Police Chief John Pelletier defended his department’s proposed $83 million spending plan for the coming fiscal year, telling the Maui County Council that a 6% increase was primarily due to 5% union contract wage hikes for some employees.

But some council members showed interest in boosting the department’s budget even more. With 188 of the police department’s 570 sworn and civilian positions vacant — including 100 sworn officers and 32 emergency services dispatchers and supervisors — council members said they were considering more money for recruiting and retention.

Council member Tom Cook, who represents south Maui, said he was concerned about the force’s understaffing and slow response times in his district. He asked Pelletier about the Honolulu Police Department’s recent announcement that it would provide $25,000 signing bonuses to recruits.

Pelletier had already begun a new recruiting program nearly two years ago that includes leasing space in the Queen Kaahumanu Center in Wailuku where the U.S. Army and Navy formerly enlisted new members.

Regarding Honolulu’s new bonus strategy, Pelletier said, “We should be second to none, and we are having to compete.”

He said his recruiting team came up with an idea to provide a $30,000 signing bonus to be broken up over five years. The new hires would receive the bonuses in increments: $5,000 after being hired, $5,000 upon graduation from the academy, $5,000 after completing field training, $5,000 after passing the probation period, and $10,000 after serving three years.

“And if you leave before five years, you owe it all back,” Pelletier said.

He said he could get the new program started with $300,000, providing 30 new officers in the upcoming fiscal year with the initial $10,000 part of the bonus.

Pelletier said a one-stop shop to recruit dispatchers last weekend in Kihei led to 13 conditional offers.

“If we can get all 13 through, now we’ve got a game changer,” he said. “Even if we get half of them through, we’ve got a game changer.”

Four dispatchers left after the Aug. 8 fires. The budget includes 49 positions to service emergency calls, but with so many vacancies, only 17 dispatchers field about 1,600 daily police, fire and medical calls for Maui, Molokai and Lanai.

The police department wants funding for three capital improvement projects. They include a $300,000 generator and $300,000 refrigerator for the morgue, which can hold up to 100 bodies.

“We saw eight months ago how much we need to make sure we’re on top of that,” Pelletier said.

The facility handled most of the 101 people who died in the Lahaina fire.

The department also wants $500,000 for a generator for the Wailuku Station that houses the emergency services dispatchers.

The department expects to be reimbursed about $544,652 by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for wildfire expenditures.

Pelletier said he had hoped to get a FEMA-funded rapid DNA-testing machine, but it didn’t happen before the final identification of fire victims. However, he said the Maui Police Foundation raised money to buy the $250,000 piece of equipment for the department.

“People would say: ‘Wait a minute, we’re not going to have that disaster again’,” Pelletier said. “Well, what if you have a car … with three people in it, but you don’t know who those people are. So, of course we need it.”

Pelletier also included funding for a new program in which officers get reimbursements for using their personal vehicles at work.

“We’re the only (police) agency in the state that’s not doing this,” he said. “It’s a retention bonus.”

Several council members also asked what was being done about the old and deteriorating cottages provided for housing to officers who work in the remote areas of Hana, Molokai and Lanai.

“There’s a tree growing through the place in Hana on the deck,” Cook said. “A lot of this stuff, like you say, has been kicking the can down the road.”

Pelletier said that there is no money in the budget this year to address those housing conditions, but agreed they need to be improved.

During the monthslong budget process, the council is holding meetings with every county department to review their budgets, part of Mayor Richard Bissen’s proposed $1.7 billion spending plan.

The council has until June 10 to make amendments and approve the budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1.

Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by a grant from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.