First Selectman Paul Roy created a committee Tuesday that will examine schedules at the Seymour Police Department to see if the town can save money on overtime costs.
Roy appointed nine people to the committee. Not named to the new committee — any administrators from the Seymour Police Department.
At Tuesday’s Board of Selectmen meeting, Roy said the committee will study whether changing the scheduling system at the department can save money on overtime.
The discussion of the issue can be seen 16 minutes and 24 seconds into this video.
The amount of money Seymour is spending on overtime wasn’t stated Tuesday. Roy said Wednesday the town’s finance department has the number. A message seeking the information was left with the finance department.
However, at a Board of Police Commission meeting in June 2011, Chief Michael Metzler said the department was spending anywhere from $8,000 to $11,000 a week in overtime to fill in 30 empty shifts due to absences.
Sgt. John D’Antona, a Seymour police officer and vice-president of the police department’s union, told the Board of Selectmen there could be a way to save taxpayers money by reconfiguring police officer schedules.
“We’ve seen wasteful spending and the membership gets a little frustrated at that,” D’Antona said.
The committee includes one member each from the Board of Selectman, the Board of Finance and the Board of Police Commissioners, along with a representative from the finance department — and four Seymour police officers.
The new committee has until Oct. 27 to make any recommendations. Those recommendations would have to be analyzed by the town’s police commissioners — and any changes would have to be recorded into the police officers’ union contract.
Studying police officer schedules by non-police personnel is somewhat unusual. The schedules are usually worked out internally during contract negotiations between police management and representatives of the officers’ union.
However, two top police administrators, Chief Michael Metzler and Capt. Paul Beres, are both out on medical leave.
Lt. Paul Satkowski, who has been filling the chief’s duties in Metzler’s absence, said Wednesday he was not aware the police union would be discussing schedules with the Board of Selectmen.
He said the union had previously tried to get a scheduled approved that would have seen officers get an additional 17 days off per year.
Satkowski said Chief Metzler did not think that was good for the town.
“I’m a little surprised, to be honest with you, by the avenue they took,” Satkowski said of the presentation to the Board of Selectmen. “Why do you think they would be interested in a new schedule? If they can get 17 extra days off a year? The last schedule they proposed, each union member got an additional 17 days off a year, and it was not conducive to the Town of Seymour. You tell me how that’s beneficial for the town.”
On Tuesday, Seymour Police Officer Sergio Desiderato told members of the Board of Selectmen the idea is to open the discussion by bringing in other town bodies.
“There’s a lot to look at and we’d like to keep it transparent,” Desiderato said.
D’Antona said he understands why police administrators could be frustrated. The goal isn’t to get days off, he said.
“We went over their heads. We know they’re against it. We did that because we can save the town money and we know the town would be interested in it because of the money savings,” D’Antona said.
