Police chief discusses 2019proposed budget
Chief requests increase in overtime
WATERVLIET, N.Y. >> City officials held a budget workshop Thursday night to discuss the proposed 2019 budget for the police department.
Police Chief Mark Spain gave a nearly hour-long presentation highlighting his proposed 2019 budget for the department.
The proposed budget for each city department gets reviewed by the City Council over the new several weeks and they will give their recommendations to City General Manager Jeremy Smith, who will complete a city budget for 2019 by the end of the year.
Spain’s proposed budget for 2019 requests $2,304,236, which is a $138,478 — or 6.39 percent — increase over 2018’s budget for the department.
In his 2019 proposed budget, Spain is asking for a $100,000 increase in the overtime budget, which would total $400,000.
“The average overtime rate per shift [so far in 2018] is about $423.68, about $8,500 a month and $101,000 a year and that’s based on a regular work day, work week, work year,” explained Spain during his presentation.
Spain said one of the primary
reasons for the department having to use so much overtime is due to officers being out after being injured on- duty.
“In 2018 we [ have had] four officers that were out for a period injured onduty…. One officer is currently out on extended injured- on- duty,” said Spain. “The cost of overtime so far as of Oct. 5 to replace that one person in totality is about $100,000.”
Spain also noted how one officer on administrative leave cost the department an additional $12,000 to replace him, while also noting how the total overtime for the department to date is about $358,000, which is over the 2018 budgeted $300,000.
However, Spain said that the department had some contingencies in place to help balance out some of the overtime costs.
“We put some contingencies in place with an agreement with the union that we were going to make some staffing changes on the 1st platoon, when we did that it affected 149 shifts up until Oct. 1 and there was a savings of about $63,000 just with the 1st platoon, which is midnight’s,” explained Spain. “Then we made some policy-related changes in regards to release time and sick time that affected everybody in the department [for] another 53 shifts, which saved us another $22,000 and then staffing shortages, where we just didn’t have enough to bring us up to our minimum manning, saved us another $13,000.”
As part of his 2019 proposed budget, Spain is also asking to have three recruits be hired as early as possible in 2019 to help with three anticipated retirements within the department next year.