Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, March 28 2009 @ 10:23 PM CDT

All this talk about merging police departments, merging communities, contracting police services, disbanding police departments etc,, I know it makes for great debate and even better gossip. Having said that, have any of you considered the fact there are men and women working for both agencies that put their lives on the line for the rest of us every day? We make light of the situation and use this very website to prove how smart we all think we are. For those of you who apparently consider yourself so smart I would like to point out a small fact. I may be wrong (I dont claim to be or act smarter than I am) but the way I see it the City could not contract with the Village for police services even if they wanted to. Apparently the state of WI seems to think there is a bit of hierarchy involved in these matters. The way I see it (please check state statutes for yourself) a village can pay a city for police services. A city can pay another city for police services, or a city can pay the county for police services but a city can not pay a village (contract with the village) for police services. Oh heck, I am sure I am wrong, after all wouldnt this little legal technicality be caught by now? I am sure the village trustee that proposed this would have been corrected by the village attorneys. Anyways, I figure this would give Duke something to talk for a bit ???

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Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, March 30 2009 @ 07:33 AM CDT

Dear Anonymous City of Pewaukee Police Department Employee:

Thank you for the "shout-out" in your post. Whether its through my never-ending philanthropy, my numerous World Record Hot Air Balloon attempts, or just here in Dales virtual living room, I always enjoy being recognized. However, I wish I, or another "Dale Noll Virtual Living Room Guest", did suggest to contract with the Village for police protection - because then your post would actually make sense.

You see, it was not the work of Mighty Duke LaCrosse, the Charasmatic Dale Noll, or even the Well-Spoken Andy Mueller who came up with the idea to have the City be protected by the Village. If you read and comprehend the above posts, it apparently was the Village Trustees (according to Dale Noll) who are pursuing this possible contract.

Duke LaCrosse will state, for the record, He is against any more contracted services between the two communities. He is for the merger of the communities as a whole. So, Anonymous, if a merger does go through, and you are the low man/woman on the totem pole, you better make sure you have some good blackmail audio recordings to help secure your position on the newly merged police force.

Duke LaCrosse, President - Duke LaCrosse Charities LLC, Inc.

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Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, March 30 2009 @ 09:29 AM CDT

Duke, i posted this some time ago, well before the village was talking about it, i think.

Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, January 22 2009 @ 08:25 AM CST

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I think that we should not be in any hurry to hire a new chief. No harm in letting things settle for a while. I also agree with a prior poster that the door may be open to combing the police department with the village department, if they are willing. I see no need for two sets of overhead and the idea of one department operating in a cirlcle around the other department makes no sense to me. If it makes sense for the park department, the library, the building inspector and the fire department, then perhaps it should be considered for the police department.

I would think that such a combination would be very involved and could take some time to work out, but that one of the stumbling blocks would be which Chief do you get rid of. Not a problem right now.

Rick Carr

In this i refer to a prior poster, so my thought wasn't original, guess that means that i don't need to worry about thinking i am all that smart.

And.. i'm sure that it could be done in a fashion that it would retain the good offficers "who risk their lives everyday". I know they do, have done it myself, but isn't that laying it on just a little thick?

Rick

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Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, March 30 2009 @ 11:01 AM CDT

The anonymous poster makes a good point, but one for which I'm sure
our legal eagles can construct a work-around. Anyway, two questions I
have are the following:

How well is the department functioning with Capt. Meister in charge?

Could the money we're saving by not having a chief come anywhere
close to covering the cost of getting rid of the last one?

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Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, March 30 2009 @ 10:34 PM CDT

Rick

Just to clarify, the Building Inspector is a contracted service. So is the Fire Department. The City dictates how much the village will pay us. There is no partnership there.

The Library is pretty much a 67%City/33% Village funded partnership, but neither commuity has anything to say about how they spend the money they are given from the taxpayers of either community. State law gives the Library Board a free hand in dispersing those funds.

In the Park Department the fees collected for renting out various parks are retained by the community the park is in. When the city (over)paid for the Lindsay Road land, at a cost of $2.6 M that cost was born by the City of Pewaukee taxpayers. The only things we split with the village are the employee and maintenance costs.

What we have right now is more of an agreement to share expenses than it is a partnership. I totally understand why the village feels they are being shortchanged. They have no control over any of the agreements we have.

The city has taken the bully route, and it's basically take it or leave it. If the village doesn't like the cost we charge for fire service, building inspections, or what it's going to cost to maintain our new 60 acre Sports Complex they can drop our agreements, and find a new supplier or go it alone.

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Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, March 31 2009 @ 07:54 AM CDT

Thank you for your clarification on these items. i agree with your assessment that the city has taken a bullly type approach to these matters in the past, however, since the change in administration, it is my hope anyway that the City's tone toward these agreements has become more reasonable. There is some evidence of that in the City's approach to dealing with the villages' concerns on the fire department costs and in the co-operation shown in the recent merger studies.

Rick

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Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, March 30 2009 @ 11:33 AM CDT

Since you seem to have some insight on this State Statue thing, how about quoting us the SS numbers and/or post a pdf of them? That way, we can all become ed-u-cated in this matter. Unfortunately, I don't have a set of them and don't have time to go the library right now.

Andy Mueller, Pewaukee Village

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