FAIR Committee Chair Lynn Harper introduced Budget Amendment #4 at Monday’s Henderson City Council meeting.
The budget amendment, which utilizes drug seizure funds largely accrued by the actions of the Henderson Police Department’s Highway Traffic Safety Unit, has allowed the city to budget for additional graffiti removal, car purchases, travel, training, and equipment.
The complete text of the budget amendment may be viewed here. Some numbers on the final version were incorrect. City Manager Jerry Moss gave Home in Henderson the correct figures, and these were written onto the document by hand. Also, there was a photocopying error on one page of the document which has been necessarily translated into the electronic version.
Harper said that the unit, which consists of three officers and a supervisor, has brought in nearly $1 million for the city.
“That answers that question,” she said, countering arguments that all Henderson officers should be patrolling city streets rather than the Interstate.
Harper indicated that there are many rules regarding the use of drug seizure money, and that Moss is on a “regular conversational basis” with the people who control the funds just as he is with HUD in Atlanta.
“They don’t want you to put this money away in an account. They want you to use it,” Harper told the council as she explained the expenditures.
Council member Bobby Gupton said that before he was elected, he was the first to criticize the Police Chief Glen Allen, who worked closely with Moss in developing the budget amendment. He said he was giving a “big public apology,” and that he was pleased with the work that was done.
The budget amendment passed without opposition.