Council grills police chief on overtime costs BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer BRICK TOWNSHIP - Township Council members gave Police Chief Ronald Dougard an order recently - find ways to cut down on department overtime. "We need to figure out a way to knock that down," Councilman Michael Thulen said. "Kicking it up another $160,000 this year is not fixing the problem, it's just adding to it. That would be my suggestion. Go back and sharpen your pencil." It was one of several testy exchanges during Dougard's 2007 budget presentation to the council at the Feb. 28 council meeting. Councilwoman Ruthann Scaturro said Dougard needed to come up with a plan or remedy to reduce overtime costs. Dougard has requested $900,000 in overtime costs for 2007. The 2006 police overtime budget was $750,000, but $960,572 was actually spent. "We are not even trying to keep it at the status quo," Scaturro said. "It continues to rise." And the actual 2006 expenses for some police department line items were often over what was appropriated, Scaturro said. "No matter what we put on the paper, you manage to spend more than the budget," she said. "You can't do it on the salary side. You have to reduce your expenses. That's something you have control over." Dougard is requesting a total budget of $17,724,677, a $960,307 increase over 2006. Department overtime costs have increased primarily because of court appearances, the need to meet minimum manpower requirements and Summerfest, Dougard said. "Most of our overtime is controlled because of the courts," he said. "Officers have to come in on overtime for state, county and municipal court." Councilman Michael Thulen said that officers need to be available for court appearances during their regular hours, Thulen said. Officers work a schedule of four days on, two days off, which means they are not always working on court days, Dougard said. "Sometimes court days are on their days off," he said. "I don't know of any court in the state that works midnights. Midnight officers are always going to get overtime. Four to 12 [shift] officers can't always attend night court. We don't do the court calendar. We don't do the schedule. I do meet with our judge and discuss ways to improve and lessen overtime. It's not something that we are overlooking." The police department's budget is roughly about 28 percent of the township's total budget, council President Stephen C. Acropolis said. "That's a big number," he said. "If we were able to get overtime under control, or reduce it a little, we might be able to increase the number of guys, so that we don't have to have as much overtime and that alleviates some of what you call the minimum." Much of the police department budget deals with labor contracts, which Dougard said he doesn't negotiate and doesn't sign. "I have to live with it," he said. "And I have to come here and answer your questions, based on it." Thulen also questioned how many officers were sent off-site for marine police unit training. The answer was three men, for five weeks of training. "We are sending officers off to do training somewhere else as opposed to doing it here or having them train to be on the water or driving motorcycles when we could legitimately have them in the squad car patrolling," Thulen said. "What's the difference if an officer is driving a squad car or a motorcycle?" Dougard said. "I don't understand. He still answers calls." "I, as a taxpayer, feel I'm paying for something that I don't need to," Thulen said. The police marine unit has saved four lives, Dougard said. "That's important," he told Thulen. "Not at a million dollars a year in overtime," Thulen replied. "The marine unit doesn't cost me a million dollars a year," Dougard said. Acropolis said the marine unit would be discussed further by the council's business and finance committee. "One of the boats is not seaworthy at all," he said. "We are a shore community. We do have more waterfront property than any other town in the state." "We have an obligation to be out there, just like we have an obligation to be out on the highways," Dougard said. Officers attended 158 classes outside of the department last year for special tactical training, firearms training, K-9 officer training, traffic enforcement, criminal investigations and motorcycle and marine police operations courses, the chief said. In-house training included programs on domestic violence, first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, use of defibrillators, blood borne pathogens and hazardous materials. The department had a total of 9,792 hours of in service training hours and 3,782 off-site training hours, the chief said. The cost of ammunition has risen 40 percent in 2007. So in November Dougard asked Township Administrator Scott M. Pezarras for a line-item transfer to purchase ammunition at a cheaper price, he said. Towns can't afford to "skimp" on two services - police protection and public works, Acropolis said. "If you don't have the garbage picked up and you can't go out your door cause you are going to get mugged, that's a problem," he said. "Everything else we can almost do without, including council meetings. You gotta protect people, you have to pick up their garbage." No one questions the job the police department does, Councilman Anthony Matthews said at the end of the presentation.. "This state is in sad shape," he said. "The next two, three, four, five years, we are not going to be able to do certain things." The police department has to run 24 hours a day, 365 days per year, he said. "There is no off time for the police department," Matthews said. "We appreciate everything you do," Acropolis said. "We wish we did not have these budgetary constraints." The police department has six separate budgets - operating expenses, police and 911 dispatchers, special police officers, school crossing guards, police explorer program and emergency medical services, Dougard said.