Alzona sworn in, council approves agreement with Temple for regional police records system

By BRITTANY FHOLER
Cove Leader-Press

The Copperas Cove City Council welcomed Councilmember Shawn Alzona to Place 3 on the dais Tuesday evening, as he was sworn in by Copperas Cove Municipal Associate Judge Lisa Kubala at the beginning of the workshop meeting.
During their regular meeting, the city council approved authorizing the mayor, city manager and Chief of Police to execute an Interagency Policy Agreement with the City of Temple for a regional police records management system. 
Copperas Cove Police Chief Eddie Wilson shared some background on the need for this agreement. 
“Local law enforcement agencies have historically operated on independent, disparate and a wide variety of records management systems,” Wilson said. “From the criminal justice system’s perspective, this doesn’t provide the level of intelligence and information sharing necessary in a highly involved criminal environment. Many of our offenders are not residents of Copperas Cove. Multiple systems can create a lag in investigations and intelligence sharing from one agency to another.”
Wilson added that a year ago, several Central Texas law enforcement agencies began evaluating police records management system software products to identify a product that would meet the needs of all law enforcement agencies in the area. 
In addition to Copperas Cove, the partnering agencies will include Belton, Harker Heights, Killeen, Killeen ISD, Nolanville, Morgan’s Point, Salado, Texas A&M University-Central Texas, Troy, the Bell County Sheriff’s Office and Temple, which will serve as the host agency. 
Wilson added that conversations have taken place with both Gatesville Police Department and the Coryell County Sheriff’s Office, with both expressing interest in joining later on, as funding approvals permit. 
Member agencies will purchase the number of user licenses they need, pay an annual maintenance fee for the software, and annual host fees to the City of Temple.  
The CENTURION Agreement is estimated to be $78,483 for the first year, then $20,593 each subsequent year, with the Fiscal Year 2023 budget including funds for this project.  
The city council also approved an item authorizing the city manager to renew an agreement with Coryell County for Fire Suppression, Fire Prevention, Fire Investigation, Health Inspection Services and adding Emergency Medical Services to the agreement for Fiscal Year 2022.
Unincorporated portions of Coryell County have received services from the Copperas Cove Fire Department for many decades, and eight years ago, Coryell County requested the addition of services for fire prevention inspections, health inspections and fire investigations in the designated unincorporated areas, according to the agenda item. 
The County provides compensation each year for the services based upon a funding formula set forth by the Coryell County Fire Chief’s Association, with the funds distributed among all eligible fire departments in Coryell County.  The funding formula is divided into two portions: square miles of protected area and number of bona fide emergency responses from the previous reporting year. 
The City of Copperas Cove will be receiving $79,457.82 for fire protection services in the unincorporated portions of Coryell County.
With the Emergency Medical Services supplement included into the agreement this year, $100,000 for Emergency Medical Services in the unincorporated portion of Coryell County will be received as well. 
The city council held the second public hearing and then approved an ordinance amending the city’s fiscal year 2021-2022 budget, increasing expenditures in the General Fund by $163,306 for the contract with Kendig Keast Collaborative (KKC) for the purpose of amending Chapter 20 - Zoning of the Code of Ordinances. 
They also held the first of two public hearings on an ordinance amending the fiscal year 2021-2022 Budget for the city for the encumbrances or purchase orders and other commitments that remained outstanding at the end of fiscal year 2020-2021. These encumbrances were rolled forward into this fiscal year, but the unexpended budget was not rolled at the time the encumbrances are rolled.  
A second public hearing will be held at the next regular meeting, after which council will take action. 
The council also went over the council member assignments as liaisons to committees. Newly seated Alzona is the liaison to the Audit Committee and the Quality of Life Board, which he served on prior to being elected. 
During the workshop meeting, the council recognized three employees for their years of service to the city. The employees recognized included Chief Building Official Chris Tucker (5 years), CCPD patrol officer Joseph Raj (5 years), and Fleet Services Superintendent Mike King (30 years).