Plattsburgh City OK's new salary, benefits for City PD
Apr. 17—PLATTSBURGH — A new Plattsburgh City compensation package aims to lure City Police officers towards management level roles and Captain Brad Kiroy believes it will do the trick.
The local law, unanimously OK'd Thursday evening by the City Common Council, outlines salary and benefits for the department's upper-level positions, including its chief, captains and lieutenants.
"It's very difficult, if not impossible, to entice somebody to leave the protection of the union without concrete and known benefits, and a salary scale," Kiroy, who has filled in for Chief Levi Ritter since he entered administrative leave in late 2020, told councilors.
"This law rectifies that and I believe it will allow us to move forward with filling those positions and reestablishing management at the Police Department."
City Mayor Christopher Rosenquest told the Press-Republican Friday morning that two open lieutenant positions, which were budgeted for in the city's 2021 budget, could be filled as early as that day.
SALARY AND BENEFITS
The public safety management compensation package ensures City Police managers receive the same benefits as negotiated via a collective bargaining agreement for its sergeants, including health insurance, retirement benefits, sick leave, vacation leave and more.
The managers are exempt from overtime pay.
Written into the package were base salaries for the affected positions.
A lieutenant's base salary was to be $7,000 higher than that set forth in a bargaining agreement for a sergeant with the same years of service. A captain's was to be $10,000 higher and the chief's $20,000 higher.
PACKAGE SUPPORT
Such a package was requested by the city's Public Safety Citizens Review Panel, which was formed last year to suggest police reform changes in accordance with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's executive order last June.
They asked that City Police have mid-level management that was "compensated appropriately with adequate job protection."
Prior to its passage, Kiroy said salary and benefits packages for such management level positions were set by council resolutions.
He noted those had "changed on a regular basis and did not provide the security people who will leave the bargaining unit constitute and really no enticement to do so."
Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie spoke Thursday on behalf of some City Police staff, as well, saying the council should adopt the package.
"A lot of qualifying individuals are moving to other law enforcement agencies, to other job opportunities that provide those benefits. . .," he said. "It's difficult to keep highly qualified individuals and we do have highly qualified individuals in the City Police Department now."
Former Plattsburgh City Police Chief Desmond "Desi" Racicot expressed support for the law Thursday, saying, given his more than 20 years with the department and 14 of those as chief, he knew firsthand the difficulties in attracting qualified individuals to the management roles.
"I really commend you and the council for the work that you've done in trying to rectify this problem."
FIRE INCLUDED
The package includes a similar arrangement for the chief, assistant chiefs and battalion chiefs of the Plattsburgh City Fire Department.
Rosenquest said City Fire faced similar issues as City Police and aimed to help that department, as well. Unlike City Police, however, no new City Fire management level positions were budgeted for in the 2021 budget and, the mayor said at Thursday's meeting, there were "no plans" to hire those roles this year.
"This local law does not allocate, hire or assume hiring of anybody in those departments," he said. "It simply sets a management package and the management package guidelines for those two departments."
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