Port Washington police do a terrific job—professional and timely. We are lucky as a community to have their support, along with the volunteer fire department and fire medics.
Since 1995, we’ve been residents, and the police district has said it needs a new facility. Today, we have the same facility and the same idea that we need a new facility. We have more police, more administrators, and a bigger budget.
That said, the district policing footprint hasn’t gotten any bigger over the years. There are greater mandates and responsibilities, school coverage, for example, and there may be more in the years ahead. Increased use of technology should be used to maintain safety, project power and deterrence.
The department has stated that its ability to respond to existing and large-scale future development within its coverage area is a non-issue. None of this justifies the proposed expanded facility.
Without a comprehensive, publicly agreed, long-term year plan for how district policing will be accomplished, however, and without discussion of whether consolidation of police district coverage makes sense now or in the future, the district has yet to make a legitimate business case for a new, wider-scope, three times larger, $40 million facility, one that dwarfs the size and cost of recently built Nassau County olice precinct facilities.
Just because the district wants it is not an acceptable answer.
Before it became the current police station, the same location hosted a larger, two-story building.
We have seen many proposals to increase the size and scope of facilities at that location, to build up, down, and back. We have also seen proposals for other locations.
The issue of where logistically, are police facilities best located, and any plans, should be debated publicly and agreed, in advance of any commitment. Until four years ago, they were. Not so today.
In industry, when you want to invest multi-billions of dollars in equipment, to be acquired and operated over a full economic lifetime, you need a business case and strategic and operating plans to justify that spending.
You need due diligence, agreed forecasts of demand, network scope, operating costs, maintenance support costs, staffing requirements, and so on.
A diligent top management and a board of directors exercising proper oversight, representing stakeholders as fiduciaries, expect a well-documented plan and an investment projected to produce acceptable returns over its lifetime.
They don’t just trust the plan, the numbers, or the people producing them, they question them, and they test them. ‘What if?’
Taxpayers expect the same level of diligence and oversight from the police district, elected commissioners, and Town Council. Is there public and district agreement on a policing plan, on finances, and on facilities requirements? No.
No current commissioner ran, or was elected, based on a platform to build, spend, and tax. Several who did were voted out. Commissioners are not properly representing taxpayers’ fiduciary interests.
Continuously soliciting community and taxpayer involvement in these decisions is essential. We don’t need a PR firm or an A&E firm to paint pretty pictures of insider-decided opinions, which is what the district has done.
We need community involvement to avoid fresh, self-inflicted wounds and the need for taxpayer bail-outs like Derby Road.
We can all understand the need for transaction confidentiality, but not scores of ‘executive sessions’ as a means of keeping the public from the facts, shielding decision makers from the result of a failure to publicly plan, or for poor planning and results.
Public input to consider and agree on plans, in advance of commitments, is necessary. We are nowhere near the starting line, let alone the finish of such discussions.
Bottom line: there is no justification for a new, $40 million Port Washington Police District headquarters.
The proposed $32 million construction bond request deserves to be rejected by the North Hempstead Town Council and sent back to the drawing board for legitimate public input to a legitimate business case, wherever that leads. Until then, it is time to press pause on any further spending, and to publicly plan for no-cost exit options.
Robert Mann
Port Washington
I agree with this 100%! The arrogance currently on display by the police is astonishing. They are determined to push this project through with a minimum of input from the community because they’re convinced they know best – and also because they know that most of the community does not support this plan in its current iteration (why else would they refuse to hold a referendum?) The drawings they’ve shared are inaccurate and incomplete and yet they don’t feel any obligation to do better and work with us. It is short-sighted on their part to not work for buy-in.