Statesboro Mayor Jan Moore called an ordinance authorizing police escorts for funeral processions a “compromise.”

Following a public outcry after a Statesboro Herald story reporting the Statesboro Police Department enacted a policy change on Jan. 1 making only off-duty officers available for funeral escorts at a minimum charge of $90, City Council members will vote Thursday on the ordinance in a called meeting at 8:30 a.m.

But the admitted public relations misstep that it follows also revealed that the city was without clear liability protection in sending police to escort funeral processions. Previously, the city had no ordinance, no city law, on funeral escorts at all, and state law requires one, said City Attorney Cain Smith, who drafted the proposed new ordinance.

After City Manager Randy Wetmore and Deputy Chief Rob Bryan, currently the Statesboro Police Department’s interim chief, halted the free escort details as an administrative decision effective Jan.  1, and the Statesboro Herald reported it Jan. 11, the mayor and council members received phone calls, texts and emails from upset and sometimes angry citizens.

“I think that we’ve come up with a way that may please most folks. I hope that it does,” Moore said Tuesday. “It’s all about compromise, a little bit.”

The ordinance Smith drafted, and which Moore discussed with the council during their regular meeting Tuesday, will provide a maximum of two officers per funeral, when available, with funeral homes required to add the city to their liability insurance. Funeral homes could pay additional off-duty officers.

Tuesday’s meeting was the first time the matter had been taken up by City Council.

“As elected officials, I think this body is responsive to their constituents,” Moore said. “We all try to be, and at the  same time  being cognizant of city resources and cognizant of what we can put on our employees who come to work for us every day, particularly in the area of public safety because they’re running 24-seven.”

How it happened

The staff decision to halt officer escorts resulted from a request Wetmore made to department heads, he told the council.

“We’re asking all of the departments to look at how do  we  become more effective, how do we become more efficient, how do we better use the  people we have, which everybody is lean,” Wetmore said, “and Rob happened to be one of the first ones to bring up an idea, and that’s how we got  here.”

In a 14-month period, the department had 249 funerals, which tied up 352 officer hours, averaging 43 minutes per officer per escort, Bryan said previously. Up to five officers were required for some funerals, he said.

Meanwhile, the department for several years has fallen below its full budgeted staffing numbers. After several recent hires, the department now is six officers short, but the new hires are in training, Bryan said Tuesday.

Under the December decision, funeral homes were given the opportunity to hire off-duty officers to escort the processions. The city staff invited representatives of seven funeral homes to come to a meeting Dec. 7, and two attended. Those funeral directors said they would prefer things remain the same but understood the city’s reasons, Wetmore said.

Then came Jan. 1, followed by the newspaper report and all of the calls.

“When we made that decision it was basically a business decision based on, we thought, the best way to use our officers,” Wetmore said. “It wasn’t meant to disrespect anyone or any tradition that we have here.”

Statesboro’s city manager since Sept. 1, Wetmore came here from previous service as city manager in Marshalltown, Iowa, and had worked in city management in several other states, but not Georgia.

Moore noted that some Georgia cities – she mentioned the larger cities of Savannah, Augusta and Atlanta – no longer provide police escorts for funerals. But Valdosta and Dublin still do, she said. Moore said she spoke with officials in those cities about their policies.

Partial reversal

The first thing, she said, is to adopt an ordinance so that the police department will be covered by sovereign immunity.

Second, limiting the number of on-duty officers that can be assigned to a funeral detail to two would prevent a funeral from tying up an entire shift, Moore said.

Third, Smith recommended that participating funeral homes be required to add the city to their liability insurance as a “named insured,” which Moore said will not be a cost to the businesses. The draft ordinance includes a requirement for proof of at least $1 million per-occurrence coverage.

Smith cited a section of Georgia law that states local governments “may, by ordinance” provide law enforcement escorts for funeral processions.

“If we’re in breach of the code section, then our immunity is not going to attach, and furthermore, the municipal corporation is not going to receive sovereign immunity for any unofficial, voluntarily undertaken duty, which is what it would be absent an ordinance,” he said.

Normally, ordinances are given a first reading at one meeting and considered for adoption at the next, but Smith and Wetmore urged the council to act quickly because the city’s apparent exposure to liability is now public.

Funeral home concerns

Two funeral home directors, Maurice Hill and the Rev. Craig Tremble, attended Tuesday’s meeting and expressed some concerns. Hill said two officers are usually all that have been assigned to his funerals anyway.

“We appreciate the two that we do have, and I think that most people in the public, when they see the presence of the officers, that makes them want to obey and yield the right of way,” Hill said.

But he asked whether the insurance provision would put police officers under the funeral homes’ workers compensation coverage. Because funerals will be an official duty, they should be covered by the city’s worker’s comp, Moore said. But Hill said this should probably be specified in the city’s resolution.

“I’ve got to look into it. This insurance coverage is my concern. …,” Tremble said after the meeting. “We’ll just have to adjust.”

Some council members who indicated support for the ordinance also expressed appreciation for Bryan and Wetmore’s original intent.

“They were putting the entire community first,” said Councilman Phil Boyum. “They weren’t just necessarily cutting the escorts; they were looking at crime coverage and the growth of the city. … We’ve got more land and less officers to patrol it.”

“From a public relations standpoint I think we got murdered, probably unnecessarily,” said Councilman Travis Chance. “I fully support Rob, Chief Bryan, in his intent, the spirit of what he was trying to do. …We looked at it again, we saw an issue that he brought up and we addressed it, but at the end of the day he did what he thought was right.”

Herald reporter Al Hackle may be reached at (912) 489-9458.