By Cara Rubinsky, Waterbury Republican American (Connecticut)
WATERBURY, Connecticut -- The police department has saved an estimated $500,000 a year in overtime by implementing recommendations in an efficiency study commissioned 18 months ago by the state oversight board.
In an effort to avoid a contentious battle similar to the one that ensued when the oversight board imposed a fire union contract earlier this year, Police Chief Neil O’Leary and the police union have worked together on implementing many of the recommendations in the $170,000 study.
The police contract expires on June 30. The oversight board, created in March 2001 to help the city work its way back from a $100 million deficit, has sweeping powers to impose contract provisions. If the police union and the city cannot negotiate an agreement the board finds acceptable, the board will act as arbitrator.
“We’re hoping, we meaning management and the union, are hoping by doing this, we have a great window of learning, so when we get into negotiations with this board, we can show you what has worked and what hasn’t,” O’Leary told members of an oversight board subcommittee Tuesday. “And hopefully that will mean something at the appropriate time.”
O’Leary was at a meeting of the oversight board’s reorganization subcommittee to update members on efforts to implement the efficiency study, conducted by Virginia-based consultant Carroll Buracker and Associates, which issued a 350-page report in May 2003. The subcommittee, under the direction of former oversight board member Ralph Carpinella, commissioned similar studies of the fire and public works departments.
Carpinella resigned from the board in August, so new co-chairmen Fred Luedke and Charles Kellogg are familiarizing themselves with progress on the studies.
O’Leary told the subcommittee Tuesday that the police department has implemented most of the 66 recommendations in its study, including revising the policy and procedures manual, which had not been updated since 1973. Some other recommendations, such as having civilians work in the dispatch center instead of officers, cannot be implemented until a new contract is negotiated or imposed.
Many of the recommendations were intended to cut down on overtime, which is $1.8 million in the $24.9 million department budget for this year, compared with $2.1 million in last year’s budget. The total city budget is $325 million.
The biggest change has been a switch to a practice known as discretionary hiring, in which captains are allowed to decide whether to pay officers overtime to cover for other officers who are out sick or on vacation. The department has 320 officers.
Previously, all spots were filled without consideration of whether those officers were really needed.
Based on recommendations in the study, the command structure was also changed to make covering for absent high-ranking officers less costly. Previously, if the captain in charge of a shift was out, another captain came in on overtime or a lieutenant was paid the difference between his or her salary and a captain’s. Now lieutenants cover for captains and are paid a differential only if the captain is out more than three days.
Other savings, O’Leary said, have come from a telephone reporting unit that allows officers to take complaints over the phone rather than in person. If someone’s hubcaps are stolen, for instance, and that person needs a police report for insurance purposes, an officer can take the complaint over the phone rather than going to the scene.
The unit, staffed by injured officers who cannot perform their regular duties, fields an average of 13 calls a day. In addition to freeing up officers for other assignments, the unit is more efficient for people making complaints because they do not have to wait for officers, who might have to clear more urgent calls before they can respond. Handling an average call takes 45 minutes from when the officer is dispatched.
Callers are still given the option of having an officer sent out, but nine of 10 are willing to file complaints over the phone, O’Leary said.
“It’s really been a success, a huge success,” he said.
Luedke and Kellogg said they were impressed with what they heard Tuesday, which could bode well for the contract process.
The oversight board and police brass would like to avoid a repeat of the contentious fire contract process, which required two rounds of arbitration. The fire union boycotted both, saying it did not expect a fair shake based on the board’s 2001 handling of its contract. The fire union took the oversight board to Waterbury Superior Court, where a judge last month vacated the contract because of a problem with the way it was arbitrated. The oversight board has appealed that ruling to the state Supreme Court, but a decision is not expected before the end of the year.
Firefighters, meanwhile, saw their work week extended from 42 to 50 hours and their schedules change dramatically. Previously, firefighters worked three days, had three days off, worked three nights, and had three days off. Now they work 24 hours, are off 24 hours, work 24 hours, are off 24 hours, work 24 hours and then are off for four days. In any 27-day period, they have one additional day off.
The changes are designed to cut down on overtime, which totaled more than $2 million in last year’s $315.2 million city budget. The fire union says the amount is high because the city made a conscious decision not to hire enough firefighters, while the city contends sick-time abuse is to blame.
This will be the first time the oversight board has dealt with a contract for the police union. The current contract took effect in 2000, before the board was formed, though officers were working under their 1995-2000 contract until last year because the city claimed it could not afford the 2000-05 contract negotiated and then vetoed by former mayor Philip A. Giordano.
In February of this year, the state Board of Labor Relations ruled the contract valid.