WASILLA -- The Wasilla Police Department is advertising for a new investigator to specialize in child sexual-abuse cases next month.

At its meeting Monday, the Wasilla City Council unanimously accepted a grant of just more than $114,000 from the Alaska Department of Public Safety to pay for the investigator's salary and provide for transportation costs and other costs associated with the new position.

The city will match the grant with $38,000 of its own money. Also that night, the council passed a first reading of a related budget item, which would adjust the 2002 fiscal year budget to account for the program.

The Wasilla cop shop currently has 17 officers, including a chief, lieutenant and sergeant.

According to Lt. Craig Robinson, the new investigator will be free to focus on child sexual-abuse cases without having regular patrol duties.

Currently, Wasilla has just one officer dedicated to criminal investigations full time, while the rest of the patrol officers respond to initial calls for services and handle some investigations.

Robinson said investigations of child abuse take a lot of time and need to be handled by a specialist.

"This is for an investigator who is not responsible for those initial calls and has more time to follow-up on those initial reports," Robinson said. "This is going to be strictly child-crime related, assaults on children and sexual assaults on children and the like."

Wasilla Deputy Administrator John Cramer said the new investigator will serve the greater Wasilla area, and not just crimes that are alleged to have taken place within city limits.

Cramer credited advocates from The Children's Place, a nonprofit that provides services such as case management and a safe place for interviews to take place when child abuse is reported.

Children's Place Program Director Margaret Volz said she is happy Wasilla has stepped up to the plate after her agency identified the grant funding.

"Wasilla is helping tremendously by adding this position, even though it will help all of the kids in the Valley," Volz said.

Volz said child abuse investigators can take about a week to investigate a single case, and she doesn't think every allegation gets the attention it deserves.

"I don't think that a specific agency is at fault," Volz said, "but I think that we suffer from resource issues in the Valley just like a lot of other places."

According to Volz, there were four cases of child sexual abuse prosecuted locally in 1999, 19 in 2000 and 14 in 2001.

In 2001, the Alaska Division of Family and Youth Services offices in Palmer had 382 reports of child sexual abuse in 2001.

Volz said many of the reports turn out to be false, and that authorities need to proceed carefully in their investigations because a false prosecution can be harmful as well.

That is why a special investigator with experience with children, and time dedicated to children sexual abuse cases, is useful.

"The only way you're going to know is by responding quickly with trained professionals," Volz said.

The grant funds cover 18 months of salary and program costs.

If Wasilla chooses to fund the investigator position after the grant period, it will cost $8,500 per month.

In other council actions at Monday's meeting:

The council passed unanimously an ordinance that updates the city's investment policy. The old policy limited Wasilla's investments to certificates of deposit in Alaska banks, Alaskan Credit Unions and the Alaska Municipal League Investment Pool.

The new policy allows Wasilla to add money market mutual funds, and certificates of deposit from any U.S. bank to its portfolio. According to Finance Director Ted Leonard the new policy allows Wasilla more flexibility by adding investment vehicles that perform better and take longer to mature.

The city presented an award to Alaska Cab Valley in appreciation for its offer of free taxi service on New Year's Eve, to help prevent drunken driving. The award was presented by Councilwoman Diane Keller and accepted by Corky Hedricks, owner-operator of Alaska Cab Valley.

Mayor Sarah Palin announced that Wasilla's finance staff, led by Finance Director Ted Leonard, received the Distinguished Budget Award from the Government Finance Offers Association (GFOA) for the city's budget for the 2002 fiscal year.

The award recognizes how well the city's budget document performs as a policy document, a financial plan, an operations guide and a communications device.

This is the first year that Leonard and his staff have received the Distinguished Budget Award, and they have received the GFOA Award for Excellence in Financial Reporting five years in a row.