Letter: Consider Some Key Issues Before New Police Station Vote

To the Editor:

At Town Meeting, Weston voters will be asked to approve funds for architectural design fees for a new police station. Although the vote is technically for design fees only, voters should be alert to the implications of this vote. The Weston Police Station Study Committee, on behalf of the board of selectmen, is recommending a new police station which is grossly oversized and needlessly expensive. The vote for design fees means giving the green light for construction of this costly building. I would like to present some facts about the proposed police station which I doubt you will hear at Town Meeting.

By way of background, the Weston Police Station Study Committee (PSSC) was created last year by the board of selectmen. The committee was charged with confirming the findings of the police station feasibility study done in 2008 by the consulting firm of Di Marinisi and Wolfe. This 228-page study is posted on the town website for anyone who cares to view it.  What is laid out in the feasibility study is the consultants’ recommendations for the new station. In the opinion of Mr. Di Marinisi and Mr. Wolfe, Weston requires a police station of approximately 20,000 gross square feet, and 12,600 net square feet. The PSSC has, with a few minor adjustments, endorsed this recommendation.

Given its narrowly defined mandate from the selectmen, the PSSC has fulfilled its responsibilities admirably. It has gone through the motions of reviewing the study, it has asked superficial questions of the police chief, it has trotted its proposal around to various committees, and held public information sessions, all the while leaving unquestioned the basic assumptions embodied in the feasibility study. What the committee has failed to grapple with, and has no interest in discussing, is the size and cost of the new station compared to other towns similar to Weston.  

For example, when compared to other recently built stations in Massachusetts, the cost of Weston’s station, per resident, is almost double what other communities have paid.

For example, when compared to other recently built stations, the space per fulltime employee for Weston’s station is a third greater than that of other towns.  

For example, the PSSC defends the size of the building by comparing Weston to Acton, which built a station the same size a few years ago. The PSSC is unable to elucidate why Weston, a bedroom community of 11,000 persons, with no commercial centers, restaurants, night life or poor people, requires a police station the same size as Acton, a town of 22,000 with 33 restaurants, six shopping centers, four liquor stores, seven car dealerships, five major roads and a police force which is 50 percent larger than Weston’s.

For example, the PSSC’s specifications are based partly upon a projected increase in police department employees from the present level of 31 to 35, including the addition of four more detectives. Why? The Weston Police Department is already more than adequately staffed to serve a town of 11,000, according to department of justice standards. The town’s population is stable. Weston had 10,870 residents in 1970, and 11,261 in 2010, an increase of 391 people in 40 years.  

For example, our 31 fulltime police department employees work on three shifts. The day shift, which is the largest, has at most eight persons on duty, three of whom are patrol officers and therefore not in the building. A total of five employees are assigned to the each of the other two shifts. Yet our new station, if built as proposed, will have a 50 seat Emergency Operations Center fully equipped with the latest communications technology and security devices, plus four other conference and meeting rooms, as well as a separate room identified as a “writing room” dedicated solely to the writing of reports. The dog officer will have a private office.  The station will have a kitchen area double the size of the lunchroom in the town hall, which serves all the dedicated employees who toil in that building. The dispatcher will enjoy his own private kitchen and bathroom.     The station will have a 477 square foot fitness room, a bunk room, a laundry room, and a locker room which vastly exceeds both the current and reasonably anticipated future needs of the Department. It will have a four-car garage, even though the cruisers are in use almost constantly. According the PSSC, the garage is a necessity because otherwise officers would have to brush snow off their windshields when they begin their shift. There is a private shooting range, a luxury virtually unheard of in a town the size of Weston.   

At Town Meeting, the PSSC will do its best muddy the waters in order to obscure these extravagances. It will shift the focus of the discussion to cost per square foot, arguing that our estimated cost per square foot will be close to that of other towns. This is misleading for two reasons. First, cost per square foot is completely irrelevant to the issue I am raising, which is the size of the station relative to the size of our town. Although everyone I talk to grasps this point immediately, the PSSC is baffled by it. Second, cost per square foot is determined by the market and is effectively out of our control.

The need for a new police station is beyond dispute. Our police officers deserve to have a modern, well equipped station. Yet this project, like any other, has to be managed responsibly by town officials. It is regrettable that our selectmen continue to place major decisions into the hands of private consultants. The crucial decisions underpinning the design were made by consultants in private conversations with selected town employees, including the police chief and the town manager. Unfortunately for us, no minutes were kept, no taxpayers were invited, public opinion was not solicited.  

Having secured and paid for the services of a consulting firm, the selectmen expect the Police Station Study Committee not to challenge the consultant’s opinions, not to invite genuine public debate or criticism, but to perform a public relations function by shopping around carefully packaged data to various boards and committees. I witnessed the committee’s presentation to the Permanent Building Committee and the Finance Committee and can attest to the absence of substantive discussion at these sessions. Members of our Finance Committee asked inane questions and showed no interest whatsoever in the possibility of saving the town money.     

As long as this model of government prevails, Weston will continue to be poorly governed. The police station proposal is the latest example of the dearth of leadership from the selectmen’s office. It has been a long time since our selectmen have led us anywhere except deeper into debt.

Nancy Benotti
4 Silver Hill Road