Hancock talks budget and police | News, sports, jobs

Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Hancock City Manager Mary Babcock discusses the Hancock Police Department’s request for a new officer during Wednesday’s budget meeting.

HANCOCK — Hancock’s overall financial condition and the police department’s budget were the main topics at a budget hearing Wednesday.

The preliminary budget presented to council Wednesday showed general fund expenditures of $3,674,072. The fund’s holdings were expected to shrink by more than $225,000 to $467,446. However, City Manager Mary Babcock expected that deficit to turn into a surplus once the city received updated tax information from the county.

Property and property tax revenues are expected to increase by 5%; Tax revenues from real estate and fire debt are expected to exceed that amount and could rise even further by the time the budget actually passes in June, Babcock said. Taxable value increased 11.3% in the city overall, due in part to Finlandia University properties being added back to the tax rolls, Babcock said.

The general fund balance was down from nearly $1.5 million last June, due in part to the city’s work on the Maasto Hiihto trails and the upcoming Business and Technology Park.

“Those were two huge things that the city paid for out of its coffers without getting a dollar for it.” Babcock said. “We originally planned to take out a loan of $500,000 to $600,000 to build the business and technology park, but we had the money available so we just paid it off – which I think is great. I’m really glad we were able to pay for that, but it has left us a little tighter than ever.”

Babcock said the city will be in a stronger position financially once FEMA pays the $1.3 million the city owes. FEMA is “99.9% safe” Babcock said it will receive the money this year, but it will require a complicated mechanism where the money is routed first through the Michigan State Police, then back to the federal government and again to the MSP before being passed on to the city.

“I’ll probably take out a loan to cover some of our general fund costs if we don’t get that back.” She said. “Because probably $900,000 of that is general fund money, which is a huge amount of money for us.”

Looking at long-term debt, Babcock said the city’s debt is at 22% of capacity. The city’s building department’s bonds expire in 2027.

On the budget side, most of the meeting was spent discussing the Police Department’s budget. Babcock said she doesn’t plan to honor Police Chief Tami Sleeman’s request for an additional officer unless the city sees a large increase in tax revenue. The department has 10 officers, including Sleeman, and a school resource officer, funded by a grant received last year.

A prospective officer is currently completing training at the police academy.

“You don’t want to hire someone and then let them go.” Babcock said.

Babcock said the department needs to reduce the number of hours logged, pointing to data showing officers worked 1,168 more hours in the first four months of this year than in 2023. About 300 of the hours were attributed to the new resource officer School-attributable Babcock said that this time last year, this position had not been in effect for the entire period.

While council members said they supported the department, they questioned the hours.

“Eight hundred and sixty-eight hours in four months is ridiculous.” said Councilor Richard Freeman Jr. “I know the city is doing more now when police have to be present, but it’s not 868 hours … and they only hired one additional trainee.”

Babcock said she has a goal of 320 hours per week for hourly officers; Sleeman is the only member of the department who has a salary. Babcock said it would be too difficult to ask voters to pass another police defund; Voters approved one in 2022 that was used to pay a new official.

“I give them a budget for the number of hours and they have to work with the hours I gave them because this is completely out of control.” She said. “Even last year seems a little muddy. But you have to understand that in defense of everyone down there, we’ve been getting rid of officers, bringing in new officers, and we’ve had very little stability over the last two years. And so we have to see where it ends. But they really feel like they’re fully staffed and they think it’s appropriate to have another officer.”

Council members suggested ideas that could reduce the number of situations in which a department officer is called, such as asking the Copper Country Intermediate School District to apply for a grant for a school resource officer.

Babcock said if tax revenue was higher, the council could give the money to an additional officer if it wanted.

In an interview Friday, Sleeman said she felt bringing in another officer would ultimately save the city money by reducing the amount of overtime. If the graduating officer only gets a part-time job in the department, he will likely move to another department where he can work full-time, she said.

She said the department typically works 800 to 1,000 hours of overtime per year.

Sleeman said there is no consistent explanation for the difference in hours, but said call loads can vary dramatically and officers fill a variety of roles, including responding to foot traffic in the department. She said she is focused on ensuring the department is staffed 24 hours a day and can operate safely and effectively.

“I see it with this extra person as a way to reduce that overtime.” She said. “Mary and I are working on how to do that, but at this point it’s about covering the shifts and everyone has the right to their time off too. We’re one of those companies where you might have staff and a critical incident happens…Overtime will never go away in this industry because sometimes when a major incident happens, you need everyone.”