Saturday, December 11, 1999
Inquiry to county angers chief, mayor
2 Ludlow councilmen ask if Kenton patrols would be feasible
BY CINDY SCHROEDER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LUDLOW — Three Ludlow councilmen have asked Kenton County officials about the feasibility of having county police patrol this city of 4,700 — a move that the mayor and police chief say is politically motivated.
Ludlow officials behind the proposal say it is in the exploratory stages, and is aimed at saving the city money as council struggles to adopt the current fiscal year's budget.
But Mayor Tom Stacy and Police Chief Tom Collins don't buy that. Both see it as an effort to disband the Ludlow police department. They say they were angry that they learned of the meeting with county officials through phone calls from others.
“This is not about this police department being a burden on this town,” Chief Collins said Friday. “It's about politics and council not being able to control and maneuver and do the things that they want to do.”
Even if no formal agreement is reached on county police service, Chief Collins said the fact that it was proposed will undermine Ludlow's police department by prompting good officers to look elsewhere for jobs.
Under repeated questioning from Chief Collins at a testy Ludlow council meeting Thursday night, Councilmen Ron Wofford and Jack Redd — two of those who acknowledged meeting with Kenton County officials — could not offer specific goals, or a deadline for deciding whether to disband Ludlow's police department.
Both said they were motivated to explore the issue because of budgetary concerns.
“We don't want to cut jobs,” Mr. Wofford said. “That is not our intent. My job is to take the revenues and spend them in some responsible fashion.”
Mr. Wofford said the city spent $723,000 on its police department last year. This year's proposed budget calls for spending $559,000 on the department, and he questioned how the police could provide adequate service with that kind of budget cut.
Chief Collins said those figures are misleading, because more than $300,000 of last year's police budget came from outside money. Bromley covers one Ludlow officer's salary, and federal grants cover two others.
“Even though we're operating with seven police officers, the city's only paying for four,” Chief Collins said.
He said city officials should have been setting aside that savings to help fund police positions when the federal grants expired, but failed to do so.
Council turned down a $150,000 federal grant earlier this year that would have funded two additional officers. Several city officials said then that they were wary of accepting the grant because the financially strapped city would have to pay for those officers when it expired.
Last year, Ludlow spent $423,000 in city money on the department, Chief Collins said.
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Inquiry to county angers chief, mayor
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