New Haven Independent

Posted by: facChek | June 20, 2008 3:28 PM

Wow..
We are taking a big hit in as much as experience is concerned,
We may have to bring them back as consultants.
(I know, Bad joke).

Posted by: -fairhavener- | June 20, 2008 6:20 PM

"Costin said he needed to "jump" at an offer to serve as a supervising judicial marshal for the state. He expects to start out supervising the lock-up at 1 Union Ave. He hopes eventually to work in the courthouse."

I thought retirement meant you were all done working.

Posted by: nfjanette | June 20, 2008 7:01 PM

We loose Steve Shea to Kevin Costin, who then leaves after six months? The mayor couldn't have planned so delicious a revenge.

Posted by: Chris Gray | June 20, 2008 11:39 PM

Fairhavener - Retirement has meant a great number of things in our long history. Ben Franklin consciously chose to design his business career so as to allow him to retire early and few Americans would say that he poorly invested his fortunes nor claim he ceased to employ himself in diverse accomplishments which benefiited both himself and all humanity.

Not to equate these people to Franklin, to require all municipal retirees to cease any form of employment is just ludicrous in this economy. Their jobs are not their lives, even though with cops it sometimes costs them theirs. Judicial marshalls' lives, as well.

I may be a critic of the department, but I appreciate the stress it puts on many of our fine officers to do their jobs and don't begrudge rewarding good service.

Posted by: Chris Gray | June 21, 2008 12:45 AM

Public Radio's "On the Media", last week explored the phenomenon of "architectural renderings" and the intentional deceptiveness of this art of persuasion, so I can understand the seductiveness of accepting presentations as given like deer caught in headlines (oops!).

Koppell, Clark and Ellis-West have shaken awake and this cannot help but be a good thing. Lately, I've been looking at plans for downtown presented here at NHI and I end up shaking my head and saying, "I don't know." So, why shouldn't they?

They've got the responsibility to investigate further. Let them.

Posted by: jeffreykerekes | June 21, 2008 7:32 AM

NHPD officers can retire after 20 years and then collect a full pension. I don't think it is as common today, but 20 years ago you could get a job with a police department at 18 years old. This means you could retire after 20 years, now 38 years old, and collect your pension. You could get a job with the State for another 20 (I am not sure if its 20 years for a full pension at the state like here in NH), and collect a hypothetical second pension and retire at 58 years old with two full pensions. It is a smart move for a young person "not ready to take to the chair" as my grandmother says.

The other side to this, is that we are incentivizing the police officers to leave at 20 years of service. I know its a tough job being a police officer. The question is whether we should give them an incentive to stay 25 years or some other number rather than an incentive to leave. We have been having a hard time recruiting police. This is a national problem. I wonder how that can be addressed without perhaps more years of service? When they change my cell phone agreement, I have the option to continue on the old contract. Perhaps we can do something like that with officers over a certain number of years of service to encourage them to stay instead of this mass exodus before the contract expires.

I hope union leaders will be open to different agreements for new hires as a way to make changes to financial realities for the city. This way, current employees won't be as impacted and new hires come in on clear terms. If they don't like those terms, they can apply elsewhere. If you know what you are getting, and still apply, that seems fair to me. If no one applies, that is a clear sign the package is bad.

The NHFD has a lower acceptance rate of applicants then Yale Undergrad. What does that tell you about the package we offer our fire fighters?

Posted by: NHPD | June 21, 2008 9:48 AM

Jeff, I like your thoughts, but the city will never go for giving us something to make us stay longer.
I know the city is in hard times, but they must think about how they are going to handle the reitrements if the contract looks as if it is going to be a bust. This is not like it was in the late 80's, when there were alot of applicants coming in for this job.
This is a nationwide problem as far as recruiting and retaining officers. The city should take a step back and look at how they can attract and retain their qualified officers, not how they are going to get some give backs, which in the end will hurt the city and the public.
January is only 5 1/2 months away, that opens another twenty spots for the buy out. There are alot of officers that do not even need the buy out, which means they can go when they want.

Posted by: unprotected | June 21, 2008 5:22 PM

NHPD is now 22 sergeants short after that lit goes into effect. Managerial-wise, not effective supervision to be short 22 front line supervisors, 2-3 leiutnants, and 1 captain. I know they are short beat cops, but ovetime for bosses must be exceeding $50,000 a month. If they made 10 new sergeants, they could eliminate that O.T. and only increase $50-$60,000 a year for the new bosses. But then again, who am I to make a suggestion to promote. I love my taxes going to pay for vacant positions.

Posted by: Chris Gray | June 21, 2008 11:32 PM

Oops, that second post was obviously for another story, where I'll post it now. Sorry.

Posted by: jeffreykerekes | June 22, 2008 7:43 AM

Unprotected wrote: "I love my taxes going to pay for vacant positions."

Vacant, but budgeted positions is padding in the budget. We, according to our charter, need a balanced budget. These funded but vacant positions create padding. With a budget into the hundreds of millions, we need a buffer account, not smoke and mirrors. In the 07-08 Budget, we budgeted money for the entire year for the fire class that is just now getting ready to start. This is done to cover for the completely out of control budget. There are so many shortfalls and overestimations etc... That we are juggling money from one account to another to essentially make minimum payments on our credit cards. We "sold" our transfer station so it can borrow money to cover our spending we cannot afford. This was essentially borrowing from one credit card to pay off the other credit card. This is what got Enron in trouble.

Posted by: My Coolness | June 22, 2008 8:38 AM

I like Kerekes comments. He gets more astute by the day.

NHPD makes a valid point about contract changes and the 20 years to a full pension provision. If the new contract changes this time horizon too quickly it could prompt retirements from those who want to take advantage of the current contract provisions. Intelligent management can seek contract changes that extend this 20 year horizon in very gradual stages to reduce incentives for abrupt retirements.

We have a bad contract that induces retirements at great cost to the taxpayer. It is time to understand what motivates cops to want to retire and if the contract is a factor, to make appropriate changes.

As to why we have difficulty recruiting new cops, I have no thoughts. However, if police compensation package is anywhere like that of the average fireman -- $118,000 per fireman for salary, overtime, benefits, not counting unfunded retiree health care -- then the compensation package is not the reason. Something else in the way the police department operates may explain why we have 20+ applicants for a new fireman position while we have to search for new police recruits.

I wonder if the City conducts periodic employee surveys to gauge employee satisfaction -- as is done with many/most private corporations? Or does the City already know what drives policemen to seek retirement and be reluctant to join the force -- but are not free to change working conditions or work rules? Most of us know that some enterprises are successful in maintaining low employee turnover even when the financial package is not stellar. Has to do with morale, esprit, and other non-monetary conditions.

My (his?) coolness.

Posted by: yellow card | June 23, 2008 9:14 PM

The police earn about 15% more an hour than the firemen and they can retire with a larger percentage for their pensions. The reason cops leave at 20 years is because they can build up such massive pensions (overtime and extra duty ie Steve Cappolla $175,000)and then take their transportable state certification and work in Guilford, Branford, Judicial Marshalls, etc. So they get a $75,000 pension and then work in a.......less challeging envirement for another 20 years. Recruiting is another story. When you limit where you recruit you get a limited number of recruits. If you want a big catch you have to toss a big net. Plus the police recruit standards are more stringent than fire because the state regulates them and the city can't dilute them like they do with fire. 500 people apply but they lose 70% to polygraphs and the physical agility test. If the same standards were applied to the FD you would have the same issues.