CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake City Council this week will hold discussions on possibly establishing a new meeting schedule and offering hiring bonuses to address vacancies in the police department.
The council will meet in closed session beginning at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 12, to discuss labor negotiations and hold a performance evaluation of the city attorney before the public portion of the meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the council chamber at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.
At the start of the meeting, the council will meet Clearlake Animal Control’s adoptable dogs, make a presentation of appreciation to former Planning Commissioner Nathalie Antus for her service and hear a presentation by First 5 Lake County on a new report titled the “State of Our Children.”
On Thursday, the council will consider its annual meeting calendar and whether or not it should change its regular meetings from the second and fourth Thursdays in order to accommodate the schedule of City Attorney Ryan Jones.
In a report to the council, Administrative Services Director-City Clerk Melissa Swanson explained that the city has contracted with Jones & Mayer for city attorney services for several years, and Jones has acted as city attorney since the contract began in 2015.
She said Jones has recently been assigned to another city to appear at their council meetings on the same night as the Clearlake City Council. In his absence, deputy city attorneys have been attending the meetings.
“If your Council wishes to continue City Attorney Jones’ services, the dates of the meetings would need to be moved to a different night. If this is the direction of the Council, staff proposes holding Council meetings on the first and third Thursdays of the month. Due to the New Year holiday and the need to prepare at a staff level for the proposed changes, staff recommends beginning the changes in February 2020,” Swanson wrote.
Alternatively, Swanson said the council could continue with having deputy city attorneys attend the council meetings and Jones could assist staff and council in all other matters.
Also on Thursday, the council will consider approving a hiring bonus and referral incentive program for police officers in a proposed resolution.
In his report to the council, Police Chief Andrew White notes that while the department has made considerable progress in recruitment of police officers over the past 18 months – hiring six officers and promoting two others to supervisorial or management positions – he said it’s still a struggle to hire police officers, a problem seen across the nation.
“Despite significant efforts in terms of outreach and advertising, the overall candidate pool has drastically decreased,” White said, noting the department has two vacancies, one of which has been open for 18 months.
“The impact of just a single vacancy, let alone two, is significant in an agency with only 24.5 FTE [full-time equivalent] sworn positions. These two vacancies represent the minimum staffing of officers for an entire patrol shift,” White wrote.
In order to address vacancies and the negative impacts they have on the department, White is proposing hiring bonuses similar to those implemented by other agencies locally, across the state and elsewhere. The Lakeport Police Department offers a $6,000 bonus in the form of an academy reimbursement and the Lake county Sheriff’s Office offers a $5,000 hiring bonus.
“Statewide the bonuses go as high as $30,000 with payments made in various increments,” White said.
He is proposing establishing a $15,000 hiring bonus for police officers on a trial basis through June 30, 2020, with the approval of City Manager Alan Flora required.
He said lateral police officers would receive $10,000 payable during the first pay period following hiring and $5,000 payable at the first pay period following successful completion of the field training program. A lateral police officer would be any currently employed police officer with a Basic POST Certificate who is successfully hired by the Clearlake Police Department.
Academy graduate police officers would receive $5,000 payable at the first pay period following hiring and $10,000 payable at the first pay period following successful completion of the field
training program.
White also is asking the council to consider implementing a trial referral incentive – to run concurrent with the hiring bonus program – that would reward current employees.
“Experience has shown that current employees are amongst the best referral sources for qualified candidates, especially with difficult to recruit positions. Staff proposes a $1,500 referral incentive which would be paid half upon hiring of the referred candidate and half when the candidate completes probation. The bonus would not be payable to an employee involved in the hiring process or when assigned to a recruitment detail,” White wrote.
“While the effectiveness of the initiatives will be borne out with time, given the significant negative impacts of failing to act, staff believes it is prudent to try both programs,” he added.
White said the costs will be covered with salary savings in the current fiscal year budget.
On the meeting's consent agenda – items that are not considered controversial and are usually adopted on a single vote – are warrant registers; continuation of a local emergency issued on Oct. 9, 2017, and ratified by council action on Oct. 12, 2017; appointment of Sheryl Almon to the Traffic Safety Committee; consideration of adoption of Resolution 2019-051 approving the Local Hazard Mitigation Plan; the second reading and adoption of Ordinance No. 234-2019, approving a development agreement with Jason Jones and DM Compassion Center LLC for a cannabis microbusiness.
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Clearlake City Council to consider new meeting schedule, police officer hiring bonuses
- Elizabeth Larson
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