Sleepy Hollow out of cop consolidation proposal

And then there were two.

Sleepy Hollow has pulled itself out of a proposal to consolidate its police department with East Dundee and West Dundee, over cost savings and autonomy issues.

As part of the proposal, Sleepy Hollow and East Dundee would contract for police services and direct its officers and resources to West Dundee. Those services include police operations, facilities, administration and management. Each village would still be responsible for paying its own officers.

Sleepy Hollow considered joining forces with the two towns in hopes of saving money, said Village President Stephen Pickett. The village budgeted $870,000 for police services this fiscal year, according to the study.

The study on the proposed move also shows the village would save $134,800 a year, the least amount of the three towns. And that’s just not enough money to rationalize losing authority over its own officers, Pickett said. As such, the board of trustees has voted to end its involvement with the consolidation and notified its partners shortly thereafter.

“The whole picture had to balance out in the long term,” Pickett said. “Financially, we wanted to see if we could save funds for the village and provide the same quality of service to our residents. The savings that were presented in this study did not justify the loss of autonomy we would have had for our village and our residents.”

Sleepy Hollow will continue to run its police force as is, leaving East Dundee and West Dundee on their own to consolidate.

West Dundee Village Manager Joe Cavallaro is sorry to see Sleepy Hollow go but says the control issue is a legitimate concern.

“It’s ... something I thought we could continue to discuss and work toward because that was definitely the intention,” Cavallaro said.

Sleepy Hollow will likely return to the table if something comes up that’s in the village’s best interest, Pickett said.

“We’re leaving the door open, we’re not slamming it shut,” Pickett said.