By Roger Sims, rsims@linncountyjournal.com
PARKER – The Parker City Council in a budget workshop on Monday, March 24, reached a consensus that it would hire a police officer for 30 hours a month. However, because it was a workshop, no vote was taken on the issue.
If the council follows through with a vote, it will reverse a vote in last month that dissolved the city’s police department on a 3-1 vote.
Mayor Jason Webber told the council that instead of dissolving the police department he had instead been working with former police chief Craig Haley to suspend its operation. He said that he and Haley had worked to inform the state, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and the county about the temporary shutdown.
He indicated that the council wasn’t aware how much the extent of dissolving the police department involved. He said that he had a qualified law enforcement officer interested in taking up enforcement in the town but that lead evaporated when the council voted to dissolve the department.
The initial discussion at the workshop was heated at times. Councilmember Kandice Higgins said that the officers walked out and the council had little choice.
Councilmember Gary Earley told Webber that if the person was interested, that person would have been at the meeting when the vote came to dissolve it.
That charge drew an angry response from City Clerk Lisa Leach. “You’re twisting things to fit your narrative,” she said. However, by the end of the meeting Leach was praising council members for compromising and finding common ground on the police issue.
Earlier this year Higgins and Earley pushed the council to first terminate the employment of Cody Kiser as police chief at the January meeting and then dissolve the police force in February. Both measures passed on a split 3-1 vote.
As tempers cooled at Monday’s meeting, Leach suggested each council member say what they wanted the police department to look like.
Earley said he wanted one part-time officer for 20 hours a month.
Councilmember Joe Godfrey said the city would need more than one officer and he suggested a total of 30 hours a month. He also said the city needed a codes officer, a position the council has discussed several times in the past.
Higgins said she would like to see a part-time police officer and a part-time codes officer. She said depending on who the city hired, that could mean 20 to 40 hours a month. However she also said there was a difference between what the council wanted and what the city could afford.
Councilmember Meranda Ellison said she was concerned about the safety of the city without an adequate police presence and noted that much of the traffic flowing through the city didn’t just happen during the day. She also said that depending on where sheriff’s deputies were patrolling, it could take as long as 45 minutes for them to respond to a situation.
Councilmember Kari Brandt said that, ideally, the police officer would be in the city a couple hours in the morning and a couple hours in the evening. She said she agreed with the 30 hours per month cap.
While Higgins and Earley focused on the former department organization that had five officers on staff, Webber pointed out that those five officers were on the clock an average of 89 hours a month compared to an officer working four hours a day five days a week would be a little over 80 hours a month.
While members of the council voiced a preference to hire one person on a part-time basis, finding one qualified person to do that is difficult. Those five officers were full-time deputies with the Linn County Sheriff’s Office that needed to work full time to get benefits like health insurance. They could afford to work a few hours for Parker each month because of that.
However, because their shifts with the sheriff’s office rotated to different schedules, one deputy was able to patrol Parker when the other four couldn’t.
Webber has maintained that despite concerns by Higgins and Earley, the city was under budget for salaries in 2024.
Treasurer Kathy Harrison confirmed that, saying that the city spent just under $70,400 for salaries last year plus maintenance and summer help.
“I think we’re OK on budget,” Harrison said, adding that having a police presence in the city for 20 to 30 hours weekly would be within the budget.
Former Chief Kiser was paid $22 an hour. If the new police chief was paid $22 an hour for five hours a week, that would be just over $5,700 a year. Paying a deputy $20 an hour to serve on the force as well would cost $5,200 annually, she added.
She pointed out, however the cost for a part-time codes officer had not been included in the budget for 2025. Since last fall, the council has entertained a proposal that would hire La Cygne codes officer Devin Canada to do some work in Parker. Former Chief Haley did work on codes enforcement before he stepped down as chief last fall.
Part of the money spent by the city has been on equipment for the police department, including body cams, Tasers and equipping the patrol car to be connected to the same law enforcement network as the sheriff’s office via a hot spot internet connection.
The mayor pointed out that the council had voted, in most cases unanimously, to get the police department the equipment it needed for the safety of the officers and community. He said he was concerned that the level of enforcement would drop below what the community needed.
“You opted to make purchases, then opted to dissolve the department,” Webber said, adding that he wanted the department reinstated as soon as possible.
The city clerk said it sounds like the council can reach a middle ground of 30 hours monthly, although Earley said the $22 a hour was too much.
“Everybody wanted a police department, but we can’t afford it,” Higgins said. “We never didn’t want it.”
Earley raised the concern about the distance the police chief lives away from Parker. He noted that past chiefs have lived in Hillsdale and Pleasanton.
The mayor said in a perfect world the city would have an officer who lives nearby, but that may not be possible.
Earley said he wanted the new chief to report to both the mayor and a councilmember once that person is hired.
Webber’s response was that traditionally the mayor takes on a city manager’s role.
When Leach asked about adding a codes officer into the budget, Chrisy Byerley, chair of the city’s planning and zoning board questioned a decision not to have that person on board. Why do we have a planning committee with no enforcement, she asked.
Before the meeting concluded, the council asked city maintenance worker James Hazelet what he needed in the way of equipment.
Hazelet said if maintenance was required by the council to work all year for a certain amount, he would make that work.
“Give me a dollar and I’ll make that dollar go as far as I can,” Hazelet said.
However, moments later he suggested the city would benefit to have a brush mower for its tractor. He also pointed out that 10 years down the road, the city council would be looking at old, worn-out equipment if it didn’t act to keep those items up to date.
The Parker council is expected to meet in a work session again on Monday, March 31, at 6:30 p.m. to discuss the stormwater drainage issue.