Saint Clair will be providing police coverage for the borough of Palo Alto beginning in 2025.
Council members in Palo Alto voted unanimously in favor of an agreement that will have the nearby borough provide full-time police coverage through the year 2030, a six-year span.
That officially ends the inter-municipal police agreement Palo Alto had with Port Carbon and Mechanicsville for the last five years.
Both sides went back and forth on terms of the agreement before they each signed off on final terms.
One of the Palo Alto’s primary concerns as time went on with its deal between itself, Port Carbon, and Mechanicsville is the presumed lack of visibility of police in the borough.
Council President Brian Dries said Monday that he and Mayor John Deatrich are essentially a committee that will report any of those and other concerns to Saint Clair.
Dries added that a Saint Clair Police officer will be present at each Palo Alto Borough Council meeting during the length of the contract and an activity report will be generated for those meetings.
“They want to be involved,” Councilwoman Joan Stevenosky said. “It’s not just going to be a drive-through, check the streets, and that’s it.
“It’s not that Port Carbon did a terrible job. (Port Carbon Police Chief) Joe Ferrraro did everything he could do with what he had to work with. Unfortunately, one cop or two on a police force is not going to be able to cover the areas and everybody be able to see them,” she added.
Another big concern for Palo Alto council members was the cost of the deal. The first-year cost is $130,000 and then it goes up 5% each year after that.
Here’s a breakdown of the annual costs of the contract with Saint Clair:
| Year | Cost ($) |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 130,000.00 |
| 2026 | 136,500.00 |
| 2027 | 143,325.00 |
| 2028 | 150,491.25 |
| 2029 | 158,015.81 |
| 2030 | 165,916.60 |
Saint Clair will collect any and all fines and other revenue generated by their police activity in Palo Alto through the duration of the contract. In exchange for that, the rate Palo Alto pays will not change based on any extra time needed by police to see cases through to conclusion.
For instance, if an officer must be in court because of a case he handled in Palo Alto, Saint Clair will eat that cost.
In Palo Alto’s expiring deal with Port Carbon and Mechanicsville, an escrow fund was established that collected that revenue and if it was depleted at any time through the course of the agreement, Palo Alto council members said they would have to pay out more on top of what they were paying.
There would be no added costs to Palo Alto should Saint Clair make any additional investments in its police force, such as buying new equipment or adding personnel.
A provision in Palo Alto’s deal with Saint Clair allows either side to opt out with one year notice.
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