City Council
Staff Report
From: City Manager
Report Type: CONSENT CALENDAR
Lead Department: Police
Meeting Date: October 28, 2024
Report #:2408-3392
TITLE
Approval of the Acceptance of State of California Citizens Options for Public Safety (COPS) Funds of $204,005 and a Budget Amendment in the Supplemental Law Enforcement Services Fund (2/3 vote required) for front-line law enforcement expenses; CEQA status – not a project.
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1. Approve the acceptance of annual Citizens Options for Public Safety (COPS) funds from State of California, totaling $204,005; and
2. Amend the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Appropriation (requires 2/3 approval) for the Supplemental Law Enforcement Services (SLES) Fund by:
a. Increasing the estimate for revenue from the State of California by $204,005; b. Increasing Police Department expense appropriation for Supplies and Materials by $52,000; for Facilities and Equipment by $135,000; for Contract Services by $80,000; and
c. Decreasing the ending fund balance by $62,995.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Staff recommends that the City Council approve the acceptance of the annual State of California COPS FY 2025 funds, totaling $204,005 and amend the budget appropriation in the SLES Fund to spend the revenues. Staff also recommends appropriating unspent funding from previous years of $62,995. This funding went into the fund balance at the close of the previous fiscal years to be used for other eligible expenses. In total, $267,000 is recommended for supplies and materials, noncapitalized tools, and programs and services related to front-line law enforcement.
BACKGROUND
Every year since 1997, the State of California, by statute, allocates designated funds to counties, which pass funding through to cities, through a Citizens Options for Public Safety (COPS) program. This ongoing program is apportioned by a State statute and the level of funding is relative to the population as determined by the California Department of Finance. This funding
is not related to the Federal Government Department of Justice “COPS” program with the same acronym.
State law provides for four main requirements as written in Government Code sections 30025- 30029.12 and 30051-30063: 1) Each recipient (County and a City) is required to deposit the revenue into a separate fund so the funds are not co-mingled with the General Fund (Sec. 30063); and 2) the money shall be used for front line law enforcement services or municipal police services (Sec. 30061(c)(2)); and transfer to other funds is allowed provided it is to facilitate the use according to the code (Sec. 30063); and 4) the funds shall not supplant the city budget (Sec. 30062(a)). Previous uses of COPS funds have included restarting the Community Service Officer (CSO) program, electronic traffic citation system, equipment upgrades, safety equipment, police training, staff wellness testing, police recruiting, upgrades to patrol vehicles, and upgraded tools and technology, all benefiting front line law enforcement services or municipal police services for the City of Palo Alto.
According to State staff, the source of funding is vehicle license fees. Specific allocations are directed by the Department of Finance, in accordance with the Government Code, while the distributions are made by the State Controller’s Office. There are two parts to the distribution:
A. A semi-permanent component based on a minimum funding level for the program, paid monthly and;
B. A growth component for funds (referred to as Growth Fund) in excess of the minimum base, paid one-time the following year after reconciliation.
Staff identified excess fund balance in this SLES fund in FY 2022 and is working to determine appropriate needs and uses for public safety services. Fund balance has accumulated due to higher than estimated revenues from a change in State law that increased funding and because projects or programs previously identified did not require the funding set-aside or did not materialize. Most of those previously planned expenses were for non-mandatory training and recruiting which did not occur due to insufficient backfill staffing to support these while maintaining necessary minimum staffing levels for daily service delivery. The most recent fund balance, $659,000, can be found in the FY 2023 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report1 and an electronic copy of the auditor report on the City’s website2. 1 City Council, January 16, 2024; Agenda Item #5, SR # 2311-2230 https://portal.laserfiche.com/Portal/DocView.aspx?id=70171&repo=r-704298fc&searchid=c8cf50fc-03e6-49b4- b78a-5f5b713a30cf
2 City of Palo Alto FY 2022-2023 Annual Comprehensive Financial Reporting beginning on pg 113 https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/files/assets/public/v/1/administrative-services/city-budgets/fy-2023-city- budget/fy-2023-annual-comprehensive-financial-report.pdf
ANALYSIS
The City recently received the annual notice of COPS funding, for distribution in Fiscal Year 2024-2025, of $104,9693). Further, the Growth Fund portion (distribution B above) was reported and funded $99,0364.
Staff recommends use of this year’s expected COPS funds, along with a portion of the existing fund balance, for a total amount of $267,000 ($204,005 in revenue and $62,995 in existing fund balance), in the following manner(s) which are
compliant with the law. All expenses below are
estimated.
Wellness and Training
The Department currently uses a manual
system for tracking progress in background
investigations of potential police officers and
training of existing police officers. This will
fund management software for tracking
progression as well as alerting to due dates,
deadlines, and updated policy.
To expand the Wellness Program the
department seeks professional services for
ongoing Peer Support team training and acute
mental health support and diffusing of critical incidents for staff.
The Department purchased updated handguns with last years COPS allocation. This year the purchase of training handguns of the same type for use in training settings is recommended.
Use of these tools, which fire only non-lethal marking rounds, mitigates the danger inherent in using actual handguns in training settings, and the training handguns will be compatible with current holsters.
Safety Equipment
In recent years, COPS funds provided for the upgrade of certain tools such as respirator masks, body worn cameras, and conductive energy weapons (often referred to by the brand name ”Taser”). Additional funding is recommended to augment the previous purchase of conductive energy weapons as more officers have been hired since the last update and replacement of broken tools. In alignment with law enforcement industry standard, all police officers are outfit with patrol rifles as standard equipment (by practice not policy) following specialized rifle 3 State of California Department of Finance September 12, 2024 pg. 13 https://www.sco.ca.gov/Files-ARD-Payments/copsdofletter_2425.pdf 4 State of California Citizens Option for Public Safety Growth Allocation Report For COPS and Juvenile Justice (FY2023-2024) Spreadsheet, sheet “Front Line City Breakdown”, row 499, column F https://www.sco.ca.gov/ard_payments_cops_growth.html
training. Use of rifles is managed by the following policies: 300(all), 312.4.4, 312.4.5, 424.3, 424.7, 432 (all), 716.7, 1004.2, 1004.7.1.5 An inventory sufficient to equip each officer is maintained, the current inventory of rifles is 64, on average, 15-20 years old. Because of the long life of the equipment, funding for replacement typically relies on grant money, such as the COPS grant, and therefore funding is recommended to be used for the replacement of patrol rifles. As standard issue patrol equipment, patrol rifles are not subject to the requirements of AB 481.
Traffic Enforcement
In recent years, the Department used COPS funds to purchase electronic citation devices for traffic enforcement. The Department requests to increase the available devices from 13 to 17 so more officers can use these efficient devices to conduct traffic enforcement.
POLICY IMPLICATIONS
Palo Alto Municipal Code 2.28.080 requires a two-thirds vote by Council to accept the funds and amend the budget. The California Government Code would limit how SLES funds are redistributed. As with the acquisition of any goods or services by the City, the purchasing process will be subject to City purchasing policy manual as established in the municipal code under the direction of the Chief Procurement Officer. Any purchase that is surveillance technology is subject to provisions of the Municipal Code during the purchase process. None of the proposed uses here are considered surveillance technology nor are considered military equipment and subject to reporting according to AB 481.
FISCAL/RESOURCE IMPACT
This activity directly impacts only the Supplemental Law Enforcement Services (SLES) Fund. The City has received revenue each year under this program since its inception. To receive the revenue into the SLES Fund, Council’s approval is required according to the Municipal Code (PAMC 2.30.360) and the State Government code referenced above. Revenues of $204,005 are recommended to be recognized in the SLES Fund. A total of $267,000 of expenditures are anticipated as described previously in the memorandum, including the use of $62,995 from the existing fund balance. There will be no impact to the General Fund as ongoing maintenance costs, if any, for the items purchased by the SLES Fund will be absorbed in the Department's existing budget, otherwise, the activities will stop when the SLES funds are spent in full.
STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
None
5 Palo Alto Police Department Policy Manual
https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/Departments/Police/Public-Information-Portal/Police-Policy-Manual
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
Acceptance of COPS funding and the proposed expenditures for public safety equipment are not projects subject to CEQA review.
ATTACHMENTS
None
APPROVED BY:
Andrew Binder, Police Chief