Crossing Guards, Stray Animals Will Cost Piedmont More

It’s going to cost the Piedmont Police Department almost twice as much to house stray animals in the Berkeley Animal Shelter in the next fiscal year. Blame it on increased costs for that facility's personnel and supplies.

The cost of employees' health insurance, gas and oil for departmental vehicles and some contract services with outside agencies are all expected to rise, helping to push up the department's spending by slightly more than 2 percent for fiscal year 2011-12, as compared with the current year. 

The city has had a contract with the Berkeley animal shelter for years and is charged based on what percentage of the facility Piedmont uses. On Jan. 11, the city signed a contract with Berkeley that will almost double the cost of the annual contract, from $19,150 this year to $38,150 for the next fiscal year.

That is by far the largest jump in the police department’s contract services, as documented in the proposed 2011-2012 city budget, which begins July 1.

The second major increase police contract services is the cost of the city’s crossing guard services, which are provided by the company All City Management Services. That cost is set to rise from $31,050 to $51,440. It’s due to a California Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Order that requires split shifts to be compensated with additional pay, known as a “split shift differential,” according to the budget documents.

The proposed budget also provides a crossing guard at Beach Elementary School for an additional $12,500, although this amount will be reimbursed by the Piedmont Unified School District. If the school closes for renovations, that amount will be reduced or eliminated, Police Capt. Scott Wyatt said.

Overall, the contract services are proposed at $158,250 for the 2011-2012 fiscal year. That’s an increase of $52,250 from the budget of 2010-2011.

“It’s a small item," Finance Director Mark Bichsel said of the contracts. “We have a $5 million [police department] budget. This is a very small percentage of it.”

And for the most part, there is no change in the department’s contract services. Contracts with no changes from previous year include jail contracts with Oakland Police and the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office ($10,000); 24-hour recorder and playback units in the dispatch center ($3,400); processing and collecting parking ticket fines and accompanying administrative reports ($4,200); and leasing and maintaining 800 mHz radios from Oakland ($16,500).

The total proposed departmental budget is $5.1 million, an increase of 2.14 percent over this year. More than half of the budget is devoted to salaries, estimated at $2.88 million in the next fiscal year, a decrease of .67 percent, according to the budget.

Health insurance will increase by 12.3 percent, while benefits, such as life and disability insurance, will dip 7.02 percent. Auto expenses will remain flat but oil and gasoline are expected to rise by 6.67 percent and information services will increase a little less than 4 percent.

“Our budget doesn’t move too much and we try to be good with our money,” Wyatt said. “Most of the time, if there’ s an increase it’s because it’s something that’s out of our control.”

The proposed city budget got its before the Piedmont City Council June 6. A second hearing is lated for June. 20.