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Police budget discussion touches on riot gear
County Council anxious to fund improved department
by Nathan Eagle - THE GARDEN ISLAND
The Kaua‘i Police Department wants two new staff positions, more protective equipment and improved information technology programs.
The County Council looked ready yesterday to fund this and then some — whatever it takes to help the new police chief continue his mission to overhaul a previously embattled department.
Police Chief Darryl Perry, the veteran law enforcement officer who took the reins in October, candidly answered the council’s questions and justified the requests made in the department’s proposed $20.5 million budget for next fiscal year.
Deputy Police Chief Mark Begley joined Perry to help field the seven-member legislative body’s questions posed during a more than three-hour hearing at the Historic County Building.
“Hold me accountable, hold us accountable, but give us the tools to do the job,” Perry said.
Councilwoman Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho, a former county prosecutor, said Perry has accomplished more in the past six months than she has seen previous police chiefs do in five years.
“It would be unfair for us not to support you,” she said.
The accolades went around the table, with councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura voicing her pleasure in seeing “good leadership” effectively steer the department in a positive direction.
Perry, who is hoping to attain department accreditation, touched on aspects of this new course.
The change involves modifying the department’s standards of conduct, crime mapping and a shift away from 100 percent “take home” police vehicles into a subsidized program.
Another key area the chief plans to focus on is filling the 38 vacancies in the department, which includes both sworn and civilian positions. Roughly $66,000 to advertise for these jobs and aid recruitment efforts is budgeted.
The two new positions proposed in the budget are for a secretary and a personnel clerk at a cost of $66,000.
The secretary, a position which Iseri-Carvalho said should be renamed, would manage all the clerical duties of the chief’s office and perform an internal audit.
The clerk would create and process human resources documents, saving the county some $40,000 annually by avoiding excessive overtime, according to the proposed budget.
Although not requested, councilman Mel Rapozo asked the chief if he would be open to the county funding an attorney to handle legal matters specifically for the department.
It would be a “tremendous benefit,” Perry said.
While reviewing the 25 tasers and riot shields requested in the budget at a cost of $29,800, discussion turned to the August protests over Hawaii Superferry’s first two trips to Kaua‘i.
Rapozo said that officers seemed unprepared and improperly outfitted to handle the hundreds of demonstrators who rallied at Nawiliwili Harbor.
He questioned if 25 riot shields was enough, noting that similar protests will likely occur again for a different controversial issue or whenever the interisland catamaran decides to resume passenger-vehicle service to the Garden Isle.
“The Kaua‘i Police Department was not prepared for what happened,” Perry said, referring to the Superferry protests.
The department still lacks the necessary equipment to handle such a situation “instantaneously,” but operational plans are now in place to partner with other agencies to effectively respond, he said.
He said this is the first phase of an equipment upgrade, noting his preference to the term “protective shields” rather than “riot gear.”
The department’s proposed budget is up some $2 million over the current fiscal year’s.
Mayor Bryan Baptiste’s overall proposed operating budget for fiscal year 2009 is $155.7 million, a nearly 5 percent increase.
The council yesterday also reviewed the proposed budgets for the Personnel Department and Office of the County Clerk.
Departmental budget reviews resume with the Planning Department at 9 a.m., Monday, in council chambers.
For more information, visit www.kauai.gov
by Nathan Eagle - THE GARDEN ISLAND
The Kaua‘i Police Department wants two new staff positions, more protective equipment and improved information technology programs.
The County Council looked ready yesterday to fund this and then some — whatever it takes to help the new police chief continue his mission to overhaul a previously embattled department.
Police Chief Darryl Perry, the veteran law enforcement officer who took the reins in October, candidly answered the council’s questions and justified the requests made in the department’s proposed $20.5 million budget for next fiscal year.
Deputy Police Chief Mark Begley joined Perry to help field the seven-member legislative body’s questions posed during a more than three-hour hearing at the Historic County Building.
“Hold me accountable, hold us accountable, but give us the tools to do the job,” Perry said.
Councilwoman Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho, a former county prosecutor, said Perry has accomplished more in the past six months than she has seen previous police chiefs do in five years.
“It would be unfair for us not to support you,” she said.
The accolades went around the table, with councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura voicing her pleasure in seeing “good leadership” effectively steer the department in a positive direction.
Perry, who is hoping to attain department accreditation, touched on aspects of this new course.
The change involves modifying the department’s standards of conduct, crime mapping and a shift away from 100 percent “take home” police vehicles into a subsidized program.
Another key area the chief plans to focus on is filling the 38 vacancies in the department, which includes both sworn and civilian positions. Roughly $66,000 to advertise for these jobs and aid recruitment efforts is budgeted.
The two new positions proposed in the budget are for a secretary and a personnel clerk at a cost of $66,000.
The secretary, a position which Iseri-Carvalho said should be renamed, would manage all the clerical duties of the chief’s office and perform an internal audit.
The clerk would create and process human resources documents, saving the county some $40,000 annually by avoiding excessive overtime, according to the proposed budget.
Although not requested, councilman Mel Rapozo asked the chief if he would be open to the county funding an attorney to handle legal matters specifically for the department.
It would be a “tremendous benefit,” Perry said.
While reviewing the 25 tasers and riot shields requested in the budget at a cost of $29,800, discussion turned to the August protests over Hawaii Superferry’s first two trips to Kaua‘i.
Rapozo said that officers seemed unprepared and improperly outfitted to handle the hundreds of demonstrators who rallied at Nawiliwili Harbor.
He questioned if 25 riot shields was enough, noting that similar protests will likely occur again for a different controversial issue or whenever the interisland catamaran decides to resume passenger-vehicle service to the Garden Isle.
“The Kaua‘i Police Department was not prepared for what happened,” Perry said, referring to the Superferry protests.
The department still lacks the necessary equipment to handle such a situation “instantaneously,” but operational plans are now in place to partner with other agencies to effectively respond, he said.
He said this is the first phase of an equipment upgrade, noting his preference to the term “protective shields” rather than “riot gear.”
The department’s proposed budget is up some $2 million over the current fiscal year’s.
Mayor Bryan Baptiste’s overall proposed operating budget for fiscal year 2009 is $155.7 million, a nearly 5 percent increase.
The council yesterday also reviewed the proposed budgets for the Personnel Department and Office of the County Clerk.
Departmental budget reviews resume with the Planning Department at 9 a.m., Monday, in council chambers.
For more information, visit www.kauai.gov
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Ronald Pray wrote on Oct 17, 2009 5:14 AM:
I am a former U.S. Coast Guard Search and rescue team member at Barbers Point. I never read the scathing November 28 article about a rescue I did in 1977 while on leave.
In November of 1977 I had visited Kauai on leave and hiked the Na Pali coast to go camping. On the trail I saw some hikers in front of me ignore the cries of a man saying he was poisoned by mushrooms he had eaten. I know that there are many poisonous varieties from the orange mushrooms to the copelandia varieties which are deadly. I stopped and he was vomitting and telling me that he was dying. I laid my sleeping bag down onto the ground and made him comfortable then lit my coleman stove and cooked him soup to eat. He ate the soup and continued vomitting. He said that he needed immediate attention. I ecouraged him to vommit everything out of his stomache.
I asked him if he would be OK while I ran back to Haena for help and he said please do that.
I ran from his location sometimes skipping the zig-zags in the trails steep inclines jumping straight down to the trail below. I had injured my Achilles tendon by twisting my ankle which put me on light duty upon returning to Barbers Point.
I then knocked on the first door I found and asked them to contact the U.S. Coast Guard that there was a man stranded on the trail who needed immediate attention.
The Fire Department went in on the trail and found the man walking out on his own. This is why the writer in 1977 claimed that I had misread the situation and that is why he called my rescue "The Rescue that wasn't". I believe that had that man died, his death would have been on my ticket and given that rescuing folks was my business I had a responsibility to perform.
We may never know what part my inducing vomiting played in the recovery of this man. I'd like to believe that it played a major role in his quick recovery.
I am proud that I stood for the highest traditions of the U.S. Coast Guard on that fateful day on the Na Pali Coast.To this day, I have a lump in my Achilles Tendon which hurts on certain days to remind me of that day I ran into that man.
Malama Pono,
Former 3rd Class Petty Officer Ronald Pray "