On January 8, the Brandon Selectboard discussed and voted on the 2024/2025 town budget to be put before the voters on March 5. They approved a 13.4% spending hike with an increase in taxes of approximately 9.7%. Details of the decisions came out in the meeting that had some Selectboard members speaking in a way that was not supportive of the police department or police dog (canine officer). Selectboard member Tim Guiles said he did not want to pay an officer to feed a “dog.” I felt that was an insensitive statement and called him out. The Reporter article conveniently left out the real reasons for the public’s upset about what was said.
Brandon is lucky to have completely rebuilt its police department from 2 officers to approximately 7 officers in the past two years. If they all worked 40 hours a week, that’s 280 hours of coverage, when there are 168 hours in a week. Typically, they need more than one officer in their work dealing with difficult situations, so even at 7 officers, they are on call often on hours they are not working. Many can’t afford to live in Brandon or find affordable rentals, so some commute.
The Brandon Police Department has had the opportunity and willingness to start a police dog program so we would have a certified canine officer. I’m told the community raised $10,300 for the program. It has involved 8 weeks of narcotics detection training and 4 months of patrol school with an officer, and now requires 8 hours a month training in narcotics and 8 hours a month in patrol, out of state. This has been a tremendous commitment for an officer, the Department, the town citizens, and the donors. A local vet has donated veterinary services as well. The officer traveled out of state for training and stayed with someone in the area to reduce costs but did have to be paid overtime when working beyond 10 hours per day to comply with the police union contract. A NY sheriff’s department certified the canine officer/police dog without fee. Now, Brandon has a 2-year-old trained canine officer who can smell drugs/narcotics when not in view, track lost and runaway people such as children, elderly, and criminals, can do evidence recovery, finding lost keys, wallets, guns by scent, and is trained for community policing. Brandon has always had an illegal drug problem and recently our canine officer assisted with a large fentanyl recovery in a car stop. The skills this canine officer has are not the same skills as a trained human police officer. Both by the work of our canine officer and his trained police officer handler in police work and the word being out that we have this team reduces the threat of and existence of drugs in our community that could destroy young people and their families, as well as overall crime. Now our Selectboard wants to cut this program. What a shame!!!
The Brandon Selectboard discussed the police and highway budgets at the meeting. They have planned $300,000 for paving in the budget, and there are no funds available from the 1% local option tax fund to reduce taxes, as it has been used to purchase a highway truck that wasn’t budgeted for approximately $250,000. We heard from our Fire Chief that the police need updated equipment to do their jobs. He mentioned that the fleet of cars is old and so is some of their equipment. I later learned Brandon police have 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022 vehicles with mileage over 85,000 and over 100,000, with much spent on repairs. The budget includes replacement of 2 cars, but they will be electric at the insistence of some Selectboard members. My understanding is that the electric cars are not police certified, meaning that a police vehicle needs a high-output engine, enhanced electrical output for lights, sirens, radios, etc., heavy duty suspension and braking, heavy duty drive shaft, u-joints, frame mounts, wheels and exhaust system, run lock ignition, so lights and radio run efficiently while parked without draining battery, vehicle tracking if it is stolen, and video camera and recording devices. I’ve learned that gas cars would be not only more economical to purchase, but also would have the heavy-duty setup needed for police work safety and reliability to be certified. In addition, the Brandon police department generator system would have to be upgraded. There would be issues with charging at employees’ homes when they take cars home to be on call. Municipalities around the country are testing this and some are reporting out the issues with chargers, mileage span is less than advertised, repair stations are not near, all while major automakers are reducing production of electric cars due to reduced demand, and Hertz rental is abandoning 20,000 electric cars in their fleet.
Should we have a full-time Town Manager, Assistant Town Manager, Town Clerk, part-time Town Clerk in a town of 4,000 people, or should we invest in public service and roads? Please reach out to your Selectboard members and insist they fully fund our Police Department with the canine officer, and purchase (not lease) reliable police certified gas vehicles to preserve our investments. Or vote NO in March until our budget reflects less top administration and more public service. Mark your calendars for March 5! Vote NO!
Sharon Stearns
Brandon
