By Charles E. Ramirez
The Detroit News
EASTPOINTE, Mich. — The city’s top administrator is exploring alternative public safety services to help shore up the municipality’s finances.
City Manager Steve Duchane is studying several options, including reducing the police department’s hours of operation and contracting with the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office.
“Everything is on the table,” he said. “We’re looking at everything.”
Duchane’s exploration comes at a time when Eastpointe’s government, as with most Michigan municipalities, is wrangling with falling property tax revenues, cuts in state aid and rising costs.
Eastpointe has lost $5.1 million in taxable property this year compared to 2008, according to its 2012-13 budget. And the city may lose an additional $1 million or more annually.
The city, whose population was 32,442, according to the 2010 census, has a general fund of $20,752,635. It spends about $8.8 million of that on police services and $4.8 million on its fire department.
Options the city manager is studying include:
Closing the police station at midnight each day instead of running it as a 24-hour operation. Residents will be able to report crimes by phone or Internet during those off hours.
Contracting the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office for police service. Duchane requested and received a proposal for the service from Sheriff Anthony Wickersham. A one-year contract for 25 sheriff’s deputies for police patrols will cost the city about $5.6 million, Duchane said.
Replacing the municipal ambulance service with a privately run emergency medical company or consolidating the service with another from a nearby community such as the one operated by the city of Warren’s Fire Department.
Consolidating the city’s fire department with a neighboring city such as Roseville to create a regional fire authority. Duchane said Eastpointe already has two successful collaborations with nearby cities. Eastpointe, Roseville and St. Clair Shores share a regional emergency dispatch center. Eastpointe and Roseville also formed a Parks and Recreation Authority.
One thing that isn’t on the table, Duchane said, is a police and fire millage because the city is already at its maximum property tax rate under state law.
Duchane is still researching the proposals and has no timetable on when he’ll present them to the City Council.
Resident Mike Vanoost, 57, said he opposes the plans.
“It’s upsetting,” said the lifelong Eastpointe resident. “Every time you turn around, the city wants to cut something.”
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