Police, Fire Chief Contract Renewals Recommended

Alders recommended approving four-year contract renewals for the city’s police and fire chiefs, who both pledged to improve their department’s communications with alders and the public.

During Monday’s meeting of the Aldermanic Affairs Committee in the Aldermanic Chambers on the second floor of City Hall, the committee voted unanimously to recommend approval of the contract renewals for Fire Chief John Alston, Jr. and Police Chief Anthony Campbell.

The new contracts for both public safety department heads would extend retroactively from Feb. 1, 2018 through Jan. 31, 2022. The contract renewals now go to the full Board of Alders for a final vote.

Chiefs Alston and Campbell are both less than two years into their tenures at the top of their respective departments. Alston took over as fire chief in October 2016 after serving 31 years in the Jersey City, N.J. fire department. Campbell, a former assistant chief who has served in the New Haven Police Department for two decades, took over as the city’s police chief in July 2016.

Both department heads pitched alders on their successes in improving public safety, increasing interdepartmental partnerships, and bolstering new recruit training in a short period of time and against the challenges of persistent vacancies and shepherding predominantly young personnel.

In response to the alders’ modest questioning on consistent overages in budgeted overtime, both department heads pledged reduced deficits going forward as new classes of recruits are hired and supervisory staff are promoted.

According to a financial snapshot provided by Alston at the top of his presentation, the Fire Department is projected to end the year $2.8 million above its overtime budget, which was approved at $1.869 million for the year. According to the city finance department’s April 2018 monthly report, the police department is projected to end the year $2.9 million above its overtime budget, which was approved at $4.042 million.

“I Believe In Deeds, Not Words”

Aldermanic Affairs Committee Chair and Hill Alder Evelyn Rodriquez asked Alston to account for his goals and accomplishments thus far in his two years as the chief of the city’s fire department.

Alston said that, when he was appointed in October 2016, the Fire Department had six top positions vacant: the assistant chief administrator, assistant chief of operations, and four deputy chiefs.

“All of my officers at the time were acting out of title,” he said. He said those high-level vacancies triggered serious overtime payments, as well as Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)-mandated Garcia payments, which kick in when firefighters work more than 212 hours in a 28-day period.

According to a personnel summary that Alston handed out at the top of his presentation, all of those top positions are currently filled except for three deputy chief positions. He said his and his assistants have also put together a three to five-year projection on vacancies the department should expect in each of the ranks, and have compiled a standing list of existing employees who can fill those positions when the vacancies occur.

Alston said 43 firefighters retired from the department this year. He said this type of preparedness will help mitigate the pain of losing so many firefighters at once.

Alston also praised his department for looking more and more like the city it protects, as well as for taking on new collaborations with other city departments.

He said nearly 90 percent of the recruits that just graduated from the Fire Academy are from New Haven. He said keeping new recruit salaries local would mean a $2.6 million boost to the city’s economy over the next five years. 

As for new collaborations, Alston pointed to the Fire Department’s work with the city’s anti-blight agency, the Livable City Initiative (LCI), for registering and securing vacant homes and then cutting off those homes primary energy sources so as to reduce the risk of fire. He also said his department is less of a traditional fire department and more of an ​“all hazards response department,” working closely with the police during protests, multi-vehicle accidents, active shooter situations, and attempted suicide rescues.

Alston pointed out that the firefighters’ Local 825 contract expires at the end of this week.

“Almost all of our overtime overages are tied to contractual obligations,” he said. He said that the city and the union need to negotiate new staffing requirements, new scheduling requirements, and new seasonal vacation allowances restricted by rank in order to truly cut into persistent overtime deficits.

He also said that, despite the nearly $3 million projected overage in this year’s overtime budget, overtime deficits are down by nearly half since before he took over.

He told the alders that he needed to do a better job communicating with city legislators about financial and operational updates in the department. He said he recently set up a regular monthly meeting with the aldermanic leadership that is to start next month.

“My parents taught me to be a servant,” he told the alders. ​“I believe in deeds, not words. Look at the track record I have in a short time.”

Body Cams, LEAD, Fewer Homicides

After Alston’s testimony, Rodriguez asked Campbell to provide an account of the challenges he has faced and the accomplishments he has achieved in his two years as police chief.

Campbell said one of the first things he noticed upon taking the job was that officers were lacking in up-to-date equipment and training. He said he told his assistant chiefs to take inventory of existing departmental resources, and then he was fortunate enough to get sign off from the alders on replenishing the force’s fleet of patrol cars.

“Officers take great pride in their patrol cars,” he said, ​“and citizens in this city take pride in seeing their officers respond to their calls for service in something that is a 21st-century vehicle.”

He said that many upper level positions in the department were not filled when he arrived, and said the department held the largest round of lieutenant, sergeant and assistant chief promotions in its history last year.

Campbell identified the ​“protection of life and property” as the number one priority of any police department. On that front, he said, the department has seen great success under his leadership.

Last year, the city saw a 50-year low with seven homicides. He said the November 2017 launch of the department’s body camera program has ​“increased a level of transparency between the police department and citizens.” And he praised the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) pilot, a diversionary program that seeks to place low-level and non-violent offenders with social service providers rather than behind bars, for picking up steam with upwards of 20 participants now after starting several monthly ago with only one or two people in the program.

Aldermanic Affairs Committee Co-Chair and Quinnipiac Meadows Alder Gerald Antunes asked Campbell what he his plans are to increase representation of African Americans on the city’s police force.

Campbell said the critical area for ensuring that the department’s diversity is recruitment. ​“This upcoming class would have been by far the most diverse group” in terms of both minority and female representation, he said.

He said one of the biggest challenges to retaining any officer, but particularly young minority officers, is that New Haven simply offers less pay for more work than surrounding suburban departments.

Antunes asked Campbell what he had learned over the course of his tenure as chief that has been most helpful to him in running the department.

“More than ever, I have to use my communication skills,” he said. He said he needs to be more open with the community, the alders, and the Board of Police Commissioners about problems that would be best tackled as a group as opposed to by himself. ​“Relinquishing some of the control to get things done,” he said.

The alders did not ask Campbell about a recent scandal in the department in which two officers resigned for forging at least 30 background checks for new recruits. Campbell has suspended a new training class of police cadets and put offers to more than three dozen new officers on hold while his department and state partners investigate the matter. Campbell said he hopes to still have two Police Academy classes seated by the end of the calendar year.

After the meeting, Campbell said the uncovering of the falsified background checks and the resignations of the two officers involved only send a message to the department more broadly that, under his leadership, this type of activity will not be tolerated.

“I think it reflect on those two officers’ lack of professionalism and integrity,” he said. ​“I feel a great sense of disappointment in them.”