The City of Williamsport should consider taking steps next year toward a new police headquarters, one that centralizes operations, and also review any police staffing needs, a Philadelphia consulting firm managing director recently told City Council.

In a final report to the city, Public Financial Management (PFM), and Gordon Mann, its managing director, recommended a review be done of the city Bureau of Police spatial, technological and safety needs, asserting the bureau encompasses 36 % of the annual city budget with salaries, overtime, and benefits.

Police locations in the city are split between administration offices on the third floor of Trade and Transit I, 100 W. Third St., and patrol division at the former Peter Herdic Transportation Museum, 810 Nichols Place.

This was among the employees’ offices switching done after City Hall, 245 W. Fourth St., was evacuated in August, 2021, due to stormwater damage and later that December water from a burst pipe.

The building also did not meet Americans with Disabilities ADA federal law, a process that began to be addressed by the installation of an accessible ramp on the front side facing West Fourth Street.

The PFM consultants met with members of the police administration over this past year.

“We talked about how many offices you need, we talked about are they in the right positions – think of them as lieutenant, sergeant, captain – next year would be the year to figure that out,” said Gordon Mann, managing director, PFM.

“Next year, the city would do that, hopefully, in tandem with the Home Rule process, Mann said.

“Think of them as two sides of the same zipper,” he said. “The Home Rule process and the city police building.”

Once the city gets to 2028, if and when the city has the Home Rule process and has the flexibility to add revenue through increasing Earned Income Tax (EIT) or “wage tax,” that would put the city in a position to go out and borrow money.

“I am not aware of having a building that you could rent or purchase from somebody,” Mann said.

He added how it does not mean the building could not be on the same physical plot where the existing patrol division is in the transportation museum.

When PFM met with police officers they spoke about some benefits of that location, such as the parking lots, he said.

“It would need work,” Mann said. “It was built to be a train museum, not a police station.”

“Those are obviously not the same thing, and you will need money to do it,” he said. “You are not going to come up with this from cash, or bake sales, or anything else, you’re going to have to into the capital market and borrow the money, but if the city is able to get to Home Rule, and puts the plan in place, and puts the old City Hall into a more productive use, that would put you on the path to do that,” he said.

Consultants also recommended that, by then, the city might be financially positioned to where it could take out a long-term issuance of a bond(s), with the additional debt needed to build the police headquarters.