Commissioners stress importance of crime prevention, alternative funding methods in decision over youth services unit
A community public safety program aimed at dissuading crime among local youth will push forward two more years, despite what had been an approaching March depletion date for current funding.
The city’s 2012 operating budget accounted for an assumed $240,000 in outside funding for the Youth Services Unit, a cohort of the Mount Pleasant Police Department’s Community Services/Crime Prevention Unit.
City Manager Kathie Grinzinger said now two of the unit’s four designated officers are funded with grant money that is due to run out next month. But last week’s 5-1 approval of a budget amendment, allotting $400,000 to cover the shortfall, has left city commissioners hoping other agencies will step up financially down the road.
Commissioner Nancy English recalled to her colleagues looking into what parts of the program could be cut, sustained or re-prioritized but said she ultimately supported its value.
“I think a clear warning is going out throughout the community, and I think the scare that this very likely could be cut,” she said. “We need to work as a community.”
Commissioner Jim Holton stressed the need to look forward and search for financial partners for the program.
“The city should not be the sole survivor in this deal providing the funds for it," he said.
Much of the YSU funding in the past has come from 2-percent allocations from the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, which has recently declined more than city officials expected.
City staff’s recommendation to amend the ongoing budget in response, Grinzinger said, also included the goal to make the issue a part of a more wide-ranging conversation in the future about what services and programs are important and affordable.
The only commissioner not to support the budget amendment last week was Jon Joslin, who said he was uncomfortable with how the decision's balance could eventually impact other city services.
“We’ve been trying to get people to understand that this program’s at risk, but nobody stepped up. It just always seems like it always falls back on the city,” he said. “Public safety is obviously very important to our community, but ... unfortunately, there (are) other things in the community that we need.”
Grinzinger quoted Mount Pleasant Police Capt. Thomas Forsberg when she told commissioners of a final reason city staff made the recommendation to approve the budget amendment: “We have 23 officers dedicated to reacting to crime. It seems reasonable to devote at least four to preventing it.”
