Bethlehem Police Chief Louis Corsi says his department is short on overtime in the town’s tentative budget to the tune of six figures.
Corsi told the Bethlehem Town Board at a Thursday, Oct. 11, budget workshop he feels the department would be $106,000 short on needed overtime and asked for the money to be restored. He was one of several department heads to speak at the workshop on the general and sewer funds and most said making reductions would be a challenge, but they could make do with some creative thinking.
The 2013 tentative budget calls for $7.2 million to be allotted to the Police Department out of a total $37.9 million budget. A savings of $242,000 is scheduled due to attrition, with three positions being eliminated, but no other cuts were made to the force and the department was granted about the same amount of funds for overtime as it was in 2012. With lowerstaffing though, Corsi does not think that will be enough.
“We took a heavy hit the first six months of (2012) and those were key positions, but we adjusted to try to compensate for the those losses and we have the supervisor’s insurance to the department that we would replace one of the patrol officers,” Corsi said. “We still have challenges ahead of us, but we are certainly willing to try and make this work.”
The police chief said his projections are the tentative budget would leave the department short 2,000 hours in overtime, of which a majority is contractually obligated. He also emphasized that lower staffing levels places additional stress on overtime schedules.
Corsi said he did not know where he would find the money for overtime and asked if it could be found somewhere else. But Supervisor John Clarkson said each year there is talk about cutting back on overtime as a cost-saving method, and each year nothing changes.
“I understand the pressures you’re facing, but I still wonder if there isn’t a management approach that can be more successful,” he said.
Corsi said overtime is scrutinized very closely and he feels the department is doing a good job at controlling those expenses. Clarkson said they can continue to discuss the matter, but restoring the money would equal another 1 percent tax hike. The tentative budget calls for an 8 percent tax hike.
Councilman Kyle Kotary said he feels the issue needs to be addressed or it would continue to be a problem for years to come. He questioned if reducing service levels would be more preferable to residents than raising taxes.
Corsi said to offset costs, the department has been billing for all paid details. He said for the past several years overtime has stayed around 10,000 hours no matter the adjustments, and he is unsure why.
Councilman Jeffrey Kuhn asked if the overtime “hierarchy” could be changed so some less important instances were no longer eligible to be deemed as overtime. Corsi said it could, but that may cause calls to go unanswered until the next shift of officers arrived.
“I’m still not in a place yet, chief, where I would say we have to find another $100,000 here,” said Clarkson. “I’m at a place where I’d rather find a way we don’t have to have that. I recognize that it’s a tough area in your budget and one you rely on for emergencies, but as we look at the overall overtime expenditures most are not for emergency type situations, so perhaps some more changes in practice could be more effective.”
Kotary said he did not want to ignore the issue because the money would eventually be spent by the end of the year anyway.
Town Board members will compare overtime analyses within the department — including contractual obligations — and between departments over the past several years to come to a decision about police overtime. The topic will be discussed again at a budget workshop set for Oct. 29.