Kneehill County council ponders short-staffed bylaw officer department

Kneehill County council pondered their short-staffed bylaw officer department during a regular report on protective services. The report was made at the June 11 regular meeting of council.

Councillors read the regular protective services report for June, 2024 prepared by Protective Services Manager Debra Grosfield and presented by Manager of Community Services Kevin Gannon.

As he introduced the report Gannon reminded councillors the report included reports from RCMP detachments, fire departments and the county’s own community peace officers (CPOs) which the public often refers to as “bylaw officers.”

It was noted in the report Kneehill County is in a unique situation when it comes to RCMP coverage, as the municipality is included in five different RCMP detachment coverage areas: Three Hills, Innisfail, Drumheller, Beiseker and Olds. However, it was noted only a small portion of Innisfail actually falls within Kneehill’s boundary.

Looking at Kneehill County’s CPOs, Gannon noted the two officers wrote 16 warnings and two tickets, had eight animal control files, 21 bylaw files, two school events (bike rodeos) with two rescheduled due to rain, and seven incidents where CPOs assisted other departments.

As Kneehill County also contracts its CPOs out to other municipalities, the report noted the two CPOs handled 13 bylaw files and spent 42 hours working in those other municipalities.

In a rural municipality, road bans are always an important focus. The June, 2024 report noted Kneehill County CPOs conducted 65 targeted patrols during road ban season, stopping 12 trucks where three were found to have overweight exemptions while nine were empty.

The report noted 14 exemption permits were approved through the Alberta Transportation with a total 540 overweight exempted loads on various banned roads.

Gannon noted Kneehill’s various fire departments have been quite busy. “Emergency management has been very busy within the department lately,” said Gannon.

“Held a spring preparedness meeting with fire chiefs on drought conditions and farmers helping with equipment. We issued a joint news release on this and shared it amongst all municipalities in the area,” stated the report.

“Three Hills/Kneehill County engine (30/70 per cent split) final inspection at the manufacturing plant is to be completed in mid-June. Expected delivery by end of the summer.”

During discussion councillors asked questions about the new engine which is to be co-owned by the Town of Three Hills and Kneehill County on a 30 per cent to 70 per cent split; Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Mike Haugen explained the new engine joins an existing one that is very close to the end of its life. Once it’s retired, the town and county will share one engine.

Haugen essentially stated it was felt one engine could service both municipality’s fire department needs plus offer better value for tax money.

Coun. Laura Lee Machell-Cunningham noted Kneehill County’s CPO department is currently understaffed, and wondered if providing contracted services to other towns and villages was spreading the officers too thin.

Gannon responded that Kneehill County currently has two active CPOs and one on long term disability and is also examining the staffing issue.

Gannon stated CPOs look at priorities when responding to complaints or conducting investigations and currently all service levels are being met; however, he did mention several times that workload and staffing levels are being examined.

Reeve Ken King noted he was under the impression Kneehill County was going to hire a temporary CPO to address staffing levels; Gannon responded that CPOs are in demand all over the province and trying to find one for a permanent, full-time position is challenging enough not to mention finding one to fill in on what could be described as a temporary basis.

Councillors unanimously accepted the report as information.

Stu Salkeld, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, East Central Alberta Review