City Council Discusses Police Budget, Expansion of Historic District

At the March 28 city council meeting, Chief Douglas Holland presented the budget summary for fiscal year 2012, including a request for a 34 percent increase in parking enforcement expenditures.

In FY 2011, the city budgeted $157,450 for parking enforcement. The summary for 2012 includes a request to bump that number by about $54,000 to $211,190.

The increase is needed because in 2011, the costs for parking lot leases and expenses for meter collection were underestimated, Holland said.

The department was budgeted $10,000 less in 2011 for parking contractual agreements than in 2010, according to City Treasurer Elaine Stookey.

Holland’s presentation also included a request to increase the budget for communications and records by 9.2 percent. He mainly attributed the $69,000 increase to the maintenance and upgrade of , which tracks response times for all police calls. Holland said the system’s annual maintenance and upgrade costs likely will be $75,000.

The year-to-year HPD budget comparison showed a 1 percent increase in 2012 over the current fiscal year. Employee benefits are slated to increase by $90,000 or 5 percent in the budget summary.

Councilman Douglas Dudrow (Ward 1) said that many residential street signs in Hyattsville are incorrect. Many of the signs on streets like Hamilton and Gallatin require a residential parking permit 24 hours a day, but residents petitioned enforcement hours to be changed to 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Dudrow said. Holland said he has been in talks but “has not come upon a resolution” with the city’s department of public works.

The council also authorized Mayor William Gardiner to send a letter of support to the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority for expansion of the Hyattsville Historic District.

Stuart Eisenberg, executive director of Hyattsville Community Development Corporation, presented the council with a draft of the mapped expansion of the historic district into West Hyattsville.

“[The Hyattsville CDC] would like to see the largest expansion that makes sense and can be feasibly done, but we also respect the budgetary process it’s going through,” Eisenberg said, adding that without a grant, the CDC will not be able to pursue the project.

Chris Giunta, acting supervisor for the office of code enforcement presented his department’s budget summary, which primarily focused on a request to upgrade software for record keeping. The current software, which was implemented in 2007, is not designed for code enforcement but rather financing, and new software would make for better communication internally and with residents, Giunta said.

He estimated that the new software would cost between $20,000 and $25,000. The department’s operating budget proposal for FY 2012 showed an $18,000 increase over FY 2011.