Never give hugs to a political director of a radio station unless you want them to ask you questions on your writing that you don’t have the answers for nevertheless that is what follow up is all about in the business right.
So I emailed City Councilman Isaac Benton about the grant that would provide through The American Recovery and Reinvestment act money for two new positions, a court clerk and a domestic violence specialist officer, for one year.
I asked questions about the two positions this grant would be paying for in the next year. Job creation is part of what that bill is all about.
I wanted to know if it would create new jobs or if current employees would be used for the one year positions. I also wanted to know if there would be any additional cost to the city and what type of training the employees would receive.
Here are the answers I got back for the city councilman’s office.
- APD will enter into an MOU (memorandum of understanding) with Metro Court to allow the City to reimburse Metro for part of the cost of an employee.
- APD wasn't sure if Metro Court would move an existing employee over or hire a new one but suspects it would be an existing employee since the grant is only for one-year.
- The grant allows APD to pay specialty pay to officers at the Family Advocacy Center who receive Domestic Violence Training and get their DVSO designation.
With the issue of domestic violence and child abuse being seen as a major problem for our city because of the stress with the poor economy any support in this area no matter how limited can only help to protect these vulnerable individuals over the coming year and City Councilman Benton should be applaud for his efforts in this area of public safety. It is a welcome sight to the women of this city that we have a city councilman working on issues that matter to the women of this city and their families.
