Senath City Council decides in executive

The extended coverage will begin on November 16, with the workload handled by the two current full-time officers, Joe McLain and Jerad Callahan, along with City Marshall Omar Karnes.

The officers will rotate nights and weekends and each work four, 12-hour shifts and one, eight-hour shift per week, according to the decision made by the council.

The extra work will result in Callahan and McLain each receiving a pay raise for the extra hours, while Karnes will remain at his current salary.

Karnes' salary remaining the same is due to the city not having the authority to change an elected official's pay rate during the course of an elected term.

This will bring Callahan and McLain's earnings from the original hire in salary of $25,000, to a total of $26,200 per year, while Karnes remains at the elected total earning of $26,000 per year.

When hired to the department, Callahan and McLain were to work 48 hours per week a piece, plus each officer's on-call time.

The on-call time occurred when the night officer would go off-duty at 3 a.m., and the officer would remain on-call until the day officer became on-duty at 6 a.m.

The off-duty time of day was supposed to be chosen by analyzing the time that the minimal amount of calls were being made in the City of Senath, according to a previous decision by the city council.

During the September meeting of the Senath City Council, aldermen discussed the option of having 24-hour per day police coverage.

In this meeting, Mayor Joe Lane noted that the city did not have the funds in the budget to provide the service.

Alderman Bud Brooks, during the same meeting, explained that not having 24-hour per day police coverage 'bothered him.'

The issue was dismissed in the September meeting as Lane explained, "I don't see how we can do it, I'm going to be honest."

The council decided in September to agree with Lane's suggestion to continue the rotation of hours, but to have an officer on duty during the day beginning at 6:30 a.m.

Commenting on the recent change to the police department schedule, Lane said, "[The city] needs 24-hour coverage because the old way is just not working. People want police on duty 24-hour per day, so we will have to cut back somewhere else."

The Senath Police Department will move to the new schedule of 24-hour police coverage in the city on November 16, according to the minutes from the Senath City Council meeting.