They think they left money on the table.

On May 6, 14% of the registered voters in Redding approved the 2014 – 2015 budget of $47.46M, which in theory represents a miniscule reduction from the previous 2012 – 2013 budget but that is not reality.  It’s not reality because at the same time this small minority of voters also approved additional capital spending of $1.455M to fix Joel Barlow High School Roof of which, Redding taxpayers will have to pay $787,000.  I will examine the meaning of only 14% participation latter.

Contained in this newly approved budget, is the police budget which is now over $2M and which also includes $180,000 for two SRO’s an expense, which was never justified or even emulated by any other near buy community including Newtown.  As we all know, that expense was shoved down our pockets by Doug Fuchs, Natalie Ketcham and the board of education which was use to pass this expense and which was approved by another microscopic 2% of the voting population in Redding.

However, it appears that Redding Police Academy and its management believes that they didn’t get enough to spend so they are, shamelessly and boldly, asking for and additional $1.3M to buy new “stuff”.  And what is that “stuff”?  Well, it’s a new police antenna and new radios.  This time the police management is not using on the parents to bamboozle us to fund their new spending as they did back in February of 2013 instead, the new supporting actors on the circus stage are the Redding volunteer fire departments and EMS.

The antenna on the top of Redding Police Academy is old.  It is also ugly but in a grotesque way it’s very fitting for this department, which is unjustifiably consuming a huge portion of our money and which continues to demand more money.  We can only hope that when it falls down, it will fall on some of the police junk the Redding Police Academy has been accumulating for years like the old SUVs, unmarked police vehicles, Humvee, ATVs, and the list goes on and on.  Toys, which we feed with fuel and for which we buy parts, pay maintenance and store to collect dust.  All of them paid for with our tax dollars.

The request for a new antenna can only be defined, for the lack of a better word, stupid and it is so on many levels.  Decorating the Police Academy with a new antenna 1500” away from a 180” tower, located at one of Redding’s Highway department, 28 Great Oak Lane, makes no sense.  A simple and far less expensive microwave link from the police building to the tower, would give the Police Academy and the emergency communication facility a better antenna with far better coverage.  But of course we are making some huge assumptions here.  First, we are assuming that the police management has some knowledge of radio communication technology or data links and second, we are assuming that Redding, under the leadership of Natalie Ketcham, had the foresight to negotiate the right to use the tower for its owned antenna.  What are the chances that both of these assumptions are correct?

And, since we are talking about the Redding Emergency Communication facility, why is it in control and management of the police?  Only a fraction of the calls are police related, the majority being fire of medical and, who needs a cop at a fire or when an ambulance is called to help someone?  The communication facility should be located in any one of the three Redding fire and EMS departments for they are called most often and they are most needed.  They should get the calls first and than, if needed, the cops should be informed and not the other way around.

But, the new antenna is not the only expense for which the police are asking to furthers increase our huge tax burden.  They also want new radios, and as usual, we don’t know why?  Has FCC relocated the emergency spectrum and is so, when is the deadline for the move?  Has FCC changed the modulation technology?  Has it reduced the channel separation and increased the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)?  Has FCC reduced the channel bandwidth?  Has FCC reduced the power and increased (SNR)?  Has FCC moved to spread-spectrum technology?  Are the current radios unsupported because parts are not available?  Has too much coffee or donate filling been dropped on the old radios?  I certainly don’t know and I would suspect that the police management doesn’t know either.  Actually, I would be shocked to learn that they understand any of these questions … except for that last one.

However, we do know that the Police Academy of Redding is overspending every year, anywhere between $500,000 and $800,000.  We know that we are paying for at least three more cops than we need to, because we still have on our payroll the cops that Doug Fuchs hired to service the Georgetown development which never happened and, we are paying for two SROs who were never justified and the expense for which should be paid by the parents and not be a burden on the entire town.

If the police department wants new toys and a new communication antenna, all of which must be carefully understood and justified than, it first must reduce its staff to what Redding needs and it can afford.

In the mean time Redding’s police management should extricate from their vast void between their cochleae the belief that, just because Redding approved a $47.56M budget by a small 14% of the registered voters, they left money on the table.  Because, even if that were the case, which it is not, it’s not their money to spend, it’s ours and they are just hired service providers.