Police Building Plans Go Public June 4; Work Session Format Debated

STONE HARBOR – Stone Harbor Borough Council received a presentation on plans for the new police building at its May 17 meeting. “This has been 10 years in the making,” said Council member Judith Davies-Dunhour, Public Safety Committee chair, as she introduced the presentation of plans the borough hopes to put out for bids in June. 
After years of debate on location for the new building, or even renovation of the existing one, the borough settled on new construction in the parking lot adjacent to the current police building. The complex will have a connector to the old building, portions of which will remain under police department control used for evidence processing and storage.
The police headquarters will be a two-story building with the second story sharing only part of the footprint of the main floor. The main entrance to the proposed 8,300-square-foot building will be on 95th Street with a secured, police-personnel-only entrance facing the 96th Street parking lot in the rear. 
Estimates are that nine parking spaces will be lost in the process.
The first-floor plans call for a public entrance lobby, with secured access to the rest of the structure, shift commander’s office, squad room, great room and space for officers to secure personal items when on shift. The ground floor will also hold the areas needed for booking and holding individuals including the processing area, interview rooms, and holding cells, along with access to the sally port, a control vehicle entryway.
A second floor that is only partly the size of the first will house administrative offices, an additional interview room, detective’s area, and training space.
A public presentation is planned in the council meeting room June 4 at 9 a.m.
Following the presentation, the council will consider approval at its first June meeting. The goal is to begin construction by Sept. 12.
Work Session Format
Recently council has been experimenting with a new format which set aside one of its two monthly meetings for public discussion of issues and resolutions to be formally considered and voted on at a later meeting.
Council President Karen Lane said that the new format was “meeting some resistance.” Council members engaged in a discussion of another format.
Davies-Dunhour, a candidate for mayor, argued for bringing more of the discussions and presentations conducted in committee meetings to council even if it required adding another day of meeting to the monthly schedule.
This was consistent with her campaign statements arguing that the committee structure undermines public knowledge of issues which are discussed “behind closed doors.”
Davies-Dunhour said she wants the committees to stop being filters for information that reaches council and to become implementers of thought-out and publicly discussed council decisions.
Joan Kramar, chair of Public Works Committee, opposes plans that would “weaken the committees and undermine the chairs.” Kramar, who has served on many council committees during her tenure, feels the committee structure works well for an in-depth examination of issues.
Mantura Gallagher, also running for a council seat in the June 7 primary, agreed that a broader role for all council members was appropriate. She argued that she should be part of the discussion on all areas of borough business and not just on those issues before committees to which she is appointed.
Barry Mastrangelo, seeking reelection in the Republican primary, worried that bringing the committee presentation and discussions to the council would not work given the amount of time that is spent on the issues at the level of the six standing committees. He supported open discussion but was concerned about the practicality of bringing the committee activity entirely before council.
Mayor Suzanne Walters said that council members are always free under any format to request discussion of any agenda item. She said the concern with the newly-installed format was that one work session and one session for voting on issues per month caused practical difficulties. Borough Administrator Jill Gougher said too many time sensitive items just did not fit the format.
The discussion ended with an agreement that council would move to a format that included discussion periods at the start of each meeting followed by a business section at the meeting for formal consideration and voting on resolutions.
The experiment with increased open discussion during council meetings has been favorably commented on by residents.
Borough Revaluation
Faced with a mandate, the borough must conduct a comprehensive revaluation of all real property for assessment purposes in time to use new assessments for the 2017 tax year.
The borough has over 3,000 properties that would face revaluation.
The last one in Stone Harbor was in 2009. The state requires a new effort when there is evidence that valuations, which are done to market values in the state, are sufficiently outdated so that they leave some taxpayers in a situation of paying too high a property tax and others too low.
A private company will be hired for the task based on an open bid process.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.