| 10/15/2009 12:25:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | Council member calls for maintaining police and firefighter levels
Derrick Knutson
Review staff
In a roundabout discussion Sept. 28, Maplewood City Council member Erik Hjelle advocated for not cutting city police and fire levels this upcoming year. After about an hour of debate, his motion was approved as amended 5-0.
The discussion started out with some back and forth verbal jabs between council members, and maintained a heated tone until Hjelle's motion was voted on.
"I've been sitting here for four years, advocating more people, and more police officers and more firefighters," Hjelle said after presenting his motion.
Council member Kathy Juenemann followed Hjelle's assertion by making a quip about the council's actions and intentions during Hjelle's tenure.
"And the rest of us don't think we should have any [police or firefighters], so obviously without you we'd go up in flames," Juenemann said.
Hjelle added that there are currently two positions on the police department that are vacant, and that should be considered in his motion.
Juenemann then questioned Hjelle's intentions with his motion. She said the council already has two professionals, Police Chief Dave Thomalla and Fire Chief Steve Lukin, who tell the council what they need in terms of staffing and other necessities for their respective departments.
From there, the discussion delved into the city budget, with Hjelle saying that council member Will Rossbach made arbitrary cuts to the budget last year.
"There is not budget process here; it's a joke," Hjelle said. "It's been a joke ever since I've been sitting up here."
Hjelle added that he could instead view the PowerPoint budget presentations made by staff from the comfort of his own home and make decisions from there.
"I can stay home and be done with it," he said.
Council member John Nephew then chimed in and commented on Hjelle's motion.
"The reason I can't vote for this is not because I have any intent to see police or fire cut," Nephew said. "[It's because] this is the point where we're looking at different options and we're looking at different priorities."
Nephew explained that about half the city's budget is spent on police and fire, and if the council decides it does not want to raise taxes, that will likely have an impact on the city's police and fire services.
Council member Diana Longrie commented that the discussion they were having was more one about public policy and where the city's funds should be spent.
"It's a holistic way of looking at things, you can't just pick and choose," she said.
Making it a priority
Longrie commented that she though Hjelle's resolution should say that it's a "priority" that the city maintain its police officer positions and that it's a priority that the city add proposed paramedics or firefighters that were talked about in the budget.
Rossbach then proposed an amendment to Hjelle's motion, stating he wanted it to read that the city would make it a priority to not cut positions in any city departments.
After some more discussion, Hjelle said Rossbach's amendment was too vague and unworkable, but his was "not that hard of a concept to understand."
The council then voted 4-1 against Rossbach's amendment, with Nephew being the only council member to vote in favor.
Hjelle then prompted the council to get back to his original "concept of not cutting."
Nephew proposed that Hjelle make a slight change to his motion to have it adhere to the mayor's "priority" language.
"I would take that," Hjelle responded.
He added that the language was probably something the council could change "in five minutes anyway," if it chose to do so.
"Then fine, make it a priority," he said.
After the council approved his motion, Longrie commented that the council was "setting public policy."
"First time in four years," Rossbach responded.
Derrick Knutson can be reached at dknutson@lillienews.com or at (651) 748-7825.
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