To Hire a Full-Time Patrol Officer or Not?

At Monday’s meeting, the Ellwood City borough council struck down a motion to advertise for a part-time patrol officer. An alternative, hiring a full-time officer, was discussed but no decisions were made as council wished to research the matter further.

Council member Marilyn Mancini first brought up her reluctance to hire a part-time officer, pointing out that recently council approved two part-time officers, neither of which committed to the positions. In addition, the borough paid for tests for one of the candidates amounting to over $700.

She added that Lt. David Kingston, the police department’s ranking officer, advised that part-timers don’t work out well. Kingston is responsible for making the police schedule.

“Maybe we should go for another full-time officer?” Mancini said.

When it came time to pass the motion advertising for a part-time officer, council member George Celli approved it but received no second, and the motion failed. Under new business, council members Judi Dici and Mancini brought up the issue for discussion.

In November, former council member Ralph Chiappetta made a spontaneous motion to appoint the police department’s two part-time officers to full-time. This motion failed. In January, council appointed one of these officers to full-time.

However, Dici and Mancini voted against hiring the officer because he had lower test scores than the other candidate. The officer is also Celli’s nephew.

To start the discussion, Mancini and Dici proposed that hiring a fill-time officer would save more money in the long run.

Dici cited figures for the first two months of 2016 that show overtime costs for the police department at $29,000. If that rate continues, there will be $174,000 in overtime for the entire year. This matches with the overtime cost of $173,786 for 2015. Dici stated that a new police officer would cost between $95,000 and $100,000, including benefits.

Mayor Anthony J. Court, who didn’t attend the meeting, later said that overtime costs for the department were down 25% in 2015 from 2014. Per borough code, the mayor’s office controls the police department. Since the Chief of Police position was eliminated in 2014, Mayor Court said he has taken a more active role in directing the department.

According to Dici, the police department uses part-time officers as schedule fillers and doesn’t put them in the regular rotation. A full-time officer would have to be added into the rotation and thus cut down on replacement overtime.

The police contract stipulates that two officers be on duty in the borough at all times. When this criteria isn’t met for reasons including call offs, a replacement is brought in on overtime.

The current part-time officer has already passed the necessary tests and wouldn’t need additional training. In addition, Dici said that one officer will retire in a few years.

“We need to be proactive in replacing officers, not reactive,” Dici said.

Vice President David DeCaria said that if council knew for certain that hiring a full-time officer would reduce costs, he’d support it.

“Your suggestion is logical but our dealings with the police department aren’t logical,” DeCaria said. “Before we vote, we should be assured it will reduce overtime.”

Council member Brad Ovial sided with DeCaria.

“If the department is scheduled correctly, it would reduce overtime,” Ovial said. “However, we [council] don’t control the schedule downstairs, but we pay the bills.”

Council President Connie MacDonald said that replacement overtime would be reduced by hiring a full-time officer. However, all other overtime, including incidents and court trips, wouldn’t be reduced.

MacDonald said that 158 overtime hours this year were incident related and 68 were replacement. However, 2016 has been skewed so far because of a stand-off on Patricia Drive in January that required the entire department to be on duty for an extended time.

President Connie MacDonald was also uncertain if a full-time officer would save money in the long run, saying that full-time fringe benefits cost the borough considerable money.

In an interview on Tuesday, Mayor Court said council should try to reduce overtime costs in contract negotiations with the police department. Court added that budget disputes between council and the mayor’s department have been going on for 35 years.

MacDonald closed Monday’s discussion by suggesting all council members look at the numbers to make an informed decision next month.