The Associated Press
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) - In this financially troubled western Massachusetts city, where a state control board has been appointed to oversee budgeting, the police payroll swelled 43 percent last year because of overtime and other supplemental pay.
The city’s $23.6 million police payroll increased to $33.8 million because of overtime, court pay, off-duty “details” and educational incentive pay, putting 41 officers among the city’s 100 highest paid employees, The Republican reported.
City records show that 42 city employees earned more than the $97,921 salary of former Mayor Michael J. Albano last year, including 20 police officers. A retired school administrator earned $94,267 in early retirement incentives that allowed high-paid school officials to cash in on sick time.
Forty-one of the city’s top 100 wage earners in 2003 were police, 30 worked for the School Department and 13 for the Fire Department. Eleven were department heads, three were non-department head lawyers and one was a Department of Public Works/Water construction foreman.
The Police Career Incentive Pay Program, known as the Quinn bill, gives bonuses to police for college credits. Officers receive a 10 percent bonus for an associate’s degree, a 20 percent bonus for a bachelor’s degree and a 25 percent bonus for a master’s degree.
The Quinn bill cost the city more than $3.6 million last year, more than overtime and extra details combined and nearly 11 percent of the payroll. Between 1995 and 2003, the city paid out some $27.4 million in Quinn bonuses.
Defenders of the program for police say it results in a more educated police force.
“Our officers are very marketable and could be hired for positions elsewhere,” Meara said. “They have to work in the streets and make difficult split-second decisions that relate to court case law, ordinances and the department’s policies and practices.”
The city’s starting salary of $42,796 is $2,444 more than the average paid in the nation’s 200 largest cities, according to PolicePay, a financial consulting firm for police unions based in Oklahoma City. Springfield’s top pay for patrolmen, however, is $10,475 less than the average.
Springfield police have more paid vacation time than police in all but 15 of the 200 largest cities. The extra pay for education and the 60 days per year sick time are also more generous than in most large cities.
Many police also supplement their income with overtime and extra detail jobs. They say they need the extra income because the pay is low.
Police Captain Gerald M. Foley, who heads the community police program, grossed $121,931, which included $19,318 in Quinn benefits and $19,413 in overtime. Foley earned more overtime than any other officer except Patrolman James T. Gormally, another community police officer, who coordinates crime watch and child safety programs.
“I would retire if it weren’t for the Quinn bill,” Foley said.
Alan L. LeBovidge, chairman of the Springfield Financial Control Board, said the board will not be getting into the pros and cons of the Quinn bill, which is authorized by state law, but will look at other benefits such as sick time for police.
Under a legislative deal that gave the city a $52 million, no-interest line of credit, the Romney administration is allowed to appoint a receiver for Springfield if the control board can’t fix the city’s financial woes.