Chief must cope with smaller force
By Jane Beathard
Staff Writer
London Police Chief Dave Wiseman handed layoff slips to four full-time patrol officers last week, after city council approved a $224,000 cut in his department’s 2013 budget. Layoff slips also went via mail to eight part-time officers.
Saturday, Dec. 15, is the last designated work day for all 12.
“It puts them off the books by the end of the calendar year which is also the end of London’s fiscal year,” Wiseman said.
It could have been worse.
Initially, council planned to reduce the police department budget by 15 percent or $289,000 from its 2012 allocation. But a last-minute amendment introduced by council member Pat Closser moved $65,000 to the police budget from the recreation and zoning departments.
In effect, the adjustment saved one patrolman’s job by eliminating the city zoning inspector’s position and reducing the recreation director’s job to part time.Vince Benedetti is the London zoning inspector. Ryan Ladd is the recreation director.
Although he’s grateful for the extra funds, Wiseman is uncomfortable with a situation that pitted city departments against each other.
He’s also frustrated that cuts were necessary when his department generally spends less than is allocated.
“As a department, we are $180,000 under budget (for 2012), but we are still being cut,” Wiseman said.
Since 93 percent of the police department’s expenditures go to personnel costs, Wiseman said he had no other choice but layoffs. He hammered that message home to council for weeks prior to the Nov. 15 vote.
“The only way to cut the (police) budget was to cut personnel,” he said.
In accordance with Ohio law and the patrolmen’s union contract, all part-timers were laid off before any full-timers received pink slips. The four tapped were full-time officers with least seniority in London.
Dispatchers and sergeants were unaffected because those positions fall under different union contracts. Wiseman intends to re-hire a patrol officer on the layoff list to fill a full-time dispatcher’s position that’s been open for a year.
“It will not count toward his police service, but he will have a job,” Wiseman said.
Exactly what a shrinking police department will mean to public safety remains to be seen.
“There are a lot of uncertainties about how this will work,” Wiseman said.
He’s currently juggling schedules and looking at overtime costs that are bound to rise.
Fewer officers on the street mean overtime will increase to cover sick and training time for those still employed.
“We’ll be a strictly reactive department,” Wiseman said.
That means no participation in community crime prevention activities. Sponsors of the annual Strawberry Festival and Jazz & Ribs Fest will be forced to pay for security. No officers will be available to direct traffic during street and sewer repairs in the city.
“We’re not sure what the fallout will be,” Wiseman said.
This is a very sad situation that is playing itself out throughout the State. Sure – Unions did some of the damage and the rest remains on the laps of government leaders.
Now Enter – Drive around the City after dark and it is as bad if not worse than the worst hoods in any big city. Parse your ears to the window and listen to the siren of the fire truck that will only be staffed by one or two firemen.
Call E-911 when the woman across the street is being drug about by her drug infused hubby and wonder where the cops are?
They are down the street at a 3 car crash caused by some drunk, or at a fire caused by some fool smoking in bed.
Minimums are minimums not a strong public safety contingent that deserved a little better support. County Commissioners have nothing to do with the City Budget. You voted NO loud and clear.
Last one out please turn out the lights!
A budget cut of $224,000 and yet the department returns $180,000 to the general fund and lays off four officers. What kind of financial management is this?
The question I keep coming back to is this: Why are the city leaders asking everyone else to cut, but not cutting their own salaries? The city auditor gave up 25% of her salary to help with the budget crunch. Why aren’t others leading by example? The mayor hasn’t taken a cut. The city council hasn’t taken a cut. Doesn’t leadership start at the top? Not in this town. Do the townspeople who elect these “leaders” realize that after only 10 years, the city council members and other city officials are eligible to draw a pension? Who’s paying for that? You are. And giving up 4 officers, a city inspector and parks and recreation funding to boot. I challenge the city leaders to act like leaders.
Why is nobody asking the officers, firefighters and other union members to take paycuts? It is those union contracts that have placed the City’s finances in the perilous position we see today. Leaders at the top have not had annual salary increases for each of the last nine years, like nearly every union member employed by the City. Why is nobody asking them to take pay cuts?
To Chief David Wiseman, This is what you get when you deal with republicans. You did your job and ran your dept efficiency and came in under budget by 180,000.00. This isn’t good enough for the extremists who are running the city and county. They will not be happy until their cuts costs an Officer or Fireman their lives. God forbid this happen but this is exactly where their actions are leading. Then they will be more than happy to point the finger and blame others for their failures to protect the city and our Civil Servants. Mayor Eades is proving his inability to lead or be a leader when it comes to the protection of the citizens of London or its emergency workers and Police.
Amen to that ‘welcome to republic county’. Furthermore, wait till Chief Wiseman feels the backlash from a delayed response time on any emergency calls to a Commissioner’s home (due to the lack of any available Officer’s). But as you said, they will point their fingers elsewhere, as usual.