PARKVILLE, Mo.----- The city of Parkville and its police department are facing big budget adjustments for 2012 and significant internal changes that are taking place now.
These adjustments and changes have been a long time coming in Parkville, and were sparked on March 7 when Parkville Police Lt., John Moyer resigned.
After 18 years of service with the Parkville Police Department, Moyer decided to take a job closer to home.
“I had another opportunity to work closer to home,” Moyer said. “It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. I just thought it was the right time in my career to get closer to home.”
Moyer was an integral part of the Parkville Police Department, providing many services such as IT and police vehicle maintenance for the station as well as City Hall. Parkville Police Chief Kevin Chrisman said Moyer was more than a police officer.
“He was a commander here,” Chrisman said. “He wore many hats. He was not only responsible for assisting me as the police chief in running the police department, he was also primarily responsible for the IT for the police station and City Hall. He helped build the system we are currently using.”
Moyer also created a software program that the station was using to enter stop reports, which he took with him when he left.
“He prepared a better program than the state provides for all agencies to utilize,” said Chrisman. “I was not totally aware that it was his own program. We’re in the market now to look for software, which is not a big thing, it just sets us back. That will not happen to this organization again.”
Currently the station has no way to enter these reports until it purchases new software and then the department must enter all the reports from earlier this year.
Parkville Police Sgt. Kevin Davis explained why Moyer had taken on so many tasks over the years.
“We did it because we had to do it,” said Davis. “We couldn’t afford to do it, and the city couldn’t afford to do it. We didn’t have a budget for it. We grew, and we had to keep up somehow.”
For years Parkville has been saving money on IT, garage, and many other services because they could call on Moyer to handle them instead of outsourcing to different vendors. Now that Moyer is gone, the city’s budget will have to be significantly adjusted to compensate for these new expenses.
“The budget will definitely be adjusted in many aspects from his role here,” Chrisman said. “One will definitely be IT, but just not for the police department but for the whole city because there are other city entities here that use the computers. The city will be looking at it, and I will be part of helping come up with a plan to outsource it.”
This budget adjustment may have come sooner than expected, but the police department and Parkville city officials knew that big changes for the budget were in the future.
“They have been aware of this since I was hired in January of ’09,” said Chrisman. “I shared with them that there was going to be a day when we will need to appropriate money in our budget for IT, and it would just be part of our operating budget. That will be happening in 2012.”
Moyer also was aware of the changes the city and department would face once he left.
“I knew they were going to have to make some changes to help them adjust and adapt,” Moyer said. “There wasn’t anything I could do about that.”
The exact cost of replacing Moyer’s services isn’t known. The department and city will be looking at several options to outsource these services.
“No one really knows yet what it will cost to bring it up to today’s standards,” Chrisman said. “You cannot put a price tag on it. When you have an in-house person, and they’re doing a different role than what they are hired for, you are saving the city money. We’ll see in the near future. Obviously IT is an expensive function, but there are ways you can keep your systems going where you don’t have to spend a whole lot of money.”
Chrisman says his goal is to hire an IT specialist and purchase new software within the next 30 days. It won’t be until next year that Chrisman and the city have negotiated an appropriate budget to cover the new expenses.
Although the Police Station and City will be making several painful changes in the near future, Chrisman says the experience has been positive in many aspects.
“Most cities go through these growing pains that we are experiencing right now,” he said. “What we are experiencing is actually very positive. There are really not many difficulties, it’s just getting acclimated to new roles.”
They are also looking to upgrade their systems and hopefully have everything running better than it was before.
“We are looking at bettering our systems,” said Chrisman. “We are a little antiquated here with our setup because it has the potential to cease working. There comes a time when the system needs to be updated and brought to current times, and when you do that you hope you have less problems because you are using current technology.”
Chrisman is also working on promoting his staff to fill the void left by Moyer.
“The plus side is it gives the opportunity for upper movement, which I am very excited about,” Chrisman said.
Sgt. Kevin Davis and Sgt. Jon Jordan will both be receiving promotions soon. Jordan will be promoted to captain while Davis is being promoted to major.
Davis will be taking over many of Moyers old duties, but a few changes will be made.
“My main focus according to the chief is more police public relations,” Davis said. “We will both be doing emergency management coordination.”
Davis says that there are benefits from outsourcing services, and he will be able to narrow his focus on police work and no other outside duties.
“My true passion is this job,” he said. “I’ll have a lot better focus on just police work, and I’ll be less distracted. I’ll give a much better service to the police department and the community.”
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