The Pewee Valley City Council inched closer to reestablishing its own police force when it voted unanimously last week to create a committee to determine if it should once again have local police services.

The committee will include council members Norman Schippert, Paige Bjorn and Emily Rademaker. What it won’t include is any citizen representation, which angered residents who questioned that decision.

“That’s not the way it works,” said Mayor Bob Rogers. “You need to run for office, then you can come up here.”

The decision to create the committee came before the public comment portion of the meeting when City Attorney John Singler outlined the committee’s responsibilities. He said the three-person committee would make a determine if the city should staff its own police department, staffing and expenditure levels and make a recommendation if it should be a one, two or three-person department.

Singler said the committee would have 90 days to issue a written recommendation and determine an appropriate level of funding. He said if the recommendation is to bring back local police services and the full city council agrees, the committee would advertise for candidates, review resumes, conduct interviews and recommend the top three candidates.

Residents asked if they could sit in on those interviews and were told no because they would be considered personnel decisions.

Rogers, who has repeatedly warned about the expense of having police services, said he’s concerned about raising taxes.

“There’s a lot of people in PeWee Valley who don’t know about this,” said Rogers, “and I’m not going to get 450 phone calls after taxes go out from people saying they didn’t know anything about this. We’ve got to get this out to the community.”

City Treasurer Stan Clark said the budget he presented during the meeting is “barely balanced” and is due to significant revenue from rising real estate values and increased funding from the insurance premium tax.

“We need to work smart and come up with solutions,” Clark said. “Everyone has to be open-minded.”

Clark said the ongoing discussions about reinstating local police services and the possibility of a tax increase to do so has people stirred up, noting he was “stopped on the road” at 5:45 a.m. about the issue, as well as receiving a call from someone who called him “a liar.”

He said another man was “mad as hell” because he is on a fixed income and “you’re trying to take my money,” noting that 35% to 45% of taxable properties are owned by those over 65 who receive property tax exemptions.

He also warned about spending the city’s contingency funds.

“Having money in the bank is working capital,” he said. “A simple sidewalk can be $300,000.”

He said projects such as that are sometimes completed with grant funds that require the city to match the amount of the grant.

“We have to pay that money and then get it back,” he said.

He cautioned, too, that the price of policing is considerably higher than it was even a couple of years ago. He said in July 2022, a rookie sheriff’s deputy was making $17.65 an hour. Now, he said, a rookie is paid $25.61, an increase of nearly 50%.

Resident Mary Lowry, one of the most vocal proponents of having local police, said the decision to exclude at least one resident from the committee is disappointing.

“We appreciate you guys putting together a committee, but representation from one of us would go a long way toward calming this down,” she said. “You’re the mayor, Bob, you can go a long way toward uniting this city.”

“I think it’s a step in the right direction,” Rogers said.

Pewee Valley has been without its own police service since its chief resigned in 2022, citing what he said was a “toxic” relationship with the mayor.

It currently contracts with the Oldham County Sheriff’s Office for 140 hours of direct service each month.