Rochester’s Fire and Police departments are looking at significant increases for the next fiscal year, both leveraged by common and unique factors.
In Tuesday night’s FY23 budget presentation to the scheduled public meeting of the Rochester Finance Committee, Police Chief Robert Small said his bottom line of $1,515,370 is affected by the impending loss of his six-officer, part-time staff.
Police reform requiring full training of all staff is effectively forcing part-time officers who wish to remain on the job to makes a commitment that can only logically progress to full-time duty. Then they are either hired by the department where they work or move on to opportunities in other communities.
Small’s immediate solution is to promote from within the department an officer to lieutenant ($95,000) and to add a new patrol officer ($65,000.) Cell-phone lines need to be added for computers in police cruisers, along with other relatively minor expenses.
“Some of that will depend on whether they choose to get town health insurance or not. Everything else I tried to keep as much to zero as possible,” said Small. “Hiring a lieutenant is a good move because I’m the only administrative rank in the department. The time has come … there is a number of administrative tasks to do.”
He said many of those recordkeeping tasks are statewide requirements now. “They’re trying to standardize qualifications across the state.”
Rochester currently has 12 full-time police officers including Small and department detective and six part-timers.
Finance Committee Chairman Kris Stoltenberg asked Small if adding one position to a full-time total of 13 will meet Rochester’s needs. Small said that in time more officers will be needed because the reform schedule will cause a three-year phase-out of part-time officers. The month of June is tricky with school vacation and the start of summer.
“A lot of officers take time off. If we didn’t have that flexibility, it would cause a lot of problems,” said Small. “I’m not trying to overestimate the need. I figure start with one (additional full-timer) and see how it goes this year … it kind of depends on where we are with the part-timers. I’d rather do it in a step-by-step phase.”
Upon hearing Finance Committee member David Arancio’s story of having done training and been a candidate at one time to work part time as a police officer, Small said that is how he started and believes many full-time officers in the area also started as part-timers.
When Small became a police sergeant under the command of since-retired Chief Paul McGee, he took on a lot of the administrative duties. So did detective Don Kemmett, whose more flexible schedule allowed for him to pick up some of the slack.
Some of it fell down to the sergeants,” said Small, noting that they do a “great job” but does not want them to have that burden when their core work is to answer calls.
“We’re just trying to do a balancing; people have put in a good effort,” he said.
Arancio suggested Small engage with the Capital Planning Committee’s five-year outlook and start looking at the one, three and five-year needs of the Police Department. “I appreciate the conservative approach, but … I think that would be helpful for long-term planning as well,” said Arancio.
Small has discussed the department’s predicament with the Select Board but said there is more conversation to be had. “I’m always open to discuss with people because there’s a lot of moving parts,” he said.
After thanking Small for his well-organized department narrative, Stoltenberg received a motion and the committee voted unanimously to support Small’s bottom-line budget figure of $1,515,370 for FY23.
The committee also voted to approve the Fire Department’s FY23 budget of $369,628, the ambulance budget of $564,904, the Town Accountant budget of $157,764, along with $171,080 for Informational Systems, and $109,705 for the Planning Board.
In his appearance before the Finance Committee, Fire Chief Scott Weigel said there would be no changes to salaries, resulting in $172,738 requested for FY23.
But he did request significant increases elsewhere, as vehicle maintenance increases from $45,000 to $54,800. “The price of everything has gone sky high,” said Weigel, who explained that regular service devoid of breakdowns costs an annual $26,250.
The two-year, 20-percent increase ($14,000) Weigel explained is due to the end of CARES Act reimbursement funding, including online certifications, OSHA, EMT’s, etc.
Arancio requested more detailed information would be helpful to the committee.
The next meeting of the Rochester Finance Committee is scheduled for Monday, March 28, at 7:00 pm.
Rochester Finance Committee
By Mick Colageo