City Adopts New Police & Fire Contracts
The city council today held a special session to adopt new contracts for police and fire. The existing contracts expired June 30, 2009, but ...
http://www.menifee247.com/2009/07/city-adopts-new-police-fire-contracts.htm
The city council today held a special session to adopt new contracts for police and fire.
The existing contracts expired June 30, 2009, but the city was able to continue on a one-month "memorandum of understanding" that extended the service to July 31, 2009.
The new police contract goes into effect immediately, costing the city nearly $8.7 million, for the 2009/2010 fiscal year.
The contract also include a provision whereby the city and the Riverside County Sheriff will meet in the first quarter of 2011 to discuss the possibility of moving Menifee's police headquarters from the Perris Substation to the Southwest Detention Center in Murrieta. Currently, Temecula's police department operates out of there, but there's an expectation they'll be moving close to the new city hall building.
The new fire contract runs through the same period of time, but at a cost of nearly $6.9 million.
Riverside County's fire services is provided by the California Department of Forestry.
Councilman Denver asked if the fire department will adopt the city's name and city seal on their trucks and uniforms, similar to the police department. City Manager Wentz replied that he's had discussions on that. However, a representative from the California Department of Forestry happened to be on hand, and said that their department has a policy against putting any city's name and insignia on their property or uniforms.
California Close to Seizing Property Taxes
After the contracts were adopted, the Mayor called for council member comments. No else spoke up, so the Mayor asked the City's financial consultant, Gary Thompson to provide a status on the State of California's attempt to seize local property taxes, as well as gas taxes.
Thompson said the State Legislature is trying hard to get the required the 2/3 majority vote to seize city property taxes, however if such an attempt passes, Menifee will not be affected because the city has no historical property tax data by which the State can determine how much to take.
However, nearby cities like Temecula, Murrieta, Perris, Hemet, could be hit really hard if the State takes all of their property taxes.
But Thompson thinks there's a good chance it won't happen, because the Governor is already against seizing such monies, and because Democrats are going to need several Republican votes to pass the measure, which is very unlikely.
The existing contracts expired June 30, 2009, but the city was able to continue on a one-month "memorandum of understanding" that extended the service to July 31, 2009.
The new police contract goes into effect immediately, costing the city nearly $8.7 million, for the 2009/2010 fiscal year.
The contract also include a provision whereby the city and the Riverside County Sheriff will meet in the first quarter of 2011 to discuss the possibility of moving Menifee's police headquarters from the Perris Substation to the Southwest Detention Center in Murrieta. Currently, Temecula's police department operates out of there, but there's an expectation they'll be moving close to the new city hall building.
The new fire contract runs through the same period of time, but at a cost of nearly $6.9 million.
Riverside County's fire services is provided by the California Department of Forestry.
Councilman Denver asked if the fire department will adopt the city's name and city seal on their trucks and uniforms, similar to the police department. City Manager Wentz replied that he's had discussions on that. However, a representative from the California Department of Forestry happened to be on hand, and said that their department has a policy against putting any city's name and insignia on their property or uniforms.
California Close to Seizing Property Taxes
After the contracts were adopted, the Mayor called for council member comments. No else spoke up, so the Mayor asked the City's financial consultant, Gary Thompson to provide a status on the State of California's attempt to seize local property taxes, as well as gas taxes.
Thompson said the State Legislature is trying hard to get the required the 2/3 majority vote to seize city property taxes, however if such an attempt passes, Menifee will not be affected because the city has no historical property tax data by which the State can determine how much to take.
However, nearby cities like Temecula, Murrieta, Perris, Hemet, could be hit really hard if the State takes all of their property taxes.
But Thompson thinks there's a good chance it won't happen, because the Governor is already against seizing such monies, and because Democrats are going to need several Republican votes to pass the measure, which is very unlikely.
The crooks in Sacramento are trying to pay for their historic overspending by taking city tax money to cover their expenses. Why is this irresponsibility allowed to continue??? Anyone who votes to raise or "seize" tax money at this point instead of cutting the ridiculous and frivolous overspending should be drowned in the depths of the sea with a millstone hung around their necks. Those who continue to vote them into office should soon follow. Ok, maybe that's a little harsh, but this is utterly outrageous.
ReplyDeleteThank you Governor for finally re-acquiring your backbone, soft as it is...
No comment about the contracts. I do wonder about the property tax issue though. If CA takes the property tax, will they also honor the prop 8 reduced assessments that a lot of us have on file or will they make us pay the full amount? Just wondering???
ReplyDeleteWhy would Menifee want their Police headquarters in Murrieta? I vote we build a substation in Menifee by City hall...
ReplyDeleteMenifee Police Department should be built within the city of Menifee, NOT Murrieta!
ReplyDeleteAs for the property taxes. I commented on this very topic on a previous blog. Our city controller dude better pull his head out! What is the plan for when the state takes these taxes?
Looking at the bright side, at least we are assured of the protection of Police and Fire departments. I say this because apparently we no longer have the services of the MSJC Police. Yesterday the district attorneys office went to the college and seized quite a few items from the police station. After that they went to Chief Segawa’s house here in Menifee and continued their search. I guess MSJC got wind of this information and is taking action too. I heard from my friend who works there that Segawa was suspended today. I guess they finally wised up and are closing it down.
ReplyDeleteYes, I saw this as well. The D.A police were taking boxes and computers from the campus police station in Menifee. The rumor around tha campus is that Kevin Segawa is gone.
ReplyDeleteHow about the unused Target building as a police station?? Plenty of parking, warehouse area could be turned into a holding area, plenty of room for office space, training rooms, conditioning room, everything is there, just need to do some alterations on an as needed basis.
ReplyDeleteHope the new police contract includes a provision that the patrol offices do not respond to county calls. It was tried in Norco and the city informed the sheriff's department that they are paid to patrol the city and not the county. The city of Menifee should do the same.
I was at the Menifee Marketplace for Chipotle for lunch this week and noticed their sprinkler systems came on. This was around 12:15!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI do NOT want my $$ being spent to have water evaporating in 10 seconds in this 100 degree heat. I am fine with spending money for police.
Where is that EMWD email for water wasters?
To poster 07-17-09 11:26AM
ReplyDeleteExcellent ideas! Not sure in the whole scope of new ciyhood, if Menifee will ever have IT'S OWN police force, but should it come to fruition, great ideas. City council you paying attention?
I would hope that Police officers who patrol and are paid by Menifee, patrol only our city, even though Menifee contracts with Riverside County Sheriff.
Now that's using some COMMON SENSE.
Just think.
Since the city is contracting with the County to provide policing, it's up to the county to provide the facilities, not the city. Why should the city spend money to build a facility when the County already has them?
ReplyDeleteYOU PEOPLE ARE CLUELESS! Riverside Sheriff contacts for one reason...to MAKE MONEY! They paint a few of their cars with "City of Menifee" logos and it's business as usual. There are NO MORE DEPUTIES than there were before we incorporated. Menifee is getting ripped off...period. The only way to guarantee our cops are in OUR city is to start our own PD. Otherwise we are just throwing money into the county money pit. Get a clue and get involved.
ReplyDeleteMost cities within Riverside County contract with the Sheriff's Department. I don't think that, while we are in an economic crisis, we should be arrogant and develop our own Police Department. Let's keep what we have.
ReplyDeleteI am sure that the Sheriff will be patrolling more now that they know the college Police Department is now defunct.
I got confirmation that Chief Segawa was served a search warrant at work and at his home. Also, the college has placed him on suspension due to the DA apparently having strong enough case against him to obtain a search warrant. I would guess that an arrest is soon too follow.
Sounds to me like his goose is cooked.
Since we have incorporated as MENIFEE, we should be working towards having our own Police Department. This way we will make sure that a certain amount of officers are ALWAYS within our city limits.
ReplyDeleteCurrently, this is not the case and can be confirmed by looking at the latest statistics for response times.
If a certain amount of officers were always within our city limits the response times to level 1 calls should be LESS than 5 minutes at all times. This is currently not the case.
I for one would like to know that we have officers within a couple of miles at all times within our city. Considering the lack of bridges and traffic jams at Newport and Scott Roads I would request that at least 1 car is always on the East side of the 215 and 1 on the West side at all times. Preferably 2 on each side would be preferable.
Back to the State of California seizing city taxes, does everyone know that back in February when our sales tax soared to new heights, the state legislators gave themselves a pay hike??? Yes, gave themselves a pay increase!!! But, the state employee who only makes about $2000 per month has had their pay decreased by 10% with the furloughs.
ReplyDeleteI hate to bring this up but somebody had to comment on it.
ReplyDeleteI remember how anything regarding the city, police or the college came up and there was back and forth banter about Segawa and the “disgruntled employees.” Of course, we all grew tired of it.
Now that we are seeing it again I feel that I must comment on the previous post regarding the college police and Chief Segawa. It was apparent that he was the one posting the “disgruntled ex employees” comments.
Now that the District Attorneys office went to the college and his home with a search warrant he is very quite. Maybe it is because they seized his computers, leaving him no access to the internet. I would guess that he realizes that we all see through him and his load of lies now.
We all know that a judge is not going to sign a search warrant for a school, Police department or a chief of polices house without plenty of really convincing evidence.
At this point we must believe that the “disgruntled ex employees” were all telling the truth and they were wronged by Chief Segawa and the college.
To the person or people posting that Menifee should form their own police department: Do you have any idea at all about how much forming our own PD would cost?
ReplyDeleteWith the condition of the economy, right now is not the time to be forming a police department. That isn't to say that it shouldn't be considered in the future, but this isn't the time.
I agree that we should have a station or sub-station (not just a store-front office) within city limits.
To: Jim P.
ReplyDeleteThanks you for stepping up and divulging such relevant information. It saddens me to hear that the corruption is true.
We are too new a city to have our own police force. I don't know how many of you are employers, but there are employer costs that go beyond wages, equipment & operational expenses, not the least of which is LIABILITY & LEGACY. This contract with fire & police should be a "test" at best. I see the expanded "police" presence, but they seem to be hanging out at Chevron a lot & catching all the cracked taillights in town. Oh, and threatened to tow someone's unlicensed golf cart from the park at the last movie night.
ReplyDeleteI'm all for securing the safety of the city; and maybe "crime" is on the rise if we get anymore misters installed at parks & shopping centers, but PLEASE, can we keep this real and in perspective?
I agree, developing our own Police Department would be far too costly at this point. I think it is wise to stay with the Sheriff's Dept. and wait until we are out of this economnic crisis.
ReplyDeleteI, for one, am thrilled to hear the news about the College Police Chief. After ready all of the allegations, and talking to friends that work at the college, I think he is pond scum. Looks like he will be united with some like characters...in prison.
Wow, if it's true regarding Kevin Segawa and the search warrant shame on the college administrators for allowing him to remain in a position of authority after all of the accusations were made public.
ReplyDeleteIt appears the college administrators could no longer protect him once the D.A. took action against him. Very, very sad state of affairs at MSJC administration.
I feel very badly for the officers who were forced out by this man. I was one of the doubters and now feel duped into believing the Chief, or ex Chief, was an honest law abiding man looking out for the best interest of the College District.
Steve, can you please verify what's going on and advise?
We need more police in Menifee. Crime rate is increasing. I've called the police on a few occasions and it's taken more than 6 hours or more for a police officer to show up. They seem unconcerned sometimes about what is going on.
ReplyDeleteCities, counties and special districts are among the big losers under Monday's deal; the state will borrow about $2 billion in local property tax money.
ReplyDeleteAlright, now that the city is going to lose the property tax money what are you going to do now.
We need more than 2 police officers on duty in Menifee. For the size in square miles that our city is we should have at least 8 officers on duty at all times.
To "Concerned in Menifee", I'm not sure where you're getting your information from regarding 2 police officers. The contract that Menifee has with the Sheriff provides 8 sheriff's deputies to serve the entire city, and 2 community service officers.
ReplyDeleteOk, I am going to floor some people with this comment. I only heard this story 2nd hand and there is no way to verify it. Anyway, about 6 or 8 months ago one of my neighbors told me he had to call the police because there was a gun, or what looked like a gun, in his neighbors front yard. The deputy showed up and picked up the gun, UNLOADED it, and then ran a serial # or address check back at this vehicle. After that, he contacted my neighbor and said it yes, it was a gun, but it WASN't loaded, he doesn't know who it belongs to, basically he didn't have any info. He gave him a report # and left. Several days later he called my neighbor and said that the gun belonged to his partner who is the next door neighbor, where the gun was found. The owner of the gun got a day off or work I think for it, but that was it. I live within the city limits but don't want to say which development. I was floored that this happened because there are many kids running around our small community and also the punishment for this offense.
ReplyDeleteSteve - I don't know where you heard that we have 8 officers "ON DUTY" at all times, but we only have 2 officers on duty. We have 8 officers assigned to Menifee that cover the 24 hours/7 days a week. This information was in the Menifee Post newspaper several months ago.
ReplyDeleteThis is why the average response time for a priority "1" call is soo long at over 6 minutes.
Go to the City of Menifee official website. Then go to Agendas and Minutes, dated July 15,2009. Go down through the minutes to ATTACHMENT A, City Of Menifee, Level of Service on page 10, and it lists the number of deputies the city has contracted with. I am not sure of the definitions of each of these positions.
ReplyDeleteListed are:
4-deputies (fully supported)SET
1-deputy (unsupported)
2-deputies (supported)TaskForce
for Quail Valley
2-deputies (supported)Traffic Team
2-community service official II
position
1-community service official I
position
Again, not sure of definitions,and which deputies are actually on the street, but I count a total of 12 deputies. By my rough math that is
3 deputies per 8 hour shift in a 24
hour day. I can only base an opinion on what the city of Menifee provides in it's details. I conclude there is not enough deputies present for such a large area.
Please think.
I witnessed and called 911 to report shots fired. Actually saw the shooter empty his gun's clip, reload and fire all of the rounds again. Gave a good description of the shooter, the house and address, and cars involved. Stood in my yard for 40 minutes waiting for deputies to show up. After 1 hour, the shooter and other occupants of the house got into 2 cars and drove off, never a deputy in sight, this was on a Saturday afternoon in May. Never a phone call back from dispatch or a deputy. Nothing. Next day I'm at the Shell station on Murrieta Road and Newport Road and see a young female surrounded by 3 deputies in the parking lot. I ask the station attendant what was going on, they stated the female had shoplifted. Hmmm, shots fired, no deputies, a female shoplifter, 3 deputies.
ReplyDeleteThe above poster talks about a 6 hour response time, I guess thsy were lucky to have a deputy show up.
Yes, the deupties have a tough job.
Few of us would want it. But if the city wants to act like a city, then it needs to provide adequate protection by increased number of deputies. It's not just Menifee, it is also, Sun City, Romoland, and Quail Valley. Menifee needs to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.
I have personally spoke with one of the deputies on duty. He informed me that Menifee only has 2 deputies assigned to Menifee that are actually assigned to respond to all calls other than traffic. The traffic officers only deal with traffic issues and not actual crime related activities.
ReplyDeleteWhat happens is if the 2 deputies are busy and another is needed they will redirect a officer from another area (Perris, etc.) to respond. This is mainly the reason for such a poor response time to level 1 calls.
As for the shots fired report. I too have called in shots fired with specific location and continued to hear shots fired randomly for over 20 minutes before anyone showed up. No car, just a helicopter.
This is not acceptable from our contracted services and I for one would be willing to pay a few dollars a month extra on my taxes to have a dedicated police department.
Every city I have ever lived in has either had it's own facility or contracted with a dedicated sub-station within the city. I have made level 1 calls in a few of those cities over the years and had multiple car response in less than 5 minutes on every occurence. This is the first city I have ever lived in that level 1 calls average over 6 minutes. I've lived in smaller cities with more on duty officers and what we currently have is not sufficient for the size of the city. Population is not the issue here, it's the square miles that we encompass and require more officers, period.
We need more cops period!! From what I have seen and heard the police presence and response time lacks majorly.
ReplyDeleteThis is why we have less cops around to help us.
ReplyDeletehttp://msjcpdlawsuit.com/
Now we know who to blame.
I have called twice on assault crimes taking place and the cops showed up 5 hours or more. I was told (suggested) by the dispatcher to cancel the call and call back the next day to get a better response. That didn't happen.
ReplyDeleteGet a concealed carry permit for when you leave your home. Have a loaded shotgun (provided you don't have kids) available. Unfortunately, it is going to come to this if we don't get more law enforcement.
ReplyDeleteThe statistics speak for themselves. If the news media would report on all the crimes that are thwarted because a citizen protected themselves with a firearm I think you would all be surprised. There are more crimes prevented because of a legally armed citizen than are actually committed. Unfortunately, the News glorifies and reports on all the bad and not the good.
There is absolutely no way that you can get a concealed carry permit just to "prevent" or "deter" crime. If they started approving CCWs for those reasons, why would we need to contract to the Sheriff's Dept? Who do you think approves or denies the requests for CCWs. It's job security for the Sheriff.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that most people don't know, you have the right to open carry a weapon. There are very specific rules around this right, (thanks to all the Dems), but it is your right and they can't take it away, no matter what. If you are interested in open carry, do some research first because it is some very hot legal water. Lots of places you cannot do it for dumb reasons and very specific to carry it. The key is, it can't be loaded.
Exactly! What good does an unloaded gun do, nothing!
ReplyDeleteI for one carry even without a CCW. I've been told by law enforcement that 1 out of every 4 cars on the road has a loaded firearm in it.
I've personally witnessed guns pointed at people on freeways and streets. I've had one even pointed at me for absolutely no reason. Yes, I've called 911 to report it and it does absolutely no good.
I am a firm believer in the right to bear arms and will not hesitate to use it if the situation calls for it.
A real good book to read to see just how firearms can prevent and deter crime is called "More Guns, Less Crime".
"It's better to be judged by 12, than to be carried by 6"
Everybody here has good comments and has brought up good points regarding the Menifee PD. Let me give some more insight, if I may.
ReplyDeleteThe Menifee PD as you know is contracted through the RSO Perris Station. This is a great deal for the city. The Perris Station has a lot of experienced staff. All the supervisors have years of experience, some from other So Cal agencies. There are also quite a few deputies that have come from other agencies in So Cal. They know what they're doing. This station also services the cities of Perris (boo hiss) and Canyon Lake, as well as Winchester, Mead Valley and Lake Matthews.
There has been some talk about changing the contract to the RSO Southwest Station, which services the city of Temecula. That would be a mistake. First off, the Southwest Station is further from Menifee than Perris (meaning greater response times at shift change). The only real difference we will get out of the deal is a different number to call for a non-emergency situation.
Menifee needs more cops. The city council just needs to pony up a little more cash for them. One of the first things we need is motorcycle cops. With all the traffic problems here (we lead the area in fatal collisions for the past year), the motorcycles will help a great deal. They can really take care of the speeding commuters coming in from Hemet and trying to run our kids over.
We also need more patrol deputies. Why are there only 2 deputies patrolling the city of graveyard? Isn't this when a lot of our crime is happening, during the hours of darkness? Don't the drunk drivers come out when the bars close? Now when you have a deputy handling one of those arrests, that leaves only 1 other deputy to handle the rest of the city? That is not safe for anyone. If you have 1 major incident, the city is screwed for the rest of the night.
We also need our own police building. Why does AMR occupy the building behind city hall? That should be the PD. We should start holding our politicians accountable for our safety. What are we paying for anyway?