By Zach Lowe
Staff Writer
June 18, 2007
STAMFORD - The city has nixed plans to grant officers in the detective bureau a raise or a new rank, ending for now a dispute that dates to 1972 and has roiled the department since 2003.
"With the budget the way it is, it's basically not going to happen right now," said Dennis Murphy, the city's human resources director.
Almost every police department in the state recognizes the rank of detective, but the police union may have to wait until 2009 or later to have the rank reinstated in Stamford, officials said.
The police union has said for years that about 30 officers in the bureau are doing a unique job without rising above the rank of patrol officer.
The conflict flared in 2003, and officers in the bureau staged a mass protest the next year by asking to be moved to the patrol division. The shake-up left the detective bureau in the hands of rookie patrol officers until crime jumped in 2005 and the chief ordered the veteran investigators back to the bureau.
The police union filed a grievance in 2005 with the state Board of Labor Relations saying the officers were doing the work of sergeants and deserved sergeants' salaries and nearly $2 million in back pay.
The state denied the grievance and suggested the union take the issue up with the city's Personnel Commission.
But it is unclear whether the commission has the authority to do what the union wants, Murphy said. The commission can reclassify the officers as sergeants, but it does not have the power to create new ranks such as detective or detective sergeant, he said.
The power to create new ranks lies with Murphy and the city's labor negotiators, he said.
The police union has appealed to the commission and Murphy but would prefer that the city created the rank of detective and negotiated a salary for officers in that position, said Officer Michael Merenda, president of the Stamford Police Association.
"I think the city should just say the officers are doing the job of a detective, and we will negotiate the new rank," Merenda said.
Murphy denied that request and has recommended the Personnel Commission do the same with the union's petition to have the officers promoted to sergeant, he said.
Increasing the salaries of all 30 officers by 15 percent to match a sergeant's salary would cost the city about $250,000 per year, according to the police contract.
The city is unlikely to approve such a deal amid the budget crisis, Murphy said.
The police department scaled back services after city boards and administrators cut about $1 million from the mayor's proposed $41.7 million police budget for 2007-08.
To meet the budget, Chief Brent Larrabee cut the number of officers on the street, reduced hours at the animal shelter and canceled plans to recruit 14 new officers this summer.
Until 1972, the city recognized the rank of detective and paid detectives the same salary as sergeants. The city and the union agreed in a handshake deal that year to do away with the rank and staff the bureau with sergeants. But the city soon broke the agreement by assigning patrol officers to the bureau without promoting them.
The union never brought the issue up in contract talks after 1972. But in 2003, the union president, Sgt. Joseph Kennedy, wrote a letter encouraging all the officers in the bureau to demand new assignments in protest.
Larrabee granted their request after last-minute negotiations for a pay raise fell apart.
The police union appealed to the state labor board, which rejected the appeal in November - too late for the union to include a proposal for a new rank in contract negotiations. The police contract expired in June 2005 and now is before an arbitrator.
The arbitrator is expected to rule this fall, and the new contract likely will run through 2009.
The two sides could start negotiations about a new rank any time, but Murphy said it is unlikely the city will do so until after the next contract expires.
"It's just more appropriate to do it during contract negotiations," he said.
Merenda wants faster action.
"That's what I'd prefer," he said.
Copyright © 2007, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.