Humboldt to move police department into new fire station

By PHIL MONSON
At their regular meeting on Monday night, March 16, the Humboldt City Council approved plans to move its police department offices out of the current Law Enforcement Center and into an area at the new fire station on the north end of town.

The council gave city administrator Cole Bockelmann the green light to negotiate updates and changes to its by-laws and 28E agreement with the county. Bockelmann will make those recommendations to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors and the Public Safety Commission.

“Last week, Chief Miller and Fire Chief Jim Gronbach discussed ways to make space for the police department. That appears to be a good, temporary solution,” Bockelmann said. “We feel it would be in our best interest to relocate and work toward a more permanent solution.”

The council first reviewed options to relocate at their Feb. 2 meeting. At that meeting, staff agreed to meet privately with two members of the public safety commission, Sheriff Dean Kruger and Police Chief Jacob Miller, to address longstanding problems and tension between the departments.

“That meeting took place on Feb. 18 and all parties agreed that the meeting was productive. The group appeared to reach consensus on several issues and agreed to clear expectations moving forward. Unfortunately, the work environment at the Humboldt Law Enforcement Center has rapidly deteriorated since that meeting,” Bockelmann said.

“The only practical option is to relocate the police department from the LEC to another city-owned facility which can be done in a way that minimizes the initial costs, maintains the Unified Law Enforcement Levy and public safety commission and ensures continuity of 24/7 coverage,” Bockelmann said.

“Moving our staff out of the LEC has been discussed several times throughout the last five years. The constant barrier has always been the financial impact, which was believed to decrease the sustainability of department operations. However, work with legal counsel has resulted in a solution that will allow the city to relocate outside of the LEC while maintaining the Unified Law Enforcement Levy for shared services,” Bockelmann said.

“The city uses the Unified Law Enforcement Levy to fund 30% of the public safety commission’s annual budget, which has been approximately $225,000 per year in recent years. The commission governs and funds dispatch, maintenance for the LEC, software agreements, certain IT hardware and general office supplies for all occupants,” Bockelman said.

By updating the agreement with the county, which has been in place since 1977, the city would only contribute toward the remaining shared services of dispatch and software systems instead of a percentage of the total budget. Bockelmann said remaining a part of Humboldt’s Unified Law Enforcement District and public safety commission would maintain both financial sustainability and the intent of the public safety commission.

Read the FULL story in this week's issue of the Humboldt Independent, which publishes on Thursday, March 19.