YOUNGSTOWN — Tensions ran high with members of Youngstown council’s safety committee discussing plans to replace the rank of police detective sergeant with sergeant in front of an audience of officers.

The committee invited police Chief Carl Davis from the audience to the main table for a discussion on the proposal. But Councilman Jimmy Hughes, D-2nd Ward and a retired police chief, repeatedly stopped Davis from talking after the latter initially mentioned that the department had problems with “hiring and retention,” and he didn’t want to take away opportunities for promotion.

Hughes said the discussion wasn’t about eliminating jobs and Davis “was not on the topic.”

“I clearly said what we’re here for and what we’re talking about; we’re talking about the rank itself,” Hughes said. “So if your discussion is going to go with reduction, I clearly said if we eliminate the rank of detective sergeant we want to create the rank of sergeant. We want every detective sergeant to be sergeant.”

Davis said: “I don’t want you to take away any opportunities for promotion.”

Hughes asked: “How would that be taking away?”

Davis said: “It would be taking it away. That’s the only incentive we have.”

Asked a few moments later by Councilwoman Samantha Turner, D-3rd Ward, about his opinion on the idea, Davis said: “As long as I’m chief of police here that will never happen.”

Davis was again cut off by Hughes.

Councilwoman Anita Davis, D-6th Ward, and a retired Youngstown police detective sergeant, said the department is “top-heavy” with ranking officers.

That’s because every time a ranking officer leaves, a patrolman is promoted. There are 30 detective sergeants, seven lieutenants and four captains. There are currently 93 patrol officers with plans to add 11 more this year as long as there are no additional departures.

Of the 30 detective sergeants, 14 work in the detective bureau and 16 supervise patrol officers.

Davis said she wants more patrol officers hired and a reduction in ranking officers.

“We need more police officers, but we’re constantly behind the eight ball and that contributes to overtime,” she said.

Last year, 12 police officers, including 10 ranking officers, made more than $50,000 in overtime with one, Detective Sgt. Edward Kenney, making $139,295.89 in overtime.

Davis said she wanted to reduce ranking officers through attrition — and change detective sergeants to sergeants. She said the conversation was preliminary and didn’t have a number of reductions through attrition in mind.

Davis also said it is up to council to determine how many ranking police officers there are in the department and the number isn’t set by the officers’ union contract.

While the police chief kept getting shut down by Hughes, the councilman let officers in the audience speak. There were about 20 officers packed into the meeting room for this issue.

Lt. Brian Butler said: “Through recruitment and hiring, not having available promotions would hurt further people wanting to come here and cause people who are here to leave. That is a big concern.”

Capt. Jason Simon said: “I’m 100% with what Lt. Butler said. We could expound on it for much, much longer, but it’s a good summary for where we are now.”

Capt. Rod Foley, a former Youngstown police chief, said: “In my 32 years down here, I’ve seen rank reduction happen. One of the biggest things I saw with rank reduction was always the carrot that we’ll give you more money.”

That never happened, Foley said.

He said: “Through experience, we know what happens: we don’t get raises, we don’t hire. It continues to implode. I can see why we’re all here because we all know how hard it was to get these jobs. We have to set the table for the people behind us that they also have the opportunity.”

FERAL CATS

The committee also talked Thursday about possibly hiring a company for around $10,000 to catch feral cats in the city, spay or neuter them and then release them to help control the number of felines in Youngstown.

Councilmen Julius Oliver, D-1st Ward, and Pat Kelly, D-5th Ward, said they met with a Campbell police officer recently about a company — they couldn’t remember its name — that did this program in Campbell.

A van with a veterinarian would drive around different parts of the city, lure the cats with food and then spay or neuter them before letting them go.

One holdup, Oliver said, is the city has an ordinance that prohibits people from feeding stray cats.

“They said they’re scared if they come here they’ll get arrested,” Oliver said.

A. Joseph Fritz, a senior assistant law director, said he didn’t believe the company would be in violation of the ordinance, but he would research it.

Also uncertain is what would happen if a captured cat tested positive for a disease.