Montville - The Town Council decided at Monday's meeting not to form an ad hoc committee to explore the possibility of making Montville's police department independent, leaving that task to the next council.

All seven seats on the council are up for election in November, and councilors said forming the committee now would only complicate matters if the new council had different opinions on the issue.

The issue of creating an independent police force for the town has come up several times in the past decade, including one time approximately eight years ago when it went to referendum and failed, said councilor Joe Jaskiewicz.

"It's always 'a few years,'" said police Lt. Leonard Bunnell after the meeting. "This town never funds what it needs to have."

The move toward an independent police force - which would mean the 21-person department would no longer be overseen by a resident state trooper - is recommended by the September 2012 Public Safety Plan, a report that the town commissioned from Almont Associates. That report says that "the Town of Montville is by far the largest community in Connecticut using the resident state trooper program."

The report concluded that the town should move to a municipal police department over the course of a few years and that it should hire a professional police administrator to manage the force. The town's charter currently states that the mayor should serve as police chief, but the report cites "concerns with a community this large having the mayor as chief elected official, human resource director, chief contract negotiator and police chief."

Bunnell said that he has given statistics about the police department to the council as well as previous councils. He said on Tuesday that he is beginning to feel "like a broken record."

There are many advantages to an independent department, he said, including grants that are not available to towns using the state trooper program.

"Let's create this ad hoc committee, get it done, and set a date," he urged the councilors after Monday's meeting.

Councilors Joe Jaskiewicz and Candy Buebendorf, both Democrats, and Rosetta Jones, who is unaffiliated, agreed at the meeting that it would be best to leave the issue to the new council, but Republican Dana McFee disagreed.

"It is important for this council to set up the ad hoc committee," said McFee, who thought the council should hold a special meeting this month to interview candidates.

He cited the cost of the Public Safety Plan, which he said he voted against, as a reason to form the committee immediately.

"You know what, if we spent the money, let's do as they say," he said.

By waiting until the election, he said, the council was increasing the chances that the report "will end up in the garbage somewhere," with no one following up on its recommendations.

Jaskiewicz said Tuesday that the nearly $50,000 report "was not a waste" and argued that the town should consider its recommendations but did not have to accept them.

Mayor Ronald McDaniel said at Monday's meeting that the report was required by the town charter, which states that the Public Safety Commission should "prepare and maintain a public safety coordination plan."

McDaniel said that the possibility of an independent police department "needs to be looked at" and that the ad hoc committee's charge should include a timeline. He added that the committee should consider both tangible and intangible costs associated with forming an independent police department.

Public Safety Commission Vice Chairman Tom McNally said that the idea of an independent department was abandoned in the past because it would be too expensive. At the time, he said, the need for a lock-up facility and new dispatchers drove up the cost.

The town's new Public Safety Complex, which was completed in January, has a dispatch center and a lock-up facility, so those two costs are no longer an issue, explained McNally.

Buebendorf, who is chairman of the town council, said that the issue is "very complicated" and she expects the committee will need at least six months to consider it.

k.catalfamo@theday.com