By Sage Alexander
Times-Standard
ARCATA, Calif. — As Arcata Police Department officers work overtime to cope with low staff, a $50,000 hiring bonus for new officers was approved Wednesday by the city council. The council approved increased hiring bonuses, funds for department improvements, and a retention bonus unanimously at a meeting, with Mayor Sarah Schaefer absent.
“For me, this is a pretty easy decision,” said councilmember Stacy Atkins-Salazar at the meeting.
She said that when she discussed concerns with constituents, the vast majority involved issues that could be helped with a fully staffed police department.
“APD is working incredibly hard and stretched dangerously thin,” she said.
According to a staff report, there are currently 19 officers in the department. The department is budgeted for 27 officers.
While the city is currently training cadets, they will not be independent officers until April 2024. The bonus is targeted toward fully trained, employed police officers. New officers would receive $30,000 within the first nine months of employment, for a total of $50,000 two and half years after being hired. A yearly retention bonus of $7,500 is included for current officers, for three years.
The previous hiring bonus offered by the city was $15,000.
Tabatha Miller, finance director, said at the meeting the department is relying heavily on overtime to deal with the staffing issue, which is expensive. She also confirmed a comment by Kimberly White was partially true, that the city had not had to pay the vacant salaries and thus had some flexibility in the budget to pay for the bonuses.
Arcata Police Chief Brian Ahearn said at the meeting APD is down one detective and the one remaining detective is next in line to relieve patrol officers.
Atkins-Salazar said a law enforcement presence in the Valley West neighborhood, the Arcata Plaza, and open spaces such as parks and schools would be achieved with more staff. Councilmember Alexandra Stillman voiced her support for the incentives and said the city needed to also think about replacing a police car.
$60,000 was approved for workplace enhancements such as workstation improvements.
City Manager Karen Diemer said at the meeting that during exit interviews, officers that were leaving noted the attractiveness of departments with newer equipment.
Some public commenters that were present voiced their support for the incentive.
“Somebody is gonna die,” one public commenter said. He said that his observation is that nobody ever gets a ticket in Arcata, and noted that traffic enforcement is lacking.
During the meeting, Councilmembers Kimberly White noted the case of Jennifer Mariposa Garcia, who was fatally struck by a vehicle while walking her 2-year-old child.
Joanne McGarry said that there should be more community involvement to face issues, so as to make Arcata a town the police want to come to.
“The conversation tends to be about getting up to a fully staffed number,” said Fred Weis during public comment. “I would like to see a budget for increasing that number.”
He also said he was in support of housing incentives for officers.
Another public commenter, Leslie Johnson, said that she was not in support of the incentive, and noted that she came to the meeting because of a recent Times-Standard article about roofies. She said, “survivors absolutely should not be subjected to the police’s lack of integrity,” and said that cops have lost the privilege of protecting survivors. She said police are the “army of the rich” and not to throw survivors to the corrupt wolves.
Vice Mayor Meredith Matthews said at the meeting that some people have been telling her drink-spiking has been a huge problem.
“I’ve reached out to several bars in town and they said they would retrain their staff,” she said. She asked people to contact her if they would like a drink test strip.
“This is something Joanne was talking about — sometimes, it’s about looking out for each other,” Matthews said at the meeting.
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