Glendale plans to add 30 officers

If OK’d, cash would come from city fund and a federal grant

The Glendale Police Department expects to hire 30 officers in the coming months to bolster an attrition-diminished force.

Though officials say that the department has hired seven officers since May and that five more are ready for training, the officers union has been pushing police brass to fill depleted ranks for more than a year.

The department has been operating with 21 vacant officer positions and 19 civilian vacancies, said Officer Julie Pendergast, president of the Fraternal Order of Police.

Even though those vacant positions were budgeted and approved by the City Council, they haven’t been filled, she said.

This week, the department announced its hiring plan.

“Filling the vacancies is an organizational priority,” said Officer Tracey Breeden, a department spokeswoman.

Union officials are frustrated with how long it took to announce the openings, Pendergast said. She said union officials had previously spoken with Police Chief Debora Black and two past city managers about filling the vacancies, without success.

A recent meeting between union officials and Brenda Fischer, who became city manager in July, was more fruitful, Pendergast said. “(Fischer) is coming in at a difficult time, and clearly, she’s going to be a leader,” Pendergast said.

Sgt. Jay O’Neill said the department has been hiring.

“Our newest recruitment is for police recruits,” O’Neill said. “We have been continually hiring lateral police officers as well as new recruits. We conducted a testing process in May 2013, and since then, we’ve hired six recruits and one lateral police officer.”

Funding for 21 sworn positions will come from the city’s general fund, while funding for the additional nine will come from a $1.2 million, three-year federal grant the council is poised to approve, O’Neill said.

The vacancies are in critical areas like communications and patrol, Pendergast said. She noted that employees in the police communications unit are on a mandatory 48-hour workweek.

The department recently hired civilian employees for communication, as well as detention officers, which should help relieve the workload, O’Neill said.

“We currently have 16 civilian vacancies, with eight of those being identified as critical support roles (detention, communications and records personnel),” O’Neill said. “These civilian positions have been impacted by attrition even more than the sworn officer positions.”

Over five years, the department has seen the number of civilian and sworn employees drop by 16 percent, Pendergast said. The department had 593 employees in 2008 and 498 employees as of last month.

The department is hiring for