Council agenda: Saving helicopters

Ideas for maintaining police unit to be discussed at Tuesday's city council meeting.

Topeka City Council members are scrambling to find some way to reverse their earlier decision to cut funds for the police department helicopters.

After realizing the administration wasn't bluffing about the need for $243,000 more in the police budget to keep the choppers flying, council members have placed several ideas for saving the unit on the agenda for Tuesday night's meeting.

One is a resolution, co-sponsored by seven of the nine council members, to dip into the contingency line item in the general fund.

Another, sponsored solely by Councilman Duane Pomeroy, would give the city's helicopter fleet to Shawnee County in the hope the county could find a way to fund its operation.

To underscore the fact that the city administration also is working on a plan to save the program, Police Chief Dean Forster is scheduled to give a progress report to the council.

The administration's approach would involve getting bits of the funding from numerous sources, some outside the city.

Mayor Joan Wagnon said Friday she and Forster need a little more time to put a plan together. But she said she felt compelled to talk about her efforts to prevent the council from doing something rash.

"Holding back the discussion of this was counterproductive," she said.

The main concern the administration has about taking the money out of the contingency line item is the possibility Moody's Investor Services might downgrade its rating of city bonds. If Moody's should decide the city is being incautious in budgeting too little money for contingencies and lowers the rating on city-issued bonds, the city could end up paying higher interest rates when it needs to borrow money.

Wagnon is so concerned about that, she said Friday she would have vetoed any budget approved by the council in August that contained less than the $4.6 million approved for contingencies.

Now it is too late to veto the budget and force the council to adopt a new one. So, Wagnon is reluctantly considering dipping into the contingency line item for some of the $243,000 needed for the helicopter program.

But she argues it is neither wise nor necessary to take all the money needed from the contingency fund.

Wagnon and Forster are looking at a number of ideas. Part of their plan involves gratefully accepting money raised in private donations. Another is for Forster to do whatever he can to hold the line on spending this year, so he can end 1999 with more money than planned.

They also are pursuing agreements with other government entities to provide some help. They not only have approached Shawnee County for help, but also other law enforcement agencies. Wagnon didn't identify the others.

Wagnon said it has become clear the loss of the Topeka helicopter program would hurt more than just Topeka. The helicopters often respond to requests for help outside the city limits.

Last week, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation requested assistance from the Topeka police helicopters in the search for Scotty Adam, the murderer who escaped from the Morris County Jail after being sentenced to more than 40 years in prison. Normally, the city would have agreed to help, but the helicopter unit's infrared sensing equipment was inoperable that day, so Topeka's helicopter stayed home.

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