Belvedere aims to mitigate police staffing shortage

Belvedere officials, looking to shore up staffing on the police force, have hired one new officer and hope another is on the way.

The City Council unanimously agreed at its meeting on Oct. 9 to allow the department to recruit a new officer to replace an officer on long-term disability leave.

Meanwhile, Officer Erin Harrell has joined the department to replace an officer who took a position at the Novato Police Department. Harrell, who started on the job on Monday, is expected to complete training in February. Harrell’s salary is approximately $202,000.

When fully staffed, the Belvedere Police Department has six officers and a chief. The department has operated with five full-time sworn officers, not including Wu, since 2020 while maintaining an unfunded vacancy. It has been operating with three patrol officers for much of the year because of the departure of the officer to Novato and the officer on administrative leave. The latter remains a funded officer on the city’s books.

The police department budget is approximately $1.7 million.

“Due to the size of our police department we are susceptible to minor changes to personnel,” said City Manager Robert Zadnik. “Even the loss of a single officer means others have to work overtime to cover those duty shifts.”

The police department will seek to recruit a lateral officer – an officer who has cleared field training with another agency – to come on immediately, Wu said.

“We are currently in the recruitment process,” Wu said. “As a small department, the loss or gain of an officer can greatly impact our ability to serve our community.”

The council approved deferring $138,187 in capital improvements to pay for the new officer through the end of the fiscal year on July 1. The new hire will be funded for eight months at an estimated cost of $136,000.

The deferred capital programs involve solar-electric charging stations at the city corporation yard, estimated to cost $103,187; painting of the corporation yard building for $10,000; and City Hall renovations, a $25,000 expense.

The Tiburon Police Department has an officer designated to provide coverage for shifts in Belvedere during the shortfall period through February. The Tiburon officer will be compensated with overtime paid by Belvedere.

Some City Council members expressed concern about the additional officer being unfunded after the current fiscal year.

“The question is, you figure out how to pay for it this year, we potentially identify rollover money even for next year, but long term, given the uncertainty of the long-term disability, that’s the question,” said Councilmember Peter Mark.

Mayor Jim Lynch noted that staff should study the staffing shortage’s effects on the community, both the fiscal impact and on quality of service.

“We are in this circumstance and I think we ought to be using it to learn as much as we can how valuable the concierge service is to our community,” Lynch said.