http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-suspension5mar16,0,6717154.story?coll=stam-news-local-headlines
By Zach Lowe
Staff Writer
March 16, 2006
STAMFORD -- After a string of critical audits that date back eight years, the city is keeping a closer eye on attendance, side jobs and sick days in the police department, officials said yesterday.
Mayor Dannel Malloy said he thinks Brent Larrabee, who has been police chief since December 2004, is the right leader to monitor attendance and update the department's paper record-keeping system.
"He wants to address some of the weaknesses there," Malloy said yesterday. "And he has made it a priority to address attendance issues."
Larrabee said he is not aware of any significant contract violations among officers since his arrival, but internal and outside audits completed since 1998 found a string of other irregularities in the way the department tracked and doled out extra-duty work and overtime, The Advocate has reported.
The violations included employees working side jobs while on sick leave; officers being paid for regular duty and side work at the same time; and missing records for hundreds of thousands of dollars in overtime payments.
In 2004, Malloy said it was "atrocious" that some officers worked side jobs while on sick leave and vowed to prevent it in the future.
That practice has ended, Larrabee said.
"I don't believe that any officer out sick is working a side job," the chief said. "Did it happen in the past? It might have. But if it happens here, I think the men and women of this department would tell their bosses."
Larrabee said he wants to modernize the record-keeping system for sick leave, overtime and police reports.
Now officers who call in sick phone the main telephone number and speak to "whoever answers the phone," he said. That person writes the name of the sick officer and the date into an "old-fashioned ledger book" at the front desk, Larrabee said.
Officers working overtime submit index-card-sized blue slips to sergeants showing the date and number of hours worked, police have said. The sergeants approve the slips with their signatures.
A city audit found hundreds of blue slips missing for the 1999-2000 fiscal year.
Larrabee hopes to computerize the system, though he said there is no guarantee the budget will allow him to buy enough computers to make a real change.
But he said he intends to stop the irregularities of the past.
"It has always been one of my goals to make sure attendance is appropriate," Larrabee said yesterday.
Last month, the department suspended one officer without pay for 60 days after an internal investigation showed the officer used more sick days and vacation days than he was allotted, city records show.
It was the officer's third suspension for sick leave abuse since 2003.
The investigation found the officer, a 20-year veteran whom The Advocate is not identifying because of his medical issues, used two extra sick days and 2 1/2 extra vacation days, according to a copy of the investigation.
Larrabee said the officer "was a model employee for 19 years" and expects him to return as "the great employee he once was." The department will repay the officer for some part of the suspension if he avoids further violations, the chief said.
Private companies hire officers for side jobs, including security work and traffic patrol, and pay the officers at time-and-a-half rates, according to department policy.
Copyright © 2006, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.