Allan Appel Photo
(Updated Sunday 5:03 p.m.) A feverish last-minute behind-the-scenes effort to change a pension rule came up short — leaving Assistant Chief Luiz Casanova to decide whether to become a lieutenant again or remain assistant chief. In the end, Casanova chose to stay put in his leadership position.
Casanova (pictured visiting Roberto Clemente Leadership Academy) had to make that decision by Easter Sunday. He had to choose between staying in a top post in the department and preserving his retirement benefits in the face of a unique mix of pension and union rules and personal circumstances.
He wrestled with the question — and concluded that his top priority was continuing the work top cops have undertaken to revive community policing in New Haven.
“I look forward to continuing to working closely with the entire Board of Aldermen membership, union President Louis Cavaliere and most of all the hard-working New Haven police officers,” Casanova said Sunday afternoon. “Together we will continue to move the NHPD in a positive direction. I will continue with work with the New Haven community to positively align community-based policing with community expectations.”
“Chief Casanova is a remarkable police officer and person who has always put the community and police department first. He will always be part of the team that serves the people of the City Of New Haven,” said Chief Dean Esserman.
A popular former top Fair Haven cop, Casanova was one of four cops tapped to become assistant chiefs a year ago to flesh out Chief Dean Esserman’s top management team and perhaps ascend to the chief’s position one day. At the time an unspoken agreement among top officials called for adjusting a retirement rule so that if Casanova were ever to lose his job through no fault of his own, he would still have a pension.
He needed that guarantee because he was the only assistant chief to take the position with under 20 years of service in the police department. Cops need 20 years to collect a pension. Casanova has 17 years on the job.
Fast forward a year. The rule change never happened. And Mayor John DeStefano announced he will retire at the end of the year.
Suddenly Casanova’s pension appeared at potential risk in the event that two “ifs” take place: If the next mayor decides he wants a new police chief (not suggested by the current leading candidates). And if the new chief wants to put in his or her own assistant chiefs (as the past three chiefs have done).
If that happens, Assistant Chief Casanova would be in a pickle. His job could be eliminated or he could otherwise be pushed out of the job. But he wouldn’t be able to return to his old job as a lieutenant, which unlike the assistant chief’s position is part of the police union. Under the contract, a unionized worker has up to a year after leaving a position to seek to get it back. After that, he or she is out of luck.
So Casanova (shown in the video at left addressing a line-up on Kensington Street after the shooting of a 16-month-old boy) faced a deadline: He had to decide whether to return to being a lieutenant by March 30, the one-year anniversary of leaving the union to become an assistant chief. Or else risk losing his pension after 17 years in the job. (He already took a pay cut by becoming assistant chief because he no longer qualified for overtime.)
Before he made the decision, city officials tried to convince first the police union and then the Board of Aldermen to change a rule in order to save Casanova’s job: Either allow him back in the bargaining unit after more than a year (a union decision); or change the city’s executive management rules (an aldermanic decision) to allow a person who retires after 15 years to cash in at least three years of unused sick time. to qualify for the pension. Firefighters can already do that. Cops used to be able to do that, but no longer can. (Casanova has accumulated well more than the needed number of years of unused sick time.)
The Union No
Melissa Bailey Photo
Police Union President Lou Cavaliere (pictured) said he didn’t see how he could make an exception for just one person. He also said rank-and-file cops have besieged him with demands not to make that exception.
“It’s nothing personal. I understand his concern. A lot of people say he should have known that when he took the deal,” Cavaliere told the Independent Thursday. “I get along with the kid. It’s nothing personal. I have to entertain the members’ complaints. That’s part of my job.”
“I’ve been getting calls nonstop. I can’t even do work in my union office,” said Cavaliere. “It’s one member after next coming in asking what the deal is. Why are they helping him and not us? They feel there is favoritism.”
Casanova’s tenure as assistant chief has included overseeing patrol. In that role, he has taken some unpopular stands among some rank-and-file cops: Removing one of two prisoner transport vans during some shifts, for instance; or overruling some people’s preferences for which days to work based on when the department needed to up staffing levels; or insisting cops arrive to work on time. (Read about some of that here.)
“He wants to break balls if you park in the wrong parking spot,” Cavaliere remarked. “I understand we all have rules here. I can see if I was in a parking lot with a knife in my hand slashing people’s tires, you want to write me up. But if a guy comes a little late and parks in the wrong spot, you got to put the guy on the paper? Guys here are saying it’s karma.”
Casanova responded that he felt he had to make decisions based on needs of the department and public safety: “The same way we enforce the rules in the community, cops should be held to the same standards, if not higher.”
“The mayor has been calling the aldermen. The chief has been down here asking me if I can make a deal for the kid because he has a family,” Cavaliere said. “Not for nothing, the guy makes over 100 Gs a year plus a car. I make half of that. That’s fine. He took the position. He had a handshake deal [with city officials for a pension rule change]. A handshake deal is not binding.”
Aldermanic No
City Hall also tried to convince the Board of Aldermen to take action this week to change the executive management rules to allow for Casanova to qualify for his pension if he has to leave his position for reasons other than just cause.
That was one of a package of proposed changes the administration brought before the board earlier this fiscal year. The proposals stalled in committee as the administration negotiated an overall new contract with the police union.
“I did receive a call from City Hall [this week] concerning some issue with the Assistant Chief Casanova,” Board of Aldermen President Jorge Perez reported Thursday. “Since there’s no meeting between now and Friday, the discussion came to an end real quick.”
“There is an acknowledgement that this is a real concern. We looked at different ways of trying to address it,” said city Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts. “We couldn’t find a way of addressing it.”