(A) The Town Marshal and the President of the Town Council shall act as the executive branch of the town government in matters having to do with the Marshal's Police Department. (I.C. 36-5-2-2 establishes the President as the executive. I.C. 36-5-7 assigns the Marshal certain executive duties.)
(B) The Town Marshal shall have the responsibility for operating the Department as well as scheduling, assigning duties and equipment, maintaining records, including confidential records, and accounting for funds for the Marshal's Police Department.
(C) The Marshal has custody and control of town property assigned to the Department. The Marshal is the disposal agent for the town for purposes of transferring or disposing of worn out or useless Department equipment or trading Department equipment with a value of less than $100.
(D) The Marshal shall not allow either reserve or regular Deputy Marshals to practice the profession of law enforcement if the deputies have not first completed the statutorily established training equipment.
(E) The Marshal shall establish a training program for the Department which complies with the state minimum standards. The Marshal shall submit all required paperwork to the appropriate authorities for keeping his or her officers certified.
(F) The Town Council President shall approve the spending of all appropriated funds for the Marshal's Police Department unless the President has first authorized the Marshal to spend certain funds upon the Marshal's own discretion.
(G) The Marshal also has won over expenditures of money in which state statute specifically delegates such control to the Marshal (such as the Accident Report Fund and the Firearms (Handgun License Fund and the like).
(H) In addition, the Town Council will appropriate certain funds specifically for the operation of the Department which may be expended by the Marshal up to the appropriation limit without prior approval. These funds include the Marshal Equipment Fund, Office Supply Fund and Vehicle Maintenance Fund.
(I) The Town Council President shall receive complaints concerning the Marshal's operation of the Department. The President may then or upon his or her own initiative file written charges with the Town Council against the Marshal for any cause allowed by this chapter, including the unwillingness of the Marshal to discipline a deputy for serious or repeated violations.
(J) The President of the Council may also issue letters of reprimand to be included in the Marshal's personnel file for a period of no more than two years when no further complaints are filed. Letters of reprimand can be used in subsequent disciplinary proceedings with the two year period but only for determining the severity of a disciplinary sanction to be imposed after an adjudication on an independent charge. The Town Council President or the Town Council may direct the Department to concentrate the Department's efforts in certain areas of enforcement, but neither the Council President nor the Council may direct that only certain types of arrests be performed or that citations or arrests be voided except for want of good faith belief or probable cause to avoid civil liability.
(K) The Council President or the Council may require that the Marshal produce a periodic report of activity or produce any report that is public record, but neither the President nor the Council may require the production of records which are declared confidential by law unless it is for the purpose of defending against a law suit or for the hearing of a disciplinary action by the Council.
(L) Neither the President of the Council nor any member of the Council as such is a law enforcement officer and none has any power in that respect. Individual members of the Town Council are not immediate supervisors of the Marshal, nor is the Council an executive body for the operation of the Marshal's Police Department. The Town Council can establish standards for the Department only as a legislative body would establish such standards by passing ordinances.
(Ord. 04-21-98, passed 5-19-98)