By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
WKTV Managing Editor
joanne@wktv.org
On Thursday, the City of Wyoming hosted the first of three public meetings on its May 2 millage proposal that would be dedicated to fund police and fire.
About 35 residents and community and city leaders were at the meeting which took place at the KDL Wyoming branch. The city is seeking a millage rate increase of 1.5 mills for a period of five years. For a $200,000 residential home, which has a taxable value of $100,000, the additional cost would be about $150 annually.
If approved on May 2, the proposal would generate an additional $4 million in revenue each year. The revenue would help fund 14 police officers and 13 firefighters.
Mayor Kent VanderWood, Chief Kim Koster, and Interim City Manager John McCarter discussed the number of factors, such as the 2008 recession, lost in revenue sharing, and the decline of paid-on call volunteer firefighters that have impacted the funding of police and fire. Koster noted the city currently has 1.3 officers for every 1,000 city residents which is below the national average of 2.4. If the millage passed, the city would be at 1.6 officers per 1,000 residents. Koster said the police department has handled 3,583 cases, which have doubled in the past seven to eight years, and that fire has responded to 7,900 calls, which is about 645 calls per firefighter.
McCarter pointed out that the city has not had a millage rate increase since 2010 when the current dedicated millage for public safety was approved. The city’s current millage rate is 11.89 mills. That millage was renewed in 2014 and made permanent in 2018. The city did seek a request to be able to use some of its library funds for park improvements in 2017 and sought an income tax in 2022 for public safety and park improvements, which failed.
Residents asked a variety of questions about the millage, what it will fund and how the additional funding would impact the city. Some of those questions are summarized below with the responses from city officials.
The state of Michigan has a $9 billion surplus, so does it have more money available to fund more firefighters and police officers for the City of Wyoming?
Interim City Manager John McCarter: The City of Wyoming receives funding from property taxes and state shared funding. Within state shared funding, there are two types: constitutional, which is money that always comes to the city and the state cannot touch it; and statuary, which has been cut over the years. Governor Gretchen Whitmer in her budget has a 7% increase on that statuary just for public safety. The amount is about $55,000 with it costing about $130,000 for a fully funded police officer.
We have reached out to the state to see if there is any other money available that we are not aware of and we have been told there is not. We are grateful for what we are receiving and we appreciate that increase but we really can’t rely on the state to get us to that $4 million-level that we are needing.
What about grants?
Interim City Manager John McCarter: The city utilized the United States Department of Justice Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Hiring Program to hire six officers about a year and half ago. The trouble with grants is that they sunset. The COPS grant steps down. It is 75% the first year, 50% the second year, and then about 25% the third year, and then with that grant you not only have to cover all those costs but you have to retain all those officers one year after the funding is done. So the grant funding is temporary and it always has strings attached.
So we have sought grant funding and we continue to. We have sought out on the fireside as well. We haven’t been successful, but we are still trying.
To clarify on the (COPS) grant that is expiring: if this millage does not get passed, how many officers would the city be at risk losing?
Chief Kim Koster: It would be 10 officers. We have to maintain that staffing for at least two and half years and then that funding would be gone. The grant covers 50% the second year and about 25% the third year for those six officers and there is an additional four that the city is covering.
Interim John McCarter: In our general fund, we carry a fund balance for emergencies and we have a policy minimum, and we can go about two and half more years and support the staff that we have now, assuming that property values come back to earth and do not continue to climb the way they are. So we can support them that long but we have to seek other sources after that.
Mayor Kent VanderWood: When we decided at the council level to accept that grant to hire those additional officers, we knew it would come time that we would have to fund those within our budget and not the COPS grant. It is kind of like when you buy something on a credit card, you know the bill is going to come. So that is kind of what we are facing right now.
So it is 17 public safety officers that are not being funded by the current public safety millage. These are being paid out of our general fund surplus right now. So what this millage will allow us to do is continue to staff at that level plus add 10 more public safety officers.
Are you counting those ones you may no longer have after the grant funding in the millage proposal?
Chief Kim Koster: Yes, so there are 10 current police officers and we would add four through the proposed funding. (For a total of 14 police officers.) On the fireside, it would be 13, seven are already hired and we would hire six additional.
How many total police officers and firefighters does the City of Wyoming have?
Chief Kim Koster: We have 99 sworn police officers, which includes myself, and with the additional four that would make 103. On the fireside, for those in fire suppression, meaning these are firefighters who go out and fight fires and are not assigned to other duties, we have 33 and it would be 39 if we hire the additional six.
So a total of 10 additional public safety officers (and seven firefighters) who are not funded by the current public safety millage who would be part of the 27 officers who would be funded under the proposed millage.
Can you describe what the dedicated traffic enforcement would look like?
We have a crime analyst that was part of the COPS grant. She would be able to identify high intersections for traffic crasheswhere we could deploy some of our community service officers there to run red light violations or radar in other areas where we get complaints. A lot of neighbors complain about speeding traffic. So if we receive many of those complaints around an area, we would respond.
Some of the response times and rates that you mentioned, if this passes and in a year, if we want to see how this is doing, are those response times listed anywhere?
Earlier in the meeting, Koster stated that the response times are 5.16 minutes when the first vehicle arrives on the scene. According to the National Fire Protection Association, the standard is four minutes, which the department hopes to achieve with the additional fire staff funded by the proposed millage.
Chief Kim Koster: We do an annual report so you would get to see it in the annual report which usually comes out at the end of February or March. Note: The report is also available at the city’s website, under the “Public Safety – Police” tab.”
The next meetings are March 27 at 7 p.m. at the Gezon Fire Station, 2300 Gezon Pkwy. SW, and April 27 at 7 p.m. at the Wyoming Police Station, 2300 DeHoop Ave. SW. Koster said both events will be more meet-n-greets with opportunities for the public to talk with police officers and firefighters.
