and the the town of Mammoth losing anything, let him build his proposed garbage out at the airport. And if he makes the 40 million on the deal he told the jury he would have made at least he will have earned it rightfully. Let… Read more »
I’m amazed you don’t get it yet.
The problem was never Ballas. The problem has alway been and still is the city council.
The good people of Mammoth need to throw them out, or vote them out, before anything will change.
Two of the councilmen were around since the beginning.
They are still around.
And now we have another one who is none other than … A Developer.
When are people going to wake up?
Once again Mark has nailed it. Ballas was entiltled to get back the money he invested into the airport thinking that he had a legally valid agreement with the town. When the town council violated the agreement and refused to pay Ballas what they legally, ethically and morally owed him,… Read more »
First off. Thank You to all public servants who do care and take helping one another very serious! We are living in historical times right now in more ways then one. I say that cause I strongly feel our justice system and political system needs to be reviewed in ways… Read more »
I suggest we take funds from the tourism and transit departments. Why do we need so much money going into tourism and marketing? People in CA know where Mammoth is. We dont need to keep spending so much money promoting this town. Charge for transit, or only run it on… Read more »
I agree charge for transit! The MMSA needs to step up to the plate and kick down, they use our name Mammoth for there advertising. They are the one’s who want the foreigners here anyways. We also need to really put one person that already works for the town on… Read more »
Greed and Fear thrive in the TOWN OF MAMMOTH LAKES…. I just paid $5.08 for a gallon of gas on main street today. Having 27 LEO’s or dozens of high-speed six-pack chairlifts may be a moot point. Our Town Fathers may have just put us ALL out of business. Have… Read more »
Let us talk Crime statistics. I will refer to the 2010 statistic supplied by the California Department of Justice, they were the last year statistic are supplied for. Mammoth Lakes had a total of 46 violent crimes for the year. 8 were rapes, 2 robberies, and 36 aggravated assaults (Domestic… Read more »
Why can’t the money be saved by across the board pay cuts for all employees instead of layoffs for any city department? For example everyone takes a 5% or 10% hit? I am sure the TC has considered this. Why is butchering the PD the best option? I would prefer… Read more »
Since the town has already rolled the ball to delete their police departmet we only really have two choices. Hire shady 2nd rate officers that cant be cops anywhere else to fill the void or contract our services out. The damage has already beeen done and the good officers will… Read more »
Todd, you are right on the mark. The town officials have totally destroyed their credibility with the officers by lying to them saying just 90 days ago if they signed the new contract, they would not come back and ask for more. If a police officer lies like that he… Read more »
If you don’t agree with more cuts to the MLPD, make yourself heard by either speaking at a Town Council meeting or forward your comments via e-mail to Town Clerk, Jamie Gray, at [email protected]. I did today. Here was my letter addressed to the Mammoth Lakes Town Council: “Mammoth Lakes… Read more »
Barbara, The overtime is unacceptable to pay for your citizen on patrol classes. The council members are probably aware of this and avoided going because of the drain on the tax payers. Thank you for the link, I will make sure I send a letter in support of disbanding the… Read more »
The bottom line is that the MLPOA has a SIGNED CONTRACT with the town that states the town will mantain minimun staffing of 17 officers. The town signed this contract only three months ago. The town, specifically the Town Council, is doing the same thing to the MLPOA that they… Read more »
During the Christmas –New Year week the town’s population will soar to over 40,000;there will be auto accidents, snowboard thefts, drunken fights outside bars, illegal drug deals, domestic quarrels etc. etc. How will a reduced police force respond to all calls during this period? Answer: very difficult! Many of these… Read more »
Exactly so! The most important component of a tourism based economy is public safety. I think of travel to certain foreign countries as a good counter example. People are warned not to visit certain countries — countries not too far away — because they are not safe there. Even certain… Read more »