With Ranks Slim, 17 Cops Top $200K In Pay

One cop is earning over $300,000 a year. That's more than some Fortune 500 CEOs earn before their bonuses are added in. I think Mayor Elicker needs to get a handle on this, and quickly too. Yale must be really happy that 3% of their extra contributions are just going to pay one person. The State must think they are pissing their extra PILOT contributions down the tubes. If you want the city to function you need to distribute wages equitably to those who do the work, not the politically connected. I expect these numbers will really demoralize the rank and file trying to do their jobs well, and lead to disillusionment. Someone, somewhere needs to get a grip on city government, or we'll all be bust before the end of the year.

I see Ralph Consiglio is number four in this list. He is my neighborhood beat cop. I can’t ever get anyone to show up for a complaint, but I often see him hanging out on Wooster Street at the Saint Mary Magdalene Club playing cards and playing Bocce on Sunday mornings in Wooster Park dressed in his uniform for all to see. To think my taxes are skyrocketing to pay for this. When will the Mayor do something to protect the people?

@ NHI - I wish you would include the years of service for each $200k officer, where they live and pay taxes, plus breakdowns of base salary, overtime, extra duty.

My guess is the majority of these top earners are all close to their 20 years for retirement, with upcoming retirement payments based on the average of their last four years total earnings, including overtime and extra duty. (The last is outrageous.)

Also, what about a list of the biggest retirement payouts? How can New Haven afford to pay people $100,000yr plus, to retire in their late 40’s or early 50’s? The joke is clearly on us taxpayers.

AT, I may be mistaken, but I believe the pension calculation was changed in the last NHPD contract, at least with regard to extra duty.

Intheknow

Sounds like good community policing to me

Just another example of the New Haven Finance Sh#t Show brought to the New Haven Taxpayers by the 3 ring circus of the Mayor's Office, BOA Finance Committee, and FRAC.
----
No surprise to those of us who have followed this issue. The bigger question is, how much does this impact the pension liabilities? The answer is, we don't know. I asked Mr. Gormany the impact during FRAC meetings and the City has never done the analysis. Perhaps there aren't enough resources to conduct the analysis bc the city no longer has a both a full-time Controller and full-time budget Director.

Can't blame the NHPD for this problem; they went on record saying they needed more resources and the BOA cut the budget.

Why isn't the BOA President providing comment on this article. How about the BOA Finance Committee?

Kevin - I believe the contract changed for newer officers, but remains in place for officers hired about a decade ago.

Ok, I'll say one more time: the community policing model in New Haven is expensive, outdated and totally unsustainable. I have said this a million times, but nobody seems to comprehend it because everyone is still appalled when they see numbers like these. You can't cut the number of officers at the NHPD and still expect the same level of police service, period. The deployment model needs to be updated and changed, but every time that is attempted people come out of the woodwork and cry about walking beats in their neighborhood. Like I have said for years, walking beats are super expensive and they are not efficient. But everyone likes them, right? Ok, I get it. I really like Ferrari's too, but I don't own one. Know why? It's too expensive. Now, one of the top earners is being chastised here in the comments section for playing cards and bocce on his beat, in full uniform, with the community. Apparently, that's not acceptable and the reason why taxes are skyrocketing. But this is what the citizens wanted isn't it? It's what everyone complains about not seeing when the cops get pulled to actually go to work. Not long ago I remember seeing a photo on the NHI of Chief Reyes in full uniform playing basketball in Newhallville with some kids and that was lauded as great policing and he was commended by all. Truth is, policing in New Haven is a mess from every angle, even the community perspective. The community has been lied to so much, that they believe the bullshit they have been fed is true. It will stay this way until an experienced, honest chief with some balls and direction, who doesn't care about being popular, takes the helm. And that is not a knock on Dominguez because I give her a ton of credit for even being there after what she's been through.

Looks like the politicos left this stop off their trip when they took the Victory Lap on Monday!

https://www.newhavenindependent.org/article/mlk_new_haven_rising

Understand: if an officer grosses over 200k it’s equivalent to working over 100 hours a week that’s over two FULL time jobs. Remember making over 200k it’s a different tax bracket and the tax deductions are ridiculous. This isn’t 200k in a corner desk job inside sheltered from all weather this is working holidays/ getting held over/ working blizzards/ thunderstorms/ snow storms/ standing in the rain/ on top of dealing with demanding people. Cops working through this pandemic not getting a penny of Covid relief money. If people think it’s a cake walk then pass the physical and written and the background and drug test and apply. These officers put in the work tiered stressed out and families falling apart. New Haven is not a walk in the park. So those days that it’s slow paced is a blessing. These have worked hard and earned it.

I think its worth asking, how many officers is the supposed to have and if we are that short, why not hire ppl?

Oh, yeah. Because Democrats in CT have demonized police and made them accountable for everything. Now, no one will even apply. So small towns get most of the little applications that are submitted. And then poach from Nh whenever they can.

So the NHL (New Haven Leftists) should accurately report the whole picture. Ask officers if the OT they work is requested or are they held because of shortages. And also include private jobs which the city doesn't pay for, but yet makes money off of. And those jobs dont go toward officer pensions.

And maybe also include how much money the city is saving on pension contributions and health care savings by being understaffed.

The NHL tries to paint this picture of grift, but lets be real, the pd is way understaffed and its CT Democrats, and New Haven politicians who have caused this.

You cut the police and then you call the police . What did you expect?
Why doesn't the commentariat sign up to be cops for minimum wage?? I'll be waiting to see who joins up . It's easy to suppose and complain about a job you would not ever do yourself

Raise the pay for police, fire personnel, and teachers and you will have a bigger candidate pool and more cost effective. Then, hire a workforce that is needed to serve the public the way it should be.

This is an article that runs every year. Only the names and amounts change.
Another repeat question as to what the proper staffing levels are and another lack of response from officials.
PS Officers doing 70 hours of duty cannot be in good shape for their assignments.

Can we PLEASE get rid of the police standing around construction sites, chatting and staring at their phones? You don't need a police officer to make people pay attention to cones on a road, and if you need a person to hold a flag then the construction companies can hire literally anyone to do that, not a well-compensated police officer.

These officers are making this much because they take open shifts that clearly aren’t being taken by other officers . It’s not as If they’re making false overtime. The money would be spent on overtime one way or another. How much of this is extra duty? Extra duty does not go into their pensions. Ask why other officers don’t want to come in to work

While I’m sure that there are some police always looking for extra duty and overtime pay, there are probably a lot more officers who would like to have more officers hired to reduce the number of hours away from their families and to cover shifts so that they don’t have to do the work of two officers due to short staffing.
The NHPD needs to be fully staffed for the safety of the community and for the physical and mental health of its employees. Pulling double shifts for months if not years isn’t healthy for anyone, never mind a high stress job which requires quick thinking and patience. When you are overworked and overtired and you don’t have enough downtime decompressing and spending quality time with your family and friends, you are more likely to be cranky and more likely to have your relationships suffer and to be more likely to struggle with anxiety and depression.
Plus the public has repeatedly asked for community policing assigned walking beats, you need appropriate staffing levels to make that happen.
Having the NHPD fully staffed will also cut down on overtime pay, which makes more sense than asking fewer officers to do more shifts with less staff, and paying them overtime.

Don't blame the police or the Chief for this; they work with the rules the city sets. The blame lies squarely with the politicians and finance team for poor planning and lack of oversight.

Where are the comments from Alder Myers? Mayor Elicker? Mr. Gormany?

Why is that the politicos who love the spotlight are so hard to find when these type of stories break?

John D.
"It will stay this way until an experienced, honest chief with some balls and direction, who doesn't care about being popular, takes the helm"

And the politicos will never hire such a person!!!

@Newhavenlifer

The cops on construction are paid by the construction company not the city. And the city chargers the company additional fees for the cops. The city makes about 3 million dollars a year off the cops just “standing” there. The companies also prefer cops on the sites due to the rise in crime in the city.

I would be helpful to see the breakdown of the contracts including if there are any grandfather clauses to certain personnel. I have worked in unions, private sector not government, and know there can be many "penalty" payments for. Night Deferential, short turn around, holidays which include day of, day before or after to make sure no one misses out. missed meal breaks and or missed "rest" breaks so those add to the gross income. The big light bulb in companies is when a supervisor, manager or department head notices that a blue collar line worker was making more money than the white collar positions. Yes there have been adjustments and tightening on pensions but a system when in some cases the retiree is having more money directly deposited into their account then those of front line workers is bound to fail eventually.

It’s amazing how people politics change when they see how their money is being spent. The Police Union is there to protect the interest of the blue lines at ALL cost. If you allow the departments to police itself. This is what happens. As 3/5th would say”find the red card three card Molly. Running in the red.

The issue isn’t the huge salaries. It’s the outsized pension payouts that will result from them.

It’s an issue when a lifelong pension payment will be higher than an officer’s base salary. As a City we aren’t rich enough to afford it, and the pension payments are an enormous underfunded liability.

The City has begun to reform the largesse with the new tier of contracts that require 25 years to full retirement, instead of the previous 20 years. And although no one has given a hard answer, it sounds like extra duty pay has been eliminated from pension calculations since that reform? But there is huge group of officers still operating under the old rules, and it will prove very costly. In what other profession do you get to “retire” in your late 40’s or early 50’s, collect a pension greater than your base salary, and get to make essentially double by working an identical job in another municipality, all the while getting six figure pension payments from your first employer?

Kudos to Dave and Hector … Way to represent the FD … lots of extra shifts to help take care of yourselves and family … Congrats and I hope you get to $230,000 next year !

@ Pittmansr you sound like your feelings are hurt. Or is it your just mad you can’t be out making that kind of money because you have failed to become a cop how many times. If the city and today’s culture were not so anti police maybe we could get qualified people to apply so the PD would not be over a 100 cops short. And for everyone complaining about pensions or how much someone is making at anytime you can go down to the PD and get an application. The city is losing cops every week to smaller departments because of the mandatory shifts they have to work because of the lowest staffing levels the PD has had in 30+ years.

Will everyone ignore this? Of course everyone will ignore this. can't btch for no good reason if you acknowledge that there's no good reason to btch:

"The annual compensation totals also include pay for extra-duty work, for which THE CITY GETS REIMIBURSED"

The contract is right on the city website. A cop hired today will have to do a full 25 year and while they contribute to the pension fund 4.8% of OT and Extra Duty, their pension will only be on their base (which they send 12% of to the pension fund).

Base only for calculation is since 2009 and the full 25 is since Class 24 (no clue when that is).

https://www.newhavenct.gov/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?blobid=35806#page35

They put their hours in. They deserve what they make. That’s the American way.

@Chernobyl - "If you want the city to function you need to distribute wages equitably to those who do the work"

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that the top earners are doing the work... they're getting overtime, and lots and lots of it.

New Haven is broken, for so many reasons - and this is just a symptom of the sad state of affairs in this city. The overtime spend on these individuals could easily have paid for double (34) the number of employees - 16 of whom are listed as Police/Fire. So by actually hiring people and cutting overtime you could theoretically still pay $80k a year and have double the people.

Boy, wouldn't that be something.

MP093: They put their hours in. They deserve what they make. That’s the American way.

Exactly! We're fortunate to have these men and women in public service. It's a hard job.

Can’t make this up, literally in black and white we can’t improve the quality of education or fund daycare expenses to keep Black and Brown communities safe while viruses peak but we can fund oppression and give it power, note amongst the well paid militants is the Superintendent of New Haven Public Schools - why would any of them care if our future is safe? Why wouldn’t they brutalize and disadvantage us then justify it later? They get paid to keep us this way. Now you see why Iline doesn’t mind police is schools or that they help give out COVID tests, why not, she’s an overseer too! Don’t they know that #EnoughIsEnough #PoorPeopleFedUp #DefundThePolice

I am unsure as to why anyone would be against anyone earning money. The old pension system is gone. The extra duty earned is NOT paid by the tax payer. To me , it sounds like jealousy. I would venture to guess that nobody commenting on here is working 110 hours per week, year round at their job.
The only”complaint” anyone may have is the face that maybe Officers are not 100% during their shifts.
Other than that, stop with the jealousy because it is comical and obvious. It’s a good thing y’all are not putting your names behind this because you would probably be embarrassed to walk the streets and not be called a cry baby.

@trini how about improving the parenting? Let's not blame the teachers when the parents, who only by virtue of having genitalia, become parents. While the left has gone to great ends to denounce the "nuclear family", more children become successful when both parents play an active, positive role in their development.

The lack of family planning in NH speaks for itself. Resources like planned parent hood are available, offering education for safe sex practices, free condoms, etc., but we still have ppl who can't even tend to their own needs, having children. How about a little self responsibility? Use birth control or a condom.

And Im pretty sure the virus affects every race and color. Socialization patterns do, also. For the hardest hit groups, did they listen to government advice using masks, socially distanced, etc?

I know the Trump bike rally got hit hard. If I remember correctly, it was attended primarily by white ppl. Why did it happen? Socialization and not listening to government recommendations.

You can kick and scream about it, but Im pretty sure the number of police is less because of leftist policies. That being said, NH had 26, 27 ? Homicides last year. Let's not forgot all the ppl who were shot but didnt die.

You speak of brutality. Not one of them was police inflicted.

Seeing the depletion of the size of the department, the spike in crime, murders, shooting, stolen cars, thefts, etc., anyone with a modicum pf common sense has to ask themselves, where is the utopia Democrats promised me?

The answer: no where. It was all BS. Anyone with common sense realizes it was all a myth. And come November, the country will starr correcting itself when Republicans retake the house.

And then the woke can cry about that, too.

God bless folks for wanting to work this much. It isn't healthy by any stretch of the imagination but it's understandable if you are trying to bolster a hard earned lottery ticket-ish pension for life. Through actual information, we now know those officers that have a 20 year pension are in the minority and most have a 25 year pension at 40 or 50% I believe (yikes!).

The fact remains that any officer on this list is working 80 plus hours (if not more) a week on average to gain this type of overall yearly earnings. This also means they are putting themselves in danger every single time they clock in, no matter how mundane the public feels the work is or isn't.

From my understanding, the "extra duty" jobs are paid by the companies that are required by the city to hire officers contractually for the work, in which in turn the city gets a piece of that pie. It is also my understanding from friends that work at the PD there are a large amount of those jobs that go unfilled each week due to low staffing numbers.

Folks, if you are one of the individuals whining about these lists every time they come out, take some time to seek therapy and question why you as an individual are so concerned with another person's life and how they make money. You can also sign up, become an officer and try to shoot for these numbers in order to see what kind of toll it takes on you mentally, physically and family wise.

As a citizen of New Haven, I'm not envious or jealous. I also am not admiring of such financial feats because I think it's horribly unhealthy for that individual. To each their own and for those on this list, I hope they are of sound mind and body when they are at work and that they always get home healthy and safe.

Elmcitybornandraised. I'm sorry, but you just do not understand what is going on with extra duty payments. The city construction contracts require contractors to have traffic policemen. The contractors pay NHPD for the cops, then they bill the city for providing them. So the city, which means the taxpayers, is paying for the cops with the contractor acting as a middleman. This is nothing new. Just remember back to the days when police chiefs became mayor, and cops sons became mayor. Some three card monty to distribute some extra pork to NHPD.

Chernobyl
Nobody becomes Mayor because of being anyones son. People become Mayor by vote. Also, the City of New Haven makes a surplus of approximately 3 million per year off of extra duty jobs. These jobs are solely paid by those companies looking for an Officer.
The Officer ears a a dollar amount and a potion of that goes to the city and the other portion to the Officer , of course that is then taxed like every other penny earned.