As KDWA has been reporting since earlier this summer, concerns and questions have been brought to us in an effort to understand the financial and policy accountability of the City of Prescott and the Prescott Police Department. In a meeting called by this station, held on September 27th, more than a dozen specific questions were addressed to the mayor, city administrator and city attorney about conflicts in best practices within that department. One of the questions answered by City Administrator Jayne Brand concerned comparisons between data provided by Pierce County on duty hours logged by 5 individual officers, and that same information as stated on timecards turned in to the city. Brand stated that according to city policy it was not mandatory that officers check in and out with dispatch and acknowledged that at least one officer , Investigator Jesse Neeley, receives accomodations not reflected in the timecard documentation due to a flex time arrangement which caps regular hours at 40 per week, but provides comp time when his workload necessitates more hours in the delivery of his duties.According to a statement by Brand, a separate spreadsheet was kept at the police station that would track overages and underages in hours reported by Neeley. KDWA has contacted the Wisconsin Professional Police Association with questions on how this kind of arrangement affects the contract with the Union concerning overtime and other terms negotiated by the officers. We hope to have a statement from them in an upcoming report.
