Guest Blog - Police Chief Pete Hoell...
I felt, that as Chief of Police, I should probably chime in on this PD building project blog; I owe it to my staff and our citizens.
Just as a little background, I have been part of the Germantown Police Administration for approximately 14 years now. As Administrative Sergeant, Lieutenant and now as Chief, I have been involved in the budgetary process those 14 years in a variety of degrees. Obviously the last 4 years it has been my sole responsibility to present a budget to address the PD needs.
Also as background, I had hoped that the road improvement issue would not be connected to the PD building project. Everyday our citizens see the condition of the roads and what they feel is needed. Most people do not use the PD everyday, most if ever. I would venture to say there is a large portion of our population who has never been inside our two buildings. So I do understand that there may be some who do not understand the "need" for a PD building project. But, a budget is about money and taxes, so the fact that the two are equated was anticipated.
When I read Mr. Fletcher's comment on the PD building, that it would "nice", I think this statement is not an accurate term for what we are asking for. Granted, it may just be a matter of semantics or splitting hairs, but this project is by no means something that would be "nice".
I was looking back on my last 4 years of budget requests to confirm my original thoughts on the word "nice". The requests that the PD has made have all been "needs". I have never asked for anything that would be "nice to have". I see part of the role as Chief is to operate this department as efficiently and as effectively as possible. It is my duty to this community to be fiscally responsible and to watch every penny and stretch every dollar. Again, if I am belaboring this point of "nice", my apologies to Mr. Fletcher.
I put together a time line on the PD building project for the Public Safety Committee a couple of months ago at their request. The time line was supported by minutes of previous Board and Public Safety meetings. This building project started in 1995 with a village wide space needs study and discussion of the PD space needs. The last 7 years we have been dealing with conceptual designs. There are many issues as to why we are requesting a PD building project, too lengthy for this blog. However, I would certainly entertain any questions to this blog or directly to my e-mail: phoell@germantownpolice.org
Our current Public Safety Committee recently has made some difficult decisions, which has given me direction. Granted, I would have been pleased to see the conceptual design move forward that Zimmerman Design presented, but that is not the case. So now we are at plan "B" and we'll develop a plan that will eventually meet our "needs". I also do not want to speak on behalf of our Trustees, but most have expressed to me that they do understand our needs and do see the issues we are dealing with that do need attention. Therefore most do understand and have educated themselves to the PD building issues.
Security and efficiency are my most important objectives with this project. I owe it to my staff and to the citizens who visit and do business at the PD buildings not to give up and to continue to move forward to the point of where our needs are met.
I am also pleased and very thankful for the support of our citizens. Policing a community takes a community; your involvement, trust and support is very much appreciated.
