Update: March 26, 9 a.m. with comment from City Manager Rachel Tabelski:
Public safety takes center stage at Monday night’s City Council Conference Meeting with resolutions for an extension of the city’s School Resource Officer contract with the Batavia City School District and the creation of a temporary detective position on the agenda.
The meeting is scheduled for 7 o’clock at the City Hall Council Board Room.
City Manager Rachael Tabelski, in a memo dated March 18, is recommending that City Council continue the SRO program with the BCSD for two more years, through June 30, 2024. The current agreement is set to expire this June.
Per the memo:
- The city will provide a full-time Batavia Police Department officer to the school district, someone with “excellent communication skills, ability to relate to children and students, and planning skills.”
- The school district will reimburse the city for 100 percent of the officer’s salary and benefits, including overtime, for a work schedule that starts on the first day of the academic year through the final day of the academic year.
- The city will provide a vehicle, uniform, equipment and training for the SRO.
Officer Miah Stevens, a graduate of Pembroke High, Genesee Community College and Brockport State College, has served in that capacity since Feb. 2021.
As far as the detective post is concerned, Tabelski recommends creating the temporary job as part of the city’s succession planning, noting that a full-time detective is retiring soon.
“By promoting an existing City of Batavia police officer, we will ensure the new detective will have time to work alongside the other detective to learn the functions and responsibilities of the job and create a smooth transition,” she wrote.
Her memo indicates that the new position – tentatively to be hired after April 1 -- would add $15,000 to the police department’s expenditures budget and would be funded by the 2022-23 fiscal year operating budget.
"The detective position, if approved by City Council, would be filled through the Civil Service hiring process," Tabelski said.
In other developments, Council will be asked to approve:
- An agreement with the Genesee Country Farmers Market to operate on the former JC Penney parking lot off Bank Street on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. from June 3 through Oct. 28;
- A request from the First Presbyterian Church of Batavia to conduct a Good Friday Blessing Service at noon on April 15 outside the City Centre on Main Street. Rev. Dr. Roula Alkhouri, pastor, stated that the prayer service will consist of a blessing for the community’s public servants and a blessing for Batavia and Genesee County
