Ontwa Township-Edwardsburg Police Chief Tim Kozal has been looking at every aspect of how the department operates and spends money.

And in order to be fiscally responsible, Kozal is reviewing every expenditure in his budget including telephone, internet, electric, gas for the police cars, attorney fees and more.

However, Kozal wanted to set the record straight and emphasized in no way was he telling the police board at its January meeting at the Ontwa Township Hall that he was dissatisfied with the department’s current arrangement with the attorneys as was reported in the Jan. 22 issue of the Edwardsburg Argus.

“I was discussing with the board the upcoming budget year and what we have been doing to be fiscally responsible with the department,” Kozal said. “One of the things I started to do, was I started to discuss all the things I was looking at. I said I was looking into every single one of our line items and to be responsible to the department and the board by looking into every single one of them.

“I will say this, our relationship with our attorneys has been great. We have had a long-standing relationship for 20 some years now. They have been very effective with everything they have done in both presenting our cases and also with any of our legal questions.”

Although he wanted to look at everything with an open mind, Kozal said he has no intentions of moving away from that relationship.

The new chief is also meeting this week with the Edwardsburg Public Schools about the department’s working relationship.

“I am going to be meeting with superintendent (Sherman) Ostrander to discuss the relationship we have and to try and reestablish an officer within the school system,” Kozal said. “One big thing with that is just, with our staffing levels right now we have not been able to and they understand that. We have to look at training. We have to have an officer trained for that and how that position would be best suited to meet the needs that the school wants and also the needs that we have as a department.”

In a move Kozal said will help free up an officer, the department has hired a clerk who will begin next week.

“That clerk brings a wealth of experience to the position and I am excited to learn from that person when they start. That is going to be a big asset for us moving forward.”

Kozal will be working with a Michigan-based company called EMPCO, which specializes in testing services for public safety and municipal government agencies, to search for officers to grow the force.

“A lot of police agencies use that company now and that is sort of the first line of testing,” he said. “You put in the parameters that you would like. I could put a fence around an area and say this is where I would like applicants from. I think you will have more sustainability from within 20 or 30 miles from outside that. So we are going to work with them.”

Kozal is also sending an officer to background investigations for two days so that once they have a pool of candidates, this individual can conduct the appropriate and thorough background checks he would like the department to do.

“I am hoping we will get into the backgrounds by mid-to-late March,” Kozal said. “And hopefully by the beginning of April hire at least one full-time officer and one part-time officer.”