By GLEN WERLING
Before any further action is taken on developing a job description for the Ossian Police Chief, the Ossian Town Council wants to have a joint meeting with the Ossian Board of Metropolitan Police Commissioners.
Commissioner President Caleb Chichester informed fellow board members Stan Reed and Bob Miller of the wish of Ossian Town Council President Josh Barkley at Tuesday evening’s commissioner’s meeting.
“I’m not sure what he wants to discuss, he just said he wants to discuss the future of the department,” Chichester said.
Ossian Police Sgt. Stephanie Tucker said that all members of the department should be present for that discussion. Chichester observed that it would have to be an open meeting because he knew of nothing that could be discussed about the future of the department that could possibly be done in executive session.
Tucker added that the department currently has 14 applicants for the open officer’s position and that testing of those candidates is slated for Saturday. She wondered how discussions of the “future of the department” would impact that testing and the department’s plans for filling the open position.
Chichester told Tucker that for now, he didn’t want to see the department stop the testing process until the council’s plans are gauged.
Tucker said hat Barkley had mentioned at the most recent meeting of the town council that contracting for police coverage with the Wells County Sheriff’s Department might be one idea to consider to address the department’s chronic staffing shortages. Both Tucker and Police Chief Dave Rigney — who are planning to retire from the department this year — have stated in the past they do not think contracting with the sheriff’s department is a good idea.
Rigney had brought to Tuesday night’s meeting a list of calls that were handled in the Ossian town limits solely by Wells County Sheriff’s deputies in 2021 and 2022.
In all, a total of 63 calls were handled by deputies in 2022, but he also pointed out that 34 calls were handled in the county solely by Ossian police officers in 2021.
Those 63 calls, Miller pointed out, made up about 4 percent of the calls for service in Ossian in 2021.
So far in 2022, sheriff’s deputies have handled 22 calls for service in Ossian and Ossian police officers have handled 16 calls for service in Wells County outside of the town limits.
Rigney added it took a lot of work to come up with the numbers because Silo Farms mobile home park, while it is not in Ossian, has an Ossian address. Ossian officers frequently assist sheriff’s deputies in calls to the mobile home park. The same is true for the rural areas surrounding Ossian, all of which have Ossian addresses — as well as Kingsland and Tocsin with Ossian addresses. Ossian officers will often provide mutual aid to the sheriff’s department at those addresses.
In a related matter, Tucker stressed to Chichester that budget 2023 time is here and she needs to know what the council’s decision regarding a pay matrix will be in order to put together the budget for 2023.
In other business, Rigney reported that the new Dodge Durango patrol vehicle, which was ordered in 2021, should be here by September.
Rigney also updated the commissioners on changes made by the state to the Public Employee’s Retirement Fund as of July 1.
Rigney also reported that the department gasoline bill for the monthly fiscal period ending June 15 was $1,778.86, well above the monthly fuel budget of $1,166.67.
The department’s officers drove 4,402 miles during the period, of which 1,642 were commuter miles.
The department’s officers also logged 46.25 hours of overtime during the period May 15-June 11. Rigney observed that was because of vacations and Tucker was away for DARE training.
Officer Brian McClish logged the most overtime, with Russell Mounsey second at 13.5 hours, Rigney at 13 and Tucker at 5.75.
glenw@news-banner.com
