Arlington Heights Oks Fire, Police Budgets

Arlington Heights trustees approved police and fire budgets Wednesday, completing its budget workshops for the year.

The board will vote on the final 2014 budget on April 1.

Fire Chief Glenn Ericksen and Police Chief Gerald Mourning came before the board to review each department’s budget.

The Arlington Heights Fire Department has a $20 million budget and the department is not asking for any additional requests despite having a busy 2012. Firefighters responded to over 10,000 emergency calls and had a response time of six minutes or less in 90 percent of structure fire calls, Ericksen said.

A few highlights from the last year included reestablishing the department’s CPR classes while keeping costs down and developing an emergency preparedness guide for residents, he said.

There is no change to staffing levels planned. The department has 110 full-time employees, including 84 firefighters/paramedics. Overtime is projected at $343,000, down 2.5 percent from last year. Ericksen said the amount is based on a best case scenario considering the number of sick calls and injuries during the year. Additionally, being unable to fill some of the openings is offset by overtime, he said.

Arlington Heights Fire Department obtained a federal grant in 2008 to add more firefighters over a five-year period. The grant paid 100 percent of the cost the first year with the village taking on the cost in the last year. The department has kept six of the nine hired under that grant, Ericksen said.

There are different models for the number of firefighters a department should have on staff, but the figure is based on the number of emergency calls, he said. “We are understaffed compared to the models (available),” Ericksen said. “We are doing more calls with fewer firefighters as compared to any of the models.”

The fire department’s fiscal year budget 2014 includes funding for upgrades of its radios for a transition to a new dispatch center, a new ladder truck and the completion of a its Training Facility at Nickol Knoll rehabilitation project. 

AHP budget approved

Mourning gave trustees an update of what the police department accomplished in 2012.

Highlights from last year include: 

• Part I crimes (violent crimes reported to the FBI) are down 10 percent, continuing a trend over the last four years. “We are extremely proud,” Mourning said. “It is, frankly, a team effort.”
• Traffic accidents dropped by 7 percent.
• The number of parking violations issued increased to 17,348 from 14,725 in 2011.

Trustees approved the police department’s $23.4 million budget. The budget does not include hiring any additional officers.

While crime is down, Mourning said he could use more officers for investigations since there is a dramatic increase in fraud and identity theft. The village also continues to have an issue with prostitution at local hotels and the department could use more officers to investigate those cases, he said.

“I’d always like to have more officers, I know we are not in a position to hire more officers,” the chief said.

Several trustees said they have received complaints from residents about the department’s parking enforcement especially in the downtown. Mourning said businesses want spots available so police need to enforce parking ordinances.

Mourning outlined a few goals for the upcoming year:

• Create a victim’s advocate position
• Develop a liaison to the faith community
• Research the possibility of creating a virtual roll call
• Create a “Use of Force” committee to review use of force incidents to develop in-service training