Thomas Breen photo
Asst. Police Chief Otoniel Reyes, Chief Anthony Campbell, Payroll/Benefit Auditor Alissa Ebbson, and Asst. Chief Luis Casanova (far right) face the alders.
With a mixture of resignation, frustration, and cautionary instruction, alders unanimously signed off on spending over $3 million reserved for debt service on shoring up the police and fire overtime budgets instead.
That recommendation came on Monday night at the end of a nearly four-hour-long Finance Committee meeting held in the Aldermanic Chambers on the second floor of City Hall.
The dozen alders on the committee heard hours of testimony from the city’s police and fire chiefs about how staffing vacancies and expired union contracts have put the two public safety departments on track to exceed their overtime budgets by a combined $5.1 million this fiscal year, which ends in June.
Monday’s Finance Committee meeting.
At the end of the night, the local lawmakers ultimately recommended approval of the city’s request to transfer $2 million from the city’s debt service budget and $2 million from the police salary budget to cover projected overages in police overtime.
They also recommended transferring $1.1 million from debt service to cover projected overages in fire overtime, $300,000 from debt service to cover projected overages in fire salary, and $200,000 from police salary to cover projected overages in police equipment.
The matter now goes before the full Board of Alders for a final vote.
Despite the unanimous vote of support for the debt-to-overtime budget transfers, alders were far from enthusiastic about the decision.
Finance Committee Vice-Chair Adam Marchand and Chair Evette Hamilton.
“I wish we could just vote no,” said Westville Alder and Finance Committee Vice-Chair Adam Marchand, “and then they wouldn’t spend it. But they’re gonna spend it anyway. At the end of the day, this is kind of an accounting issue for us. … Practically speaking, if we were to deny this transfer, we’d likely see it again at the end of the fiscal year.”
“We may not have extra money next year,” warned East Rock Alder Anna Festa, referencing the city’s recent $160 million debt restructuring, which pushed tens of millions of dollars of debt service payments a decade into the future. “We cannot continue to put the burden on the taxpayers.”
Board of Alders President and West River Alder Tyisha Walker-Myers called on the public safety chiefs, city administrators, and her colleagues on the board to be creative when coming up with proposed solutions for the city’s persistent police and fire overtime problems. Because when it comes to transferring millions of dollars from one area of the budget to cover overtime, she said, “We can’t keep going through this every time.”
The proposed budget transfers now make their way to the full board for a final vote.
From 495 To 430 Budgeted Officers
Police chiefs make their pitch.
“From the overtime standpoint,” Police Chief Anthony Campbell told the alders, “the main driver in overtime is staffing shortages.”
Campbell said that the department currently has 395 officers on the payroll. That’s 100 fewer than the 495 officers included in the department’s Fiscal Year 2018 – 2019 (FY19) budget.
Furthermore, he said, 16 officers are currently out on worker’s compensation, three are on administrative leave, three are on administrative assignment, one is on suspension leave, and one is on military leave.
And that’s not even counting the dozens of officers eligible for retirement or looking for better-paying jobs in the suburbs. Campbell himself announced earlier this month that he will be leaving the force to work at the state’s attorney’s office.
When the department has so many vacancies, he said, overtime inevitably adds up because officers are being asked to perform duties that the budget and the department organizational chart assumes will be filled by positions that are currently vacant.
In next fiscal year’s budget, Campbell said, the department will likely drop its budgeted number of officers from 495 to around 430. He said he hopes that reduction in budgeted positions will free up room for higher salaries for the remaining positions.
But for now, he said, the department needs the budget transfers in order to pay the over $8 million in overtime it plans on spending this fiscal year.
“In order to provide the service,” he said, “we need these funds to get us through the end of the year.”
This year’s budget originally set the department’s overtime at $4.4 million.
East Rock Alder Anna Festa.
“What do you feel is the proper number of police officers for the size of this city” Festa asked.
“It depends on what you want to do,” Campbell replied. The community policing that New Haven takes pride in, he said, costs time, money, and officer resources. It requires officers to show up to community management teams and neighborhood events and establish familiar, trusting relationships with residents independent of their primary responsibilities of suppressing crime.
He said the department is considering converting several currently vacant officer positions, such as body camera specialists and police mechanics, into civilian positions as a means of decreasing both salary and overtime.
But for now, he said, so long as city police officers remain without a contract, so long as officers continue to resign and retire in droves, and so long as community policing remains a valued city goal, the police department will always be chasing the tail of too many vacancies and too much overtime.
72: Too Much? Too Few?
Fire Chief John Alston (right) and Asst. Chief Orlando Marcano.
Fire Chief John Alston told the alders that overtime in his department is similarly driven by vacancies. The city’s fire department currently has 34 unfilled budgeted positions, he said. Around 30 prospective firefighters are about to be seated in a new fire academy class next month, he said, and he hopes to have another full class in training later in the summer or fall.
But 45 firefighters are currently eligible to retire, he said, and the department is legally allowed to seat classes no bigger than the current number of firefighter vacancies. It cannot take into account imminent, likely resignations and retirements. Asst. Chief Orlando Marcano said that eight firefighters are currently on workers compensation: four on light duty, and four on long-term injury.
The department is on track to spend over $3.2 million in overtime this fiscal year. They official overtime budget is $2.17 million. As with the police department, the fire department also has an expired union contract, though its contract negotiations are not currently in arbitration, as is the case with the police.
Hill Alder Dave Reyes asked the chief if large, demanding fires are the biggest drivers of overtime.
“The main trigger for overtime is the day-to-day staffing,” Alston replied.
Hill Alder Dave Reyes.
Alston said that, per the union contract, the department must have 72 firefighters on duty at all times. That minimum staffing requirement also contributes to increased overtime when the department has vacancies.
“That was a negotiation that was done in the contract,” Fetsa said about the minimum staffing number. “But is it necessary?”
Alston said the only way to properly determine whether that number is high or not is for the city to commission a third-party deployment study.
And what’s the hold up on getting that study done? Festa asked.
Alston said the department and the chief administrative officer (CAO) are working on drafting a request for proposal (RFP). CAO Sean Matteson said after the meeting that he would like to have the study done sometime this calendar year.
“Epitome Of Foolishness”
Gary Doyens.
The only member of the public to address the alders during the two public safety budget transfer hearing was budget watchdog Gary Doyens.
Doyens singled out the city’s proposed use of debt refinancing dollars to cover operational expenses as a violation of a key principle of municipal finance: debt is for capital projects, not recurring costs.
“You don’t use debt money to pay for operational costs,” he said. “That’s just the epitome of foolishness.”
He also criticized the fire department for delaying on commissioning a deployment study. What good does a reevaluation of the department’s minimum staffing requirements do, he asked, if that reevaluation comes after the department has finished negotiating a new contract with its union.
“If we never ask for the deployment study,” he said, “then we’re just whistling in the wind. What’s the point.”
As for the police department’s pitch, he said he has been advocating for a reduced force for years. The current number of budgeted positions is way too high, he said, and even dropping that number from 495 to 430 will still leave the city with one of the highest officer-to-resident ratios of any American city.
“The level of staffing we have in our police department is luxurious,” he said, “and we just can’t afford it.”
As the alders prepared to vote, Marchand said he takes Doyens’s criticism seriously, particularly in regards to not using debt refinancing proceeds to pay down overtime. That money could have been used to fill up the city’s rainy day fund, he said, or even to give a rebate to taxpayers.
“But we’ve certainly not had the last bite of the apple in terms of talking about this issue,” he said. The mayor is scheduled to propose her budget to the alders on March 1, and the alders will have another three months of public hearings and deliberations about city department finances, including those of police and fire.
After the hearing, Matteson said his priority on the issue is having honest conversations with alders and department heads about putting together realistic public safety overtime numbers for next year’s budget.