Falls Church officials are considering whether to allow public safety aides to issue parking tickets, direct traffic and respond to abandoned vehicles.
Under current Falls Church city code, only sworn law enforcement officers have the ability to conduct parking and traffic control.
A proposal slated for a first reading on Tuesday, July 14 would extend that authority to public safety aides, who are civilian employees of the police department.
Adding the new responsibilities “seems like a no-brainer,” City Council member Laura Downs said during a Monday (July 7) work session on the topic.
“The employee is not a sworn officer, does not carry a firearm, does not respond to in-progress incidents and cannot make arrests,” a staff memo to Council members said.
According to a staff report, there currently is one public safety aide employed in Falls Church, with two vacancies to be filled.
The starting salary for public safety aides is posted at $45,768, compared to approximately $68,000 for new police officers and sheriff’s deputies.
The proposal for additional responsibilities does not include changes to aides’ salaries, but city officials hope the additional powers could lead to more job satisfaction.
There also is the opportunity for advancement. Three current Falls Church police officers started as aides, officials said.
Mayor Letty Hardi asked if aides could also be authorized to issue citations for those who fail to follow snow-removal requirements.
“We get enough complaints the few times it snows” to be able to use the additional manpower, Hardi said.
City officials said they would check state law on that and report back by July 14. Final action is scheduled to happen in August.
In other Falls Church government news:
Agreement on fire, EMS services still in flux
There’s still work to be done on an update to the fire-and-rescue-services agreement between Falls Church and Arlington.
“We’re still working on the details,” City Manager Wyatt Shields said at a July 2 calendar-setting meeting of the City Council.
As a result, discussion of the proposal has been pushed back to Aug. 4, with final Council action slated for Aug. 11.
The proposed update to the longstanding agreement was last discussed by Council members in April. At the time city officials raised questions on various matters, so both jurisdictions agreed to continue working on the specifics.
Under the draft agreement presented in springtime, the projected cost of fire/rescue services that Arlington provides to Falls Church would increase about 20% to just under $3.9 million annually.
Shields said he hoped that, by August, the details would be worked out and final action would not require much Council time.
“Since we’ve already had a briefing on the substantive terms of it, I am suggesting putting it on the consent agenda,” he said.
Planning Commission members likely to get raise
Council members on July 7 appeared to settle on a 150% raise for members of the Falls Church Planning Commission. But no one is likely to get rich off the increase.
Commission members currently take home $100 per month, with the chair receiving $150. The change likely to be formally introduced at the Council’s July 14 meeting would up those rates to $250 for members and $300 for the chair.
Chair Andrea Caumont in April wrote to Council members on behalf of her colleagues. She noted that the pay level had been unaltered since 1990.
Council members, who at the time were in the process of increasing their own pay rates, were amenable to the request.
“We ask our planning commissioners to take on a whole lot,” Mayor Letty Hardi said at the July 7 work session.
Council members also leaned in the direction of updating pay levels for the body every five years.
In Northern Virginia, the closest jurisdiction in population for Falls Church is the town of Vienna. There, members of the Planning Commission receive $182 per month, with the chair pocketing $215.
Fairfax County pays its Planning Commission members $25,000 per year, while commission members in Arlington and Alexandria are not compensated, according to Falls Church officials.
