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$200K bid for PTC public safety falls short

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

A proposal to include $200,000 in Peachtree City’s upcoming budget as a contingency fund for public safety failed Thursday night.

Councilman Steve Rapson suggested the concept would be fruitful, in light of studies on both the fire, emergency medical service and police departments. Otherwise, if the city learns months down the road that more money is needed for public safety projects, a formal budget amendment would be necessary, Rapson said.

Councilman Murray Weed criticized the idea as creating “a slush fund” and said he’d rather do the budget amendment. Councilman Stuart Kourajian and Mayor Steve Brown agreed, as all three voted against Rapson’s measure.

Both the fire department, which includes emergency medical services, and the police department asked for additional personnel this year, but those jobs were cut from the budget proposed to council by City Manager Bernie McMullen.

Weed criticized the fact that improvements in public safety weren’t included in this year’s budget, but McMullen said that he simply didn’t have enough information in time to include such recommendations in the budget. He hopes to have a formal recommendation to council within two months.

“I don’t see this as any different from any other budget year,” Weed said. “Is six months not enough to get information to make our decisions?”

“I didn’t want to come forward with a recommendation to council that I didn’t feel comfortable with,” McMullen said.

Rutherford, who supported creating the contingency fund, said McMullen was correct in questioning the additions to the fire and police departments.

Rapson suggested the $200,000 could come out of the city’s reserve fund.

“There are critical concerns that have to be addressed,” Rapson said, arguing that any expenditure of the $200,000 would have to come back before council for approval anyway. Also, if the money wasn’t spent on public safety, it could roll over to the next year’s budget, he added.

Weed said the problem was due to the budget planning process, and he intends to find out where the breakdown occurred.

Bill Westbrook, a longtime city resident, asked when the city would budget enough extra police officers to patrol the city’s golf cart paths. Due to manpower issues, the police department conducts limited patrols of the paths during certain time periods, except for special investigations, officials have said.

Westbrook questioned how the police department would have the manpower to address violators of the proposed golf cart registration ordinance, which would require residents to re-register their carts every three or four years.

“If we see it, we’ll stop them,” replied Mayor Steve Brown.