|
Current Conditions: Few Clouds, 21.0˚F
|
| Print Subscription Login Register |
Published:Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams (D)
Williams plans to replace lost ranking officers with patrol officers.
YOUNGSTOWN — City council will consider a proposal Wednesday to reduce the number of ranking police officers from 66 to 39 through attrition.
No time frame for full implementation of the proposal has been made because it isn’t known how many officers plan to leave the department and when, said Mayor Jay Williams, sponsor of the legislation.
The plan is to replace each departing ranking officer with a patrol officer, Williams said. But there is no guarantee.
The ordinance to be considered Wednesday states: “As funding permits, additional patrol officers and part-time patrol officers can be hired with the savings realized.”
Capt. Kenneth Centorame, president of the ranking officers’ union, said he was “surprised” to find out about “a major transfer of the police department” from a reporter with The Vindicator — and not from the city administration.
He was also skeptical about the mayor’s statements that each officer leaving the department would be replaced.
“This is more of a secret than the Manhattan Project,” Centorame said in reference to the secret project during World War II to develop an atomic bomb.
“The mayor has not discussed this with me or any member of the bargaining unit.”
The average base pay of a patrol officer is $51,321 a year and the average base pay of a ranking officer is $63,788 annually.
The city administration is asking the union that represents patrol officers to reduce the entry-level salary, which is about $37,000 annually, Williams said.
Depending on the outcome of discussions to reduce the entry-level salary, the city may be able to hire even more patrol officers when ranking officers leave the department, he said.
“By reducing management we’ll have more officers on the street,” Williams said. “We’re not looking to reduce the number of police officers. We’re looking to maintain the level of staffing. ... The intention is to maintain the same number at the Youngstown Police Department, but have more patrol officers.”
No patrol officer positions would be cut in this plan, he said.
Of the 27 proposed cuts through attrition, 24 would be detective sergeants.
“It’s a sad thing that there’s no chance for a future for new hires,” Centorame said. “I hope council gives us a chance to say why this is bad. Without detective sergeants, who’ll do the investigations of thefts through murders? The workload won’t decrease.”
In its current contract, the union representing ranking officers agreed that the city could reduce its ranks through attrition if revenues that fund the department fell 6.5 percent below the proceeding year.
“There is no indication that’s the case,” Centorame said. “It seems like we’re the union being targeted. I don’t know if it’s retribution for not giving back our pay raise.”
City officials are looking at ways to run departments more efficiently and aren’t targeting the police ranking officers, Williams said.
A study commissioned by the city shows that the ratio of ranking officers to patrol officers in Youngstown is 1 to 1.8. The study of eight other cities — Parma, Canton, Lorain, Springfield, Hamilton, Kettering, Elyria and Lakewood — shows ratios there to be 1 ranking officer for every 3.7 patrol officers.
If Youngstown’s proposal is fully implemented, the city’s ratio would be 1 to 3.5.
City administrators said earlier this year that 50 jobs needed to be cut, or the financial equivalent of $3.9 million in salary and benefits, to balance this year’s budget.
If nothing was done the city’s deficit would be about $6 million by the end of next year.
About 20 firefighters accepted a retirement/resignation incentive in June that reduced the city’s general fund budget by about $750,000.
The city has cut about $1 million from its budget through the sale of property and other cuts.
Search Options
Balance your budget Youngstown, or raise YOUR city income tax. Again this ranking officers vs patrol officers ratio shows how out of control budgetwise the Youngstown City employment has become. Just please do not push to get more money from those of us in the suburbs with Mayor Jay's blackmail water for income tax JEDD to pay for your employment sins.
Why not get rid of the whole police department that way crime can run rampid in the streets. Its one thing to streamline the department but another to play politics with the police department, which thats what it sounds like to me. You need to have "Feet On The Street" not take them away. The Chief should have difinately consulted when it has to do with his department.
Paulydel, do you even understand what the above article is saying? If the mayor has his way, it means there will be MORE "feet on the street". Read, Paulydel, READ and COMPREHEND, please, before posting.
Oldmangrump, a good day to you as always.
This shows what the main problem is with unions and public servants.
Officers are promoted based on tests and seniority and eventually everyone gets promoted. That leaves you with all chiefs and no indians.
The private sector has one ranking officer (manager) for every 5 or more workers.
YPD is bloated with highly paid rank personnel and few street officers for this very reason and it shows in the crime stats.
Getting promoted based solely on longevity is so union and so Mahoning Valley.
It's time the public sector function like the private sector. More efficiently and promotions based on effort and talent rather than years of service and connections.
Very well put Apollo.
No way is Mayor Williams and his staff a match for the Police Union. Good try, Mayor and good luck!
What a joke...cops are high paid?? I think not.Maybe in a ritsy town where there is no crime, but here!!! These people work their butts off protecting YOU and ME AND the mayor, we don't need more feet on the street, what streets are you talking about, I want my cop in a car when I call, so far it has worked out just fine, if they are high ranking, they have worked to earn it, Mr. Mayor, that's how things go. They were NOT elected, they EARNED it, by working terrible beats, dealing with every unsavory element there is, risking their lives, sometimes losing, leave them alone, these are the people who risk their lives for us. Cut back somewhere else, if you have to , but not our people in blue. We NEED them
Clayor, can you read? He is trying to replace retiring higher level positions with more patrolmen. For every ranking officer that retires one will be hired for the patrol. And the expression, "feet on the street" is in reference to more patrolmen in cars, not literally walking the streets. As far as earning it, earning what? Nobody is losing their job, they're retiring.
Gotcha Mimi, sorry I jumped the gun. By earning, I meant they earned the high ranking positions and they shouldn't be taken away. If they choose not to retire or are too young, then what? I just assumed he wanted the high payees out, no matter what.
They act like these higher ranked officers are not out on the streets at all. Which is not true. They are out there on patrol too. They are just looking to cut higher paying job, which in my eyes for risking their lives, none of them get paid enough for what they do. Everything needs to be looked at and not done so fast without really talk to the police department. It seems like everything must be Major Jay's way and he will do anything, even if it's dirty, to get it. How much longer do we have to deal with this mayor?
It's funny, the mayor is getting this one kind of right. There are like 2 detectives in YPD and 40 detective sergeants. Who the hell are all these sergeants supervising? The non-uniform divisions should follow the model of the patrol division - X number of officers supervised by a sergeant, X number of sergeants supervised by a lieutenant or captain and so on.
I think the mayor is off on the starting salary though. The officers who are dilligent and work hard in this city deserve what they get paid, and probably more. Just weed out the jerks who give the city a bad name!!!
Very well put Apollo.
Ken,your comment about the mayor and staff being no match adds to the problem, the Mayor and his staff want to solve the situation of crime and budget concerns and the police need to and should understand this. It is the police Unions job to get better wages, and pay increase and benefits and the like, whenever they can, understandable, but the Mayors job is to keep people safe while trying to balance the budget, the Mayor is acting responsible, lets see if the police can ask the union to do the same.
Which is it 1.8 or 2.4?!? Either way maybe instead of getting rid of police officers, if the city would hire the amount necessary to address crime in this city that ratio would be higher and there would be the resources needed to meet the mission's demands.
(Requires free registration.)