East Windsor Police Commission
Regular Meeting March 12, 2008
Minutes
CALL TO ORDER AND ATTENDANCE
The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by Chairman Nelson. Commissioners Barton, Devanney, Sherman and Sinsigallo were present along with Chief DeMarco and Capt. Hart.
ADDED AGENDA ITEMS
A motion was made by Commissioner Sinsigallo, seconded by Commissioner Devanney to add the following item to the agenda:
Under Communications
A) Memo from Matthew Carl
Sinsigallo/Devanney Unanimous
PREVIOUS MEETING MINUTES
Regular Meeting – February 13, 2008
The minutes of the regular meeting of February 13, 2008 were reviewed by all commissioners present. A motion was made by Commissioner Sinsigallo, seconded by Commissioner Devanney to accept the minutes of the February 13, 2008 meeting as presented.
Sinsigallo/Devanney Unanimous
Special Meeting – February 23, 2008
The minutes of the Special Meeting of February 23, 2008 was reviewed by all commissioners present. A motion was made by Commissioner Sinsigallo, seconded by Commissioner Devanney to accept the minutes of the Special Meeting of February 23, 2008 as presented.
Sinsigallo/Devanney Unanimous
BUDGET AND EXPENDITURES
A) Police Department - Monthly Billing
A motion was made by Commissioner Sinsigallo, seconded by Commissioner Devanney to approve the East Windsor Police Department monthly billing dated March 7, 2008 in the amount of $11892.45 for the fiscal year 2007/2008
Sinsigallo/Devanney Unanimous
B) Police Department Financial Statement
A motion was made by Commissioner Sinsigallo, seconded by Commissioner Devanney to approve the East Windsor Police Department Financial Statement dated March 7, 2008 as presented.
Sinisgallo/Devanney Unanimous
C) Police Commission - Monthly Billing
A motion was made by Commissioner Sinsigallo seconded by Commissioner Devanney to approve the East Windsor Police Commission Monthly Billing dated February 28, 2008 for the fiscal year 2007/2008 in the amount of $109.00
Sinsigallo/Devanney Unanimous
D) Police Commission Financial Statement
A motion was made by Commissioner Sinsigallo, seconded by Commissioner Devanney to approve the East Windsor Police Commission Financial Statement for the fiscal year 2007/2008 dated February 28, 2008 as presented
Sinsigallo/Devanney Unanimous
E) Animal Control Monthly Billing
A motion was made by Commissioner Sinsigallo, seconded by Commissioner Devanney to approve the Animal Control monthly billing date March 7, 2008 for the fiscal year 2007/2008 in the amount of $48.66
Sinsigallo/Devanney Unanimous
F) Animal Control - Financial Statement
A motion was made by Commissioner Sinsigallo, seconded by Commissioner Devanney to approve the East Windsor Animal Control Financial Statement for the fiscal year 2007/2008 dated March 7, 2008 as presented.
Sinisgallo/Devanney Unanimous
G) Legal Billing
There was no legal billing.
PUBLIC INPUT
Kathy Pippin questioned the Chief and the Captain as to the liability of the union with regards to re-employment of an individual officer(s). The Chief and Captain conferred and both stated that there would be very limited responsibility on the part of the union with regards to employment.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
A) Alternate Duty Program
A draft from Chief DeMarco regarding the alternate duty program was reviewed by all commissioners present. Chief DeMarco started the discussion by stating that he felt the Alternate Duty Program would be a big benefit to the Police Department in that it would alleviate over-time in the dispatch areas and in other areas where alternate duty would be feasible. Chief DeMarco also said that if approved this alternate duty program would be part of the current union negotiations.
Commissioner Barton opened up the discussion for the commissioners by stating that he felt that the alternate duty program would not be a benefit to the police department and that it should not be so general in nature. He stated that he felt that in the event of a non-work related injury, the injured employee should use his accrued sick time up first before being considered for the alternate duty program.
The Chief spoke up at this time and said that he felt the alternate duty program would be beneficial to both work and non-work related injuries as the injured employee would be more likely to return to work sooner rather than later. The Captain spoke up at this point and said that a general e-mail had been sent to a number of police departments throughout the State and although he did not have the paperwork with him, to the best of his knowledge 1/3 of the departments polled did not have an alternate duty program; whereas 2/3’s did and only one of the departments polled had a program for non-work related injuries.
Commissioner Barton then said that he felt to bring the discussion of an alternate duty program regarding both work and non-work related injuries to the contract negotiations would be unreasonable.
First Selectman Menard spoke to the commission at general regarding her discussions with Cirma and their questioning of the workmen’s comp claims (East Windsor has one of the highest averages of workmen’s comp claims with the police department claims ranked at the top); and if there was an alternate duty program in place.
Commissioner Barton reiterated that he was opposed to an alternate duty program for non work related injuries as he felt the accrued sick time should be used up first.
The Chief spoke again and said that there are two slots available for alternate duty and an employee who had a work-related injury would be offered the slot first over an employee who has suffered a non-work related injury.
Chairman Nelson then asked the Chief if the alternate duty program was approved tonight, could it be revisited in a year to see if it was working out the way that it is anticipated and the chief said yes.
After some additional discussion among the commissioners present, the Chief and the Captain regarding the alternate duty program, a motion was made by Commissioner Sinsigallo, seconded by Commissioner Devanney to implement the alternate duty program.
Sinsigallo/Devanney Barton – opposed
Devanney – yes
Sherman – yes
Sinisgallo – yes
The motion was carried by a vote of 3 to 1 for.
B) Maternity Leave
A motion was made by Commissioner Sinsigallo, seconded by Commissioner Devanney to accept the Maternity Leave policy as presented.
Sinsigallo/Devanney Unanimous
TRAFFIC AUTHORITY
There were no new traffic authority complaints.
PUBLIC INPUT #2
Dale Nelson, liaison to the Board of Selectman, spoke to the Maternity Leave policy just accepted. Ms. Nelson stated that she thought this policy was good as it has been in her experience that an employee must use up sick or vacation time before their maternity leave kicks in.
A motion was made by Commissioner Sinsigallo, seconded by Commissioner Devanney to go out of order to Item 11 –Communications.
Sinisgallo/Devanney Unanimous
COMMUNICATIONS
A) Memo from Matthew Carl
Before the discussion regarding this memo began, Commissioner Sinsigallo asked Commissioner Barton to recuse himself from the discussion because he is too close to the situation and Commissioner Barton refused because he said he had important information relative to the grievance. Capt. Hart read from the contract the clause pertaining to grievance procedures, and that the Police Commission has thirty days to respond to the grievance.
A motion was made by Commissioner Sinsigallo, seconded by Commissioner Devanney to deny the grievance as the material contained in the investigation is enough to warrant the suspension.
Sinsigallo/Devanney
Before the vote on this motion could be taken, Commissioner Barton said that he felt it would be irresponsible and unfair to deny this grievance without hearing testimony from the officer in question.
The Town Attorney, John McKenna (introduced to the commission by First Selectman Menard) spoke to the commission at this time and said that the procedure they were following was proper for a stage 2 grievance.
The Chairman then called for a vote and the following was the result:
Commission Vote:
Barton – opposed
Devanney – yes
Sherman – yes
Sinsigallo – yes
The motion was carried by a vote of 3 to 1 in favor of the suspension.
A motion was made by Commissioner Sinsigallo, seconded by Commissioner Sherman to go back to the order of the meeting to item 9.
Sinsigallo/Sherman Unanimous
NEW BUSINESS
There was no New Business.
EXECUTIVE SESSION
A) Prospective Candidates Update
As there is nothing to report on the prospective candidates, the Executive Session was canceled.
MONTHLY REPORTS
A) Chief of Police
Nothing else to report.
B) Commission Members
Commissioner Barton took this opportunity to express his displeasure over comments made by Marie DeSousa at the February 12, 2008 meeting. He apologized to the commission at large for not responding to her comments until this meeting.
According to the minutes of the last stated meeting, Ms. DeSousa made reference to a comment made by Commissioner Barton as sarcastic. The comment referred to was made to the Chief and the Captain in that we (the commission) would make sure that we would closely monitor the overtime expenditures so that there were no surprises and if someone wanted to audit our records there would be no embarrassment. Unfortunately, Marie DeSousa took that comment as sarcastic.
Commissioner Barton went on further to say that he had two points he wanted to make:
1) Asked the Chief and Captain to monitor the overtime to make sure that they are on top of it.
2) We (the police department and the commission) are being micro-managed by the Board of Finance in terms of checking closely all of the financial records for the police department and withholding approved funds marked for the overtime budget.
We have never heard anything from the Board of Finance acknowledging what they were doing and which members were behind the micro-managing of the police department. Commissioner Barton further stated that he feels that the same things that happened last year during the budgetary process between the police department and the Board of Finance would more than likely occur again. Point in fact, during the hearing for the Added Appropriation for the police cruisers, the police department administration had thoroughly researched the cost of a cruiser, it was presented to the Board of Police Commissioners who approved the request and forwarded it to the Board of Selectman, who in turn approved the request and forwarded it to the Board of Finance for action.
Upon being received by the Board of Finance, Ms. DeSousa took it upon herself to go to the police department, interview the Captain and look at the records – once again micro-management by the Board of Finance.
Commissioner Barton also stated that it appeared that the Police Department was the only agency in Town which was being micro-managed by the Board of Finance.
Chairman Nelson responded to these comments by saying that he felt all boards and commissions in town were overseen by the Board of Finance; and that in his opinion things were getting out of hand with negative comments and that if there is a disagreement with the actions of the Board of Finance as a whole, or a member in particular, that we should be patient and attempt to keep the lines of communication open.
Commissioner Barton stated that all he has ever done as a member of the Police Commission is to do his job.
Chairman Nelson went on further to state that he was sure that all the Board of Finance was trying to do was their job and that their wasn’t a vendetta between the Board of Finance and any other board or commission in town.
Commissioner Barton further stated that the only way to resolve the differences between the Board of Finance and ourselves is for the Board of Finance to stop micro-managing the police department when no one on the Board of Finance has any management experience. He also reiterated that the Board of Police Commissioners are responsible for over-seeing the management of the Police Department, not the Board of Finance and that the Board of Finance should stop the micro-management.
ADJOURNMENT
A motion was made by Commissioner Sinsigallo, seconded by Commissioner Devanney to adjourn the regular meeting of the East Windsor Police Commission at 7:42 p.m.
Sinsigallo/Devanney Unanimous
Respectfully submitted,
Darlene H. Kelly
Recording Secretary
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