HUBBARD TOWNSHIP — A meeting’s public session got tense as trustees rejected placing a police renewal levy on the ballot.

Trustee Jason Tedrow said at Thursday’s special meeting that trustees needed to “seriously consider” putting the 1.75-mill police levy on November’s ballot for renewal, which would generate $169,000 annually, based on his estimates.

Tedrow said he’s had conversations with police Chief Brenda Freeman about what she thinks she can accomplish with it, adding that Sgt. Mike Orr — who served as acting chief until Freeman’s arrival in June — already showed trustees that they can be “more proactive” with things in the department.

“I’m not sure where we’re going to land for the entire year on what our tax take-in will be, but I took an average of the 2023-24 take-in,” Tedrow said. “Right now, with what our operating budget is, we would have about $37,000 remaining; this levy is for $169,000, so that’s going to drop us into the negatives immediately — which is a little concerning.”

Tedrow said Freeman suggested having nine officers on the township’s roster, a discussion they could have for a later time.

RUNNING THE NUMBERS

He said the police department is going to go into the hole eventually, but he didn’t know when it would happen, especially with unexpected expenditures. Tedrow provided trustees with rough projections, considering the levy in play and examining the township’s budgeted expenses for officers, assuming a 3% annual budget increase. He said the department would likely be comfortable for eight to 10 years, potentially, without any additional money or anything significant.

“I think we’re going to be in the same boat potentially if we don’t renew it, and we maintain eight full-timers, two part-timers and a part-time admin,” Tedrow said.

Fiscal Officer Jennifer Evans said the levy’s starting point was $164,385, taking into consideration what the township had budgeted for 2025. She also provided trustees with a forecast through 2028 of the police department’s finances, based on its current staffing.

Evans said with those numbers, the police department was looking at a $1.3 million carryover into 2028, if they maintain that staffing.

She said she also ran the numbers with the township going to nine officers, as Freeman suggested, and not having any part-time officers, which brings the carryover to $1.1 million.

Tedrow said he decided to do an eight- to 10-year projection before saying they “absolutely” needed more money.

“I would like to at least leave it up to the voter to make the decision instead of us making it for them; if they feel that they’re happy with it, I’m okay with it,” Tedrow said.

Evans expressed her concerns as a resident, saying that residents looked to her and the trustees to decide whether the levy was needed.

“How many people are coming to the four of us to actually get an explanation of that? They feel, ‘if you’re putting it on that ballot, we need this in the next year or two,'” Evans said.

SHORT STAFFING

Freeman offered input on where the department was with eight people after losing two officers and looking to fill those spots.

“Right now, we’re in a reactive police department; that’s not somewhere we want to be right now,” Freeman said. “We have potentially one person on the road; sometimes we have two in a shift, where maybe of those eight hours, that second person is there.”

Freeman said she was trying to reestablish a police department that had not been taken care of for the past five years and was in “shambles.”

“You have a detective that is working the road as well, and there were cases backed up to, I can’t even tell you,” Freeman said. “That is a terrible thing to happen for a community, not having a detective who can sit there and work on cases; that’s not fair.”

Freeman said the department was putting “undue stress” on area departments that have said Hubbard Township’s department is depending too much on them, adding that she hoped trustees would consider those factors as well.

“We need to be a proactive department that can do traffic, that can do stuff for OVI, that can take care of things; if you have one person (on the road), you’re just functioning,” Freeman said.

Trustee Bill Colletta said he’s always been in favor of nine officers, but said he wasn’t in favor of the levy with their present carryover.

“I am not in favor of putting that levy back on when we first discussed taking it off,” Colletta said. “We’re sitting at a $2 million carryover, give or take, which will eventually go down. There is no reason that any department should have a $2 million, $1 million carryover; that’s basically going to the public or our residents and asking for money that we don’t need.”

Evans clarified that the carryover was generated by employees over the past four years, doing, in her opinion, the right thing. She added they’ve reduced staffing levels among other things as well.

“I don’t want somebody looking at it saying, ‘We have a $2 million carryover, let’s just spend whatever we want,'” Evans said.

Tedrow said he didn’t want to run the risk of waiting the next three years to put a replacement levy on and not getting it, then years later, saying the police department was done for.

“I think we’ve had enough turmoil, and right now, we need to kind of build a stable foundation in the police department,” Tedrow said. “There is some equipment upgrades that are going to need to come, and if we keep having our cruisers get in accidents through no fault of our own, we’re probably gonna have to start looking at replacements and stuff like that in the near future.”

Tedrow’s request to put the levy on the ballot was shot down via Robert’s Rules of Order, with Colletta’s ask for a second on his motion being met with silence after several requests.

PUBLIC COMMENTS

Orr, representing the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 85 as its vice-president, expressed his disappointment toward Colletta and trustee Monica Baker for not voting.

“That doesn’t show a lot of support for the police officers out on the road; I said this in the other meeting,” Orr said. “I don’t see any support or anybody concerned with officer safety when we’re out there working by ourselves. That’s ridiculous; you guys should be ashamed of yourselves.”

Orr questioned why they would take $169,000 out of the budget when they were going to have to ask for money later, saying it was going to make them suffer longer.

Colletta reminded Orr that he had gone to his personal attorney to get the loans and levies and determine what could be used when the police department was being closed.

“Don’t say that I don’t support the police department,” Colletta said. “I’m the one who saved it, along with a few other people. Trustee Baker was at many of the meetings with me.”

Colletta reiterated his support of the township bringing in a ninth full-time officer. He also said Hubbard Township was among the highest-taxed townships, second to Howland, but he had to double-check.

“Our people do not make those kinds of dollars to be in that situation of constantly being levied to death; if we can give them a bit of a reprieve, then so be it, they deserve it,” Colletta said.

Freeman clarified Orr’s concerns. She said he was worried that, if the township did go to nine officers and a replacement levy in the coming years failed, there would be layoffs.

“That’s not to say that we couldn’t get a COPS Grant or something in between to help and assist us, right?” Freeman said. “We just want to make sure we are okay, financially, to get the department to where it needs to be moving in the future; we do not want to go backwards.”

Freeman said the public puts their faith in the trustees to decide for them, and if they feel the levy isn’t needed, the department will deal with whatever happens down the road.

Evans told Orr that she was speaking from her financial viewpoint, and that she didn’t want to see any of their officers not be safe.

“Working beside these trustees, I don’t see any of them saying that either,” Evans said.