City Council
MEETING DATE: 1/27/2016
TITLE:
Title
Police Department Application for Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians Donation
End
FROM:
George Crum, Chief of Police
RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
Staff recommends the City Council approve accepting a $25,000 donation from the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians to assist in the funding of a new vehicle to be used by the Citizen's on Patrol (COP) and to supplement the Homeless Liaison Officer with funds to address homelessness.
Body
BACKGROUND:
The Police Department was contacted by Betty Callies, who is the Executive Director for the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. The Police Department was invited to submit a $25,000 charitable donation request for specific needs that might not otherwise be funded in the police budget. The Police Department submitted the donation request application (for the above detailed items) on 1-7-16. The donation request was approved by the Agua Caliente Band on 1-19-16.
DISCUSSION:
The first of the two programs is the Citizens on Patrol (COP) program. Cathedral City COP currently has 13 active members that participate and contribute in significant ways, which include responding to assist officers at traffic collisions, crime scenes, natural-weather emergencies and most importantly, conducting residential and commercial area patrols. The Cathedral City COP members average over 280 hours of volunteer time a month. In 2015, they volunteered over 3400 hours of service to Cathedral City. Unfortunately, the natural gas vehicle being driven by COP is inoperable, with prohibitive repair costs. This donation will partially fund the purchase of a 2016 Ford Escape, purchased through Palm Springs Motors.
The second program that will be assisted by the remainder of the donation is the Department’s newly created Homeless Liaison Officer. The Cathedral City Police Department, like many other municipal police departments, has been positioned as the agency most responsible in the community for dealing with the issues of our homeless population. One of the challenges we have already faced is supplementing the liaison officer with funds to directly assist those in need in our community. We would use the funds to directly assist the homeless population in Cathedral City. This would be done through the purchase of transportation vouchers for those seeking to return to their respective hometowns. We would also facilitate reunification and intervention with family members. On occasion, a clearly needy person or family needs immediate shelter - such as a motel stay. Other unfunded costs associated with this endeavor include the emergency purchase of food, hygiene and cleaning supplies, clothing and health and safety related items. Although the Cathedral City Police Department seeks to reduce homelessness, health/safety and humane treatment of our population is a part of this process. If this grant request is approved, the remainder of the $8,000 would be placed in a fund to be used to directly address homelessness in Cathedral City.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Palm Springs Ford has provided us a unique opportunity to purchase a 2016 Ford Escape for 10k under their invoice ($13,167.00.). Outfitting the vehicle with safety equipment and police graphics will cost approximately $3673.00. The $16840.00 (vehicle and equipment) total would be funded, if approved, by the Agua Caliente donation.
The Homeless Liaison Officer Program will benefit from the remainder of the available funds (approximately $8,159.00). Again, it will be directly used to assist the homeless for the above detailed purchases of services and products.
ATTACHMENTS:
Charitable Donation Application with Project Budget and Request Letter