POLICE UNION SPEAKS TO CUTS

“If you call for service, we’ll be there. That will not change.” Elyria Police Officer Tom Baracskai

Elyria – “It is a sad day when anyone loses their job, it is especially troubling to see any cuts in the Safety Forces” said Elyria Police Officer Tom Baracskai. Cutting any Safety Force has to be weighed very carefully, as the end result of saving money by making cuts result in less fire or police services for the taxpaying public. This is the time that the Administration and department heads need to be creative and think outside the box. They are faced with ways to keep providing a service the public expects, with less money. Some tough questions need to be asked and answered about where the departments and the city are spending their money.”

TMC NEWS sat down with Officer Baracskai, who is the Elyria Police Patrolmen’s Association (EPPA) President and Officer Don Moss, the Associations Sgt. At Arms. The two Patrolmen wanted to first make clear that their thoughts and opinions are on behalf of the EPPA and not from the Department.

Since the debates have become public about possible cuts to the Safety Forces in Elyria, Officers have not really spoken publicly about them. The decision to go public now was a result of recent remarks and numbers put out by Elyria Fire Union President Dean Marks last week after Firefighters received their 2-week notices.

Baracskai said that although no Police Officers were included in the announced cuts last week, their Department will lose 20 employees, and those cuts will have an impact on Officers. “First we are losing the two Park Rangers and that will affect us on the road. The Rangers are Certified Officers, they carry guns, they drive Police cars, they make arrests – they have arrest powers. The scope of their jurisdiction is the parks only, now I don’t know the exact number but the square mileage of the parks that they are responsible for but I would venture to guess it is quite vast. So when you look at the square miles that they are responsible for, that’s a lot of area that they cover as Police Officers. So in fact when people say that no Police Officers were let go, there were in fact two.”

Baracskai pointed out that last week while Officers were dealing with the carjacking at the Midway Mall Rangers assisted an Officer on an alarm call in the City. “At the very least it’s another set of eyes for us on the road and in the worst case scenario it’s another gun for us.”

Another part of the Department seeing cuts is in the Dispatch Center with 4 part time Dispatchers receiving their notices. Elyria Police Chief Michael Medders has said that there will be times that only one Dispatcher will be on duty, a situation that Baracskai is not looking forward to seeing. “Throughout my years here I have sat in there and worked Dispatch and to think that there will be times that only one Dispatcher will have to handle that work load with the City of this size, with the number of calls we take in a day, which on an average is 80 to 100 – and the types of calls they take – plus they do so many other things in there like running plates, talk on the radio, they are the general information center for citizens – I don’t want their job and I don’t envy them.”

Another concern that Baracskai has with the loss of the Dispatchers is the workload for a single Dispatcher. “I’m concerned about the Dispatchers having too much to do because a lot of times my job, out there on the streets, depends on the Dispatchers paying attention to where we are and what we are saying on the radio. If there is a situation where I am on the radio calling for help, I don’t want them distracted with something else. So there is an Officer safety issue with having only one Dispatcher on duty.”

Three full time Clerks from the Records division also received their notices on Friday. The impact to the citizens with those cuts will be longer waits when they walk into the Station to file a complaint, file a report, get a car released or turn in found property. Although the Administration is still working in how walk ins will be handled, it is likely that Officers will have to be called in off the road to deal with those cases that the Clerks would normally handle.

Baracskai and others in the Union were concerned about numbers released last Friday by Elyria Firefighters Union President Dean Marks. Marks provided a packet to media outlets after the notices were handed out to city employees, including 11 fulltime Firefighters. In the packet was a top ten list of “overtime earners” in the City of Elyria from 2008. “People have been lead to believe that Firefighters make so much overtime Marks, that we drain the city with overtime but when you look at the numbers that is not the case said Marks. We pulled these numbers directly from the Auditors report and it shows one Firefighter on the list at number 7.”

The list showed that 5 of the ten were from the Elyria Police Department. Baracskai said he doesn’t dispute the numbers that were released by Marks. “Let me first say that the numbers are probably correct, we did have, out of the top ten “overtime earners” in the city, we probably did have 5 “overtime earners” in the city. My issue with that is, at this time with the crisis we have in this city, a couple individuals making overtime is not breaking the city, it’s the Departments as a whole as how much they are costing in overtime and other things. Even with our Top 5 guys, we are still far below other Departments in what we have accumulated in overtime with our 100 plus employees.”

Baracskai also pointed out that some of the Officers and others who were listed in the Top 10 “overtime earners” received their money from sources other than the General Budget. “The gentlemen from Waste Water comes out of separate funds, Parks and Recs does come out of the General Fund but their overall budget for the year is miniscule in the grand scheme of things.”

One of the Police Officers, a Lieutenant, on the list is the Department’s Public Information Officer who is called in to deal with the media during large-scale events and cases.

Other Officers who made the list received overtime while working with the Neighborhood Impact Unit (NIU). “The NIU program has been running in this city since last year, since April, was Grant money. I believe it was $300,000.00 in Grant money to combat crime in high crime areas in the city. We applied for it, met the parameters of it and we were granted the money. The way that program works is, anytime spent working that detail, and it was open to all Officers, was that it was overtime – no straight time was paid through the Grant money. We had nobody dedicated to that – those target areas were paid through the grant money in overtime.”

Baracskai said that like anywhere you have a group of employees who don’t want to work any overtime hours and you have those who will take advantage of overtime that is offered. “Consequentially those Officers were able to make some good overtime numbers and a good portion of that came from the Grant money.”

The Grant reimbursed money that was paid out to Officers for the special detail through the General Fund to the city.

According to the numbers Baracskai received from the Auditors office, he said that the Police Department, with 117 employees, received $7.6 million dollars from the General Fund in 2008. They also receive about $3 million dollars from the dedicated tax levy for Police that he says brings their operating budget to about $10.5 million a year.

Baracskai also pointed out that over the last 5 years the Police Department has only had 3 Officers make in excess of $100,000, whereas with the Fire Department who had 28 Firefighters break the $100,000 mark. The 3 in the Police Department all occurred just last year. During the same period 14 of the 28 Firefighters hit the mark. During the last 5 years the Police Department has spent $991.717.91 in overtime, while Baracskai said that the Fire Department spent $3,367.441.82 in overtime.

Continuing with numbers Baracskai said that according to the Auditors reports the Police Department expenditures from the last 5 years was $885.415.03, while the Fire Departments was $1.9 million.

In 2008 the Elyria Police Department received 38,296 calls for service. They booked 4,376 people into the City Jail. There were also 10,741 quick calls generated by Officers. Quick calls are generated by Officers and are calls that do not require a report. Quick calls and include but are not limited to: traffic stops, doing a walk through at a school, a walk through at a bar or when an Officer sets up in a neighborhood to work traffic enforcement (radar).

Baracskai said a call for service or a quick call counts as one call, no matter how many Officers respond. “If one Officer responds to a call or the entire shift, that is still just one call.”

The minimum manpower for the Police Department is set at 6 with an average of 9 Officers on duty.

Even with the cuts to the Department and the extra workload that Officers will be saddled with, Baracskai said that Officers would continue to provide the best, quickest service they can to the citizens of Elyria. He also vows that the Officers will be safe and look out for each other so that they can all return home to their families at the end of each shift. “If there is a call say in the downtown on a Friday night and that is one guys zone, we won’t let him go in alone. We do a good job of helping each other out and backing each other up. These are smart guys; they know when to get out and when to wait for back up. The number of Officers on the road has a direct impact on Officers safety, but the Officer’s intelligence and training also has an impact. We have some good guys here who know what to do and are doing the right things with the numbers we’re working with.”

Baracskai said that he does not know what the magic number is where safety becomes an issue, but he said he understands that for now with the budget crunch everybody has to pull together and work through this time. “I’d love to have more, it would make things a lot easier when the crisis does happen but I understand the big picture that you can’t plan for the big Hurricane Katrina every day of the week. For now, our guys are safe – they’re doing what they need to do to stay safe and to accomplish our task of keeping the city as safe as we can. By our nature we want to run in – we’re type A personalities, we want to run in and take charge but these guys are very good at knowing or having “situational awareness”, knowing that this is something that I can handle or this is something I need extra cars for this situation.”

Baracskai said that as he looks over the cuts, citywide, he believes the cuts were handled fairly. “I see the bigger picture, and I know it is a delicate issue between the Mayor and the Fire Department – but setting that aside, with the reported money taken from the General Fund – per proportion – it looks like the cuts are pretty much in line. He’s cutting by Department in kind as far as what you are taking from the General Fund. He took $900,000 from Fire and $700,000 from us and that to me seems fair. The things that he is trying to implement over at the Fire Department are things that we have been doing here for years. Our manpower / staffing has been dropped and we have saved overtime. We have gotten grants to cover overtime and our Chief has been very good at managing and doing what he needs to do to stay within budget and still get the job done. So do I think he (Mayor) is doing what is sound and prudent, if you need the money and he says it’s not there – I have to take him at his word – then it does seem like a fiscal, responsible thing to do, as unpleasant as it may be.”

Baracskai said that even with the cuts to the Department the public should not worry; “You call us, we’re coming. If you have a serious call, we’re coming right now. I’m sure it’s the same with the Fire Department, as much as they might have an issue with the budget, they’re professional, they’re going to do their jobs. Our Dispatchers will classify the calls and if it is something that can wait until someone is free, you might have to wait a little while. All I would ask from the citizens is to be patient, be reasonable and help us by being an extra set of eyes and ears and give us information to help us do our jobs. But like I say, if you call for service, we’ll be there. That will not change.”

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