Radnor Chief: We Need More Police

With its financial books still imbalanced, continued the long and difficult process of figuring out what to cut and when to cut it on Monday night.

Last night, staffing was scrutinized.

At the meeting of the Board of Commissioners, each of the heads of the township's departments gave the board an update on what their staffing level is now, and what they’re likely to need going forward. No one, unsurprisingly, asked for a reduction in personnel.

Radnor superintendent of police Bill Colarulo asked for an increase of five officers from the 40 the township budgeted for. Colarulo said that Radnor has, at present, 38 officers, down from 48 in 2005, and with eight eligible for retirement in 2013, could potentially have as few as 30 by next year.

He said that the shortage of officers is already affecting his department’s ability to do their jobs—and generate revenue for the township. According to Colarulo, there was a 43 percent decrease in traffic citations written between 2010 and 2011 and a 27.9 percent decrease in non-traffic citations over that same period.

“That is directly attributable to the lack of manpower,” said Colarulo, adding that some lower priority emergency calls aren’t being responded to either.

Colarulo said the township has 1.23 officers per 1000 residents, the lowest of any municipality in the area, and pointed to three independent metrics for judging the necessary size of a community’s police force that recommended Radnor carry 80, 78, and 56 officers. All he’s asking for, he said, is 45.

“In years to come, the number that we’re looking for is 48,” he added.

(Watch the entire meeting in the video section of this article.)

Tammy Cohen, the director of Radnor’s Recreation and Community Programming Department, didn’t request any increase in staff in 2013, but didn’t volunteer a decrease either.

Kevin Kochanski, the director of the Community Development Department, said his department is likely to need additional staff in 2013.

Kochanski said that from 2003 through 2008, the department carried either seven or eight total staff members and three or four building inspectors, but dropped to four staff and one building inspector in 2009.

“We had some layoffs, but we’re slowly building back up to where we were previously,” he said.

In 2012, the level has returned to seven total staff and two building inspectors, but because of its workload—according to Kochanski, the department currently has under its auspices major projects at Villanova University, Eastern University, The conversion of a Genuardi’s into a Giant, Agnes Irwin school, and others—it’s falling behind.

“What that means is that we cannot do [some things] in a timely manner,” he said. “The staff is in a reactive mode, not a proactive mode.”

He added that the department spent $20,804 to get help from a third party to keep pace with work demands in 2011, and that they are even more overburdened this year.

Finance department director Bill White said that revenue coordination is a problem in his department. He identified, as one of its major weaknesses, the fact that a single revenue coordinator oversees the collection of $25 million. He suggested, as a way of lightening the township’s load, outsourcing some of his department’s tasks—he offered payroll and retiree processing as a possibility—and pointed to a financial software upgrade as a long term expense his department would benefit from.

Public Works director Steve Norcini didn’t ask for any increase in staffing for the Public Works and Engineering Departments, but emphasized that any decrease in staff would lead to a reduction in the level of service. Staffing levels, he said, need to be kept in place.

 “At these levels, we are more reactive than proactive,” he said, echoing Kochanski.

He pointed out basic services are met, but tree removal, curbing, inlet repair, and a host of special projects are delayed or left undone because of the minimum staffing.