By Marianne Sullivan
Published on 9/16/2004
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The Board of Police Commissioners, in a split vote last week, approved the creation of a deputy chief position within the Police Department over the strenuous objections of Commissioner Emile Geisenheimer.
With First Selectman Tom Scarpati sitting as an ex officio member, the commission then went on to approve a motion asking the Board of Selectmen to increase the size of the police force by four new officers. The action comes just months after the town offered a generous early retirement incentive program to veteran members of the department with the express intent of decreasing the department's size.
Although a discussion and possible vote on creation of the deputy police chief position was expected, the move to request four more police officers came as a surprise to many.
"I am surprised and disappointed that the Police Commission is seriously considering a request from the police chief to create a new position and appoint a deputy chief. The position is not needed and will: add fixed overhead cost, reduce senior officer deployment flexibility, increase overtime cost, reduce training and development opportunities for senior officers, reduce the candidate pool of successors to the chief's position, and distance the chief from day to day operation of the department," Geisenheimer said in a letter to his fellow commissioners.
Commissioners William Nicholls and Craig Caplinger contended the deputy position was needed.
"The department needs another executive officer outside the union," Nicholls said.
Caplinger agreed, adding, "I don't see where we will have additional overtime costs. I don't see that at all."
As proposed, the deputy chief's position would be filled from within the department and because it will be a non-union position, it will not be subject to overtime pay. The department has four lieutenants. Lieutenant is presently the highest rank after the chief. Lieutenants are union members and eligible for overtime. There are also four sergeants, also union members.
Geisenheimer asked, "Where are we going to get the money for this in our budget? I strongly urge that we table this matter indefinitely and return to it at some future point...I think we also need to talk with other boards about this."
The Police Department's budget has been a source of friction between the commission and the boards of selectmen and finance for months, and it was these two boards to which Geisenheimer was referring. Commission Michael Heaney agreed, saying, "My starting bias is to side with the chief in his request and his reasoning, however, this decision has important financial consequences...and other boards should perhaps be consulted."
Eventually the motion passed on a 3-2 vote with Geisenheimer and Heaney voting in opposition.
New Officers
Later in the meeting, Nicholls moved to request the department be increased from its present 24 certified police officers to a strength of 28. The motion came after months of wrangling between the commission and the town that reduced the department's size.
Board Chairman Robert Cerosky said, "We have to look to the future. It takes almost a year to bring an officer onto the job because of training requirements. With our present size, we have no contingency for replacement of an officer if we lose one or two [due to long-term illness or accident] in the next few months. We need to consider this."
While Nicholls contended that response times were being affected by the smaller force, Geisenheimer objected, saying he had not seen sufficient information on response times to make such a claim.
Geisenheimer added, "We debated this for months. This budget went to referendum. It was passed. Now you want to go back to where we were before. It does not merit debate. This issue has been decided."
On July 1 two veteran police officers accepted an early retirement offer from the town, an offer specifically designed to trim the police force. A third officer accepted a position with the Clinton department, and the fourth, Donald Lanouette, resigned while under investigation.
Nicholls contended that the department was at "bare-bones" and could not successfully continue to operate at that level.
Scarpati said, "This was a key part of the last budget cycle...I believe we can address these issues in our union negotiations." The first selectman has contended that procedures within the union contract are the cause for much of the scheduling and overtime problems being discussed by the commission, and that changes in the contract and work rules can allow the department to operate appropriately with 24 officers.
Four commission members disagreed and voted to support Nicholls's motion. Geisenheimer was opposed.