SAN BENITO — As part of a proposed $14.9 million general fund budget, officials might be buying as much as $300,000 worth of surveillance cameras to try to stop a wave of vandalism.
At City Hall, officials are mulling placing high-resolution cameras in areas such as parks, cemeteries and the Heavin Resaca Trail to try to arrest vandals.
As part of the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year, officials are considering purchasing 20 to 30 cameras priced at about $8,000 to $10,000 each, Mayor Rick Guerra said Wednesday.
Earlier this week, city commissioners discussed the purchase of high-resolution surveillance cameras to try to stop the wave of vandalism.
“We are at a crossroad right now. It’s worsening,” Commissioner Rene Garcia said during a meeting Tuesday. “We’ve got to do something before it gets worse. We’re building a park. We’re building restrooms and for someone to just come in and destroy — we need to put an end to this. What is the best way for the community to help us? Could it be bringing back a Crime Stoppers unit? Could it be cameras with better resolution? We need to put something better together and it should be quickly. We have to protect our assets. It’s our community assets.”
Upgrading surveillance system
In response, City Manager Manuel De La Rosa said he planned to upgrade the city’s system of surveillance cameras.
“We’re going to try to be much more proactive by putting up cameras so we can identify these individuals,” he told commissioners. “We need better resolution. We have to improve our system. We’ve had vandalism in parks — it’s breaking restrooms, breaking partitions, breaking commodes and all kinds of things. Those things are costly. Some of these funds will go toward the cemetery. When we have vandalism in the cemeteries, it’s unconscionable. We’re going to protect the assets that we can protect. We cannot address every trail but we will protect our assets — our buildings. We can’t understand why that’s occurring here. If we catch them, we will prosecute.”
Tipping off police
During discussions, Police Chief Mario Perea proposed working with the P3 Tips system, which allows residents to use their cell phones to photograph criminal activity then texting images to the police department.
“The citizen can download an app — they can send in a tip of sorts,” he told commissioners. “It’s very easy to use. You can actually upload pictures and short videos so if someone sees something and takes a picture, they can text it to that number and it will alert me or it will alert anyone I have. I think it’s worth a trial run.”
Meanwhile, Commissioner Rene Villafranco proposed the police department reinstate its bicycle patrol to curb vandalism along the Resaca Trail.
Capital improvements plan
The cameras’ purchases might be part of the city’s “most aggressive” capital improvements plan.
During the meeting, De La Rosa said he was developing a 20-year capital improvements plan to go with the new budget.
“We’re going to put together a capital improvement plan — the most aggressive capital improvement plan you’ve ever had,” he told commissioners. “It goes through Year One through Five — 10, 15, 20 years out. Year One to Two are most important to us. For the long term, you need to understand what your long-term obligations are. We should be planning 20 years out. Not only will you see a capital improvement plan — you’ll see a capital staffing plan and a capital purchase plan. The threshold that I’ve established is anything over $50,000 goes from these capital plans. You’re going to know exactly where all your funds are and where these are going.”
Cash reserve ‘war chest’
As he reviewed the proposed budget, De La Rosa described the city’s cash reserves as a “war chest” made up of $6.1 million in an unassigned fund account and $9 million coming from the federal American Rescue Plan Act.
“You’ve been allowing us to build up this war chest so we can pay things,” he told commissioners. “We are solvent. We don’t want to spend it all and we don’t want to waste it. We’re going to prioritize water and sewer projects. We’re going to prioritize those projects we think should be at the top of the list. We want to leverage as much of our funds as possible with projects we have, close them out and move on.”
