Police, DPW and More Give Budget Presentations

The East Lansing Police Department (ELPD) is optimistic it will soon fill open positions and the city will continue to invest heavily in its sewer system. These were a couple of the main takeaways from the city’s latest budget work session. 

At the Tuesday, April 23 budget work session leaders of city departments spent about three hours laying out how they plan to spend funds in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. While the city will continue to flesh out its plan for the next fiscal year, the presentations are a good indication of how department leaders plan to use resources, and what projects to expect in the future. 

This was the second consecutive week of budget work. Read our coverage of the April 16 meeting here. 

East Lansing Police Department

With Police Chief Kim Johnson on administrative leave, Deputy Chief Chad Pride presented about ELPD’s plans for the next fiscal year. 

ELPD’s budget ask is just over $15 million, which is 11% higher for fiscal year 2025 than it was for fiscal year 2024. Part of this is because the department is planning to add employees. The department is asking for funds for two additional sworn officers, bringing the department’s total up to 53 sworn officers, Pride said. 

Currently, the department is understaffed, with 47 sworn officers working for the department and 27 of 32 non-sworn staff positions filled. 

There is optimism that positions could be filled soon. Responding to a question from Councilmember Mark Meadows, Pride said there are seven potential candidates to fill positions, with some finishing the police academy and others already certified.

“I believe we will find enough employees to fill that 53, hopefully by the winter,” Pride said. 

ELPD also has more prospects in its cadet program than past years. 

“We’re currently at 10 cadets,” he said. “We haven’t been at 10 cadets for probably five or six years now. At one time, we were down to four.”

Mayor Pro Tem Kerry Ebersole Singh said if there are units that experience high employee turnover, she thinks it may help to have the communications department try to attract employees through LinkedIn and other social media sites. 

Pride said the additional staff will be used to create a problem oriented policing team. This team will consist of four officers and will focus on combatting traffic issues like speeding and parking violations, which are common complaints from residents. 

ELPD would also like to hire a full-time civilian employee to oversee accreditations for the department. Currently, that work is being done by an ELPD sergeant, who ELPD would like to focus on policing. This employee would also serve as a liaison to the East Lansing Independent Police Oversight Commission.

Additionally, ELPD is looking to move a part-time PACE (Parking And Code Enforcement) employee to full-time, so they can serve as a supervisor and work towards solving parking issues downtown, Pride said. 

Outside of staffing, Pride said the department would like to double its spending on training from $40,000 to $80,000. 

“There’s a potential that we could have three to four command officers leaving within this next budget year,” Pride said. “So, the professional development of our younger command staff is vital.”

ELPD is looking to put more funds into addressing officer wellness, Pride said. To do this, the department is proposing $10,000 be spent on wellness app Cordico.

“It allows our employees to go on to their phones, they can request services, and it’s completely voluntary,” Pride said. “That information doesn’t come back to the city [and] it doesn’t come back to the police department.”

Pride said the city’s fire department has interest in using the app as well, and if that department pitches in, it would bring the cost on ELPD down. 

Department of Public Works

The Department of Public Works (DPW) is requesting a budget of $82 million in fiscal year 2025, $6.9 million would come from the general fund, DPW Director Scott House said. 

DPW is a large department that oversees important systems like water and sewer, as well as other critical public infrastructure. To start his presentation, House listed projects the department will take on that are covered by the general fund, including sidewalk repairs, tree plantings and pruning, and drain repairs. 

During his presentation, House said that inflation is a challenge for DPW, as it searches for the best value for projects. 

“We’re paying more for less, we’re seeing that across the board,” House said. “There’s so much construction right now, there’s not a lot of bandwidth.”

The sewage disposal system fund makes up about $41 million of the budget request.

Sewer improvements are a major cost for DPW, with House saying a sewer collection improvement project will cost about $20 million and take two to three years.

Upgrading a water recovery facility is another major project that is underway and will cost roughly $27 million, House said. About $12.3 million of that would come from the fiscal year 2025 budget, according to the agenda report.

House highlighted a 4.4% increase on sewer costs, which is about $2.48 extra each month for the average East Lansing home.

Even with the city working to improve its sewer systems, House said it may not be enough to prevent basements from flooding like many have in recent years. During high rain events, the sewer system struggles to keep up with the extra water, which results in flooding. With climate change making severe weather events more common, flooding could continue to be a problem. 

“If storms become too inconsistent, it might not be reasonable to expect a sewer system to be able to convey things,” House said. “This is hypothetical, there might be a need for homeowners to better bulletproof their basements with back flow preventers, other things, to reduce that liability and vulnerability.”

“The sewer system works great during the designed storm,” House said. “The problem is when you get a rain storm of seven inches. Every sewer is going to fail, it’s not designed for that.”

The water system budget request is roughly $9.8 million.

There is a proposed 4.2% increase on water rates, which is about $1.69 more each month for the average household, House said. 

Costs from the water fund include service line replacements and a water meter pilot project that will more closely track water usage.

The garage fund requested budget is about $8.4 million, and includes replacements for 15 city vehicles, which costs about $2.2 million. The city also needs to replace the fire department’s tower truck, which is a $1.5 million expense. 

When discussing the roughly 80 miles of local streets DPW will maintain, House said to expect projects in the northern portion of the city, near Meijer and on Cricket Lane. The budget request for local streets is over $5.8 million for the next fiscal year.

House said the major challenge for DPW regarding streets is finding a way to extend their lifespan. It’s costly to continuously need to do street repairs. 

The budget request for major streets is just under $6.8 million.

DPW will work on repairs to major roads Michigan Avenue, Saginaw Street, Coolidge Road and Grand River Avenue. House said the state will reimburse the city for work done on Michigan Department of Transportation roads. The city is projected to receive about $4.8 million in reimbursements from the state.

The solid waste management fund budget request comes in at just over $3 million. This division is largely responsible for trash collection and is mostly paid for (about $2.35 million) through property taxes.

Parks and Recreation

Parks, Recreation and Arts Director Cathy DeShambo started her presentation off by saying her department is rebounding financially, after the pandemic caused significant harm. 

“This is the first budget presented post-pandemic for which we didn’t need to request additional general fund allocation,” DeShambo said. “Many departments were hit hard by the pandemic, our department was hit… I think the hardest. Because we did have to close the Hannah Community Center, because the slow rate of people coming back to those public classes, the fitness center, the aquatic center was closed for two years.”

Total, the budget request is about $5.9 million for parks and recreation. 

DeShambo said the projections being shared may change because parks and recreation receives a lot of money through grant funding. However, most grants for the fiscal year 2025 have not yet been awarded and are not shown in current projections. Right now, the department is projected to lose nearly $500,000 in intergovernmental funds. Winning grant money would change this. 

The department is projecting a roughly $440,000 increase in costs for personnel services. One of the reasons for this is parks and recreation employs around 114-180 seasonal or part-time workers depending on the time of year. The city had to increase pay for many of these positions to get applicants, DeShambo said. 

The city also approved raises for many full-time employees last year, which increases personnel service costs. 

There are some fee increases for services through the parks and recreation department next year. The increased fees will help pay for additional staffing, DeShambo said. 

The combo pass that gives residents access to the aquatic center and Hannah Community Center facilities is returning this year. Multiple council members said they have heard from residents who wanted the combo pass available again. 

Parks Capital Improvement Fund

DeShambo went on to present the Parks Capital Improvement Fund. She said many of the projects covered by this fund take multiple years to complete. This means the projects being presented are in various stages, and some are newly proposed. 

The projects are covered by a variety of funding sources, including Community Development Block Grants, grants from the county, Natural Resources Trust Fund grants and the city’s income tax. Total, the fund has a roughly $1.35 million proposed budget – just under half of which comes from the income tax. 

Work to expand the Northern Tier Trail from the soccer complex to Coolidge Road makes up just over $500,000 of the budget request. $300.000 is covered by a Natural Resources Trust Fund grant, and developers in the area will contribute some other funding. This project is expected to continue into fiscal year 2026, according to the agenda report.

DeShambo said the Emerson Park project will enter phase two this summer, and that a construction contract for that phase should be before City Council at its next meeting on May 14. Phase three of the project is planned to take place next year, and will be included in the fiscal year 2025 budget.

Tamarisk Park improvements are also part of the budget. DeShambo said work will continue to be done to reconstruct the park’s basketball court and that playground equipment updates are proposed for next year. 

Facilities Capital Improvement Fund

DeShambo finished budget presentations by giving her third of the night, which was a quick rundown of improvements to city facilities, including the Hannah Community Center and City Hall.

In fiscal year 2025, the budget ask for facility improvements is just under $3 million, $2.2 million of which comes from the general fund.

Many of the facility upgrades are needed because they are outdated. For example, DeShambo mentioned elevators in City Hall and the jail are old and need to be modernized. The boilers in City Hall and the Hannah Community Center also need to be replaced. 

The police department’s women’s locker room will be expanded, if this budget is approved. The current ELPD women’s locker room was created by combining a custodial closet and a storage file room, DeShambo said. 

Looking ahead

Budget work will continue in the coming weeks. Tuesday, May 14 there is a public hearing for the preliminary budget and tax rate. Additionally, a public hearing for the CDBG budget allocation will be held.

Tuesday, May 21 the fiscal year 2025 budget is scheduled to be adopted. The CDBG fund allocation will also be approved at this meeting. The full budget work schedule can be found here.