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Date: 1/14/2016
EAST LONGMEADOW – With Police Chief Douglas Mellis’ contract set to expire at the end of March, the Board of Selectmen have decided to advertise and accept applications for the position.
At its Jan. 12 meeting, the selectmen told interim Town Administrator Gregory Neffinger to create a draft advertisement and description of the position for its next meeting on Jan. 26.
Selectman William Gorman told Reminder Publications prior to the meeting he believes the decision to open up the position to applicants was due to “high overtime” budgets for officers during the past several years.
“I’m a new selectman and [other selectmen] have never looked at [Mellis] to give him a critique over what he’s doing over these years, which they should have been doing ... I just think we can do a better job with the Police Department,” he said.
During the meeting, the board voted 2 to 1 to cut the Police Department’s fiscal year 2017 (FY17) overtime budget from approximately $320,000 down to $150,000. Additionally, $50,000 of the cut funding was moved to the Appropriation Committee’s Reserve Fund.
Mellis criticized the idea of cutting police overtime during the selectmen’s Jan. 5 meeting.
“God knows who you’re going to hire as a police chief with some of limitations you’re looking to do,” he added. “Overtime’s been an issue for the past 11 years ... It continues to be an issue. That’s life. I’m sorry. I wish I could have a crystal ball and tell you that I would go a year with no injuries to members of my department. I don’t have that ability.”
Federici voted against the motion made on Jan. 12 and Mellis was not present during that meeting.
“For the last 10 years it’s been in the vicinity of $300,000 in overtime and we’re cutting it in this case by $170,000 and obviously my concern is for public safety,” Federici said. “If the $150,000 isn’t enough where does the rest of the money come from since everyone’s got this figured out?”
Gorman initially proposed the Police Department overtime budget cuts during the board’s Jan. 5 meeting.
“How do you see us cutting $177,000?” Mellis asked Gorman. “Let me go back to the statement that I made to [the] Appropriations [Committee] a year or two ago. In 1979, we had 29 police officers and we had a population of 11,000 people. Today we have close to 16,000, if not more people, and I have 26 police officers.”
Gorman said he’s examined other local communities’ police overtime budgets such as West Springfield, which has spent $150,000 to $170,000 annually for its police overtime in recent years.
“They have twice as many people as we do,” he added.
Neffinger, a former mayor of West Springfield, said that town has at least 65 police officers working in the community.
“In order to compare overtime, you have to compare the number of officers for the population too because the more officers you have, the less overtime you’re going to have because you’re going to have more people working [their normal hours],” Federici said.
Neffinger said he reviewed Greenfield’s police overtime budget, noting that the city is considered a “drug corridor” and typically gets much more crime than East Longmeadow.
“Their staffing appears to be almost the same as East Longmeadow, but their overtime was in the $150,000 [range],” he explained. “They have 2,000 more people than we have, but that’s not a very scientific way of looking at it. What is their crime and are they able to handle their crime? I think a study of the Police Department would be probably something that would be worthwhile doing – how many arrests we make a year compare to other communities and what is our budget like related to other communities?”
Mellis also advocated for hiring an additional police officer and creating a second detective position.
In FY16, the town hired two officers.
He said his department’s overtime budget includes training and while officers are in training their shifts need to be covered.
“What I need is three officers to replace them for their shifts while they’re away at school,” he noted. “I don’t have the ability to send five people to school and [have it] cost me zero. I have to man for man replace in most situations. That’s why the overtime goes up.”
Gorman said prior to the Jan. 12 meeting he believes a search committee should be formed in order to vet candidates and one of the requirements should be that the Police Chief is a resident.
“The Fire Chief and the Police Chief should definitely live in East Longmeadow because we’ll be paying him over $100,000 for his pension and they never live in East Longmeadow and they never paid any taxes in East Longmeadow,” Gorman said.
Mellis, who has been in the position for more than a decade, is a Springfield resident.
Mellis declined to comment about the status of his contract at this time.