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BREEZE ARCHIVES:
10/14/2009 |
Police union offers $1 million in savings; Lombardi disputes figure
NORTH PROVIDENCE - The Fraternal Order of Police has offered Mayor Charles A. Lombardi the settlement of 19 pending grievances filed by officers in exchange for several promotions that have been held up since spring at a savings to the town of $979,764 over the next 16 months, according to a letter from the union's attorney to the town's negotiating lawyer obtained by The Breeze.
Lombardi, however, disputes the amount of savings offered, contending they actually amount to $350,000.
The offer was made on Sept. 9, but the union has not received a response from the mayor, a delay that Town Council member Frank A. Manfredi disclosed at Tuesday night's, Oct. 6, regular monthly council meeting. Manfredi did not disclose the contents of the letter, but endorsed the offer and asked the mayor to provide a counter offer to the council, so the offers could be compared.
"The administration gave me zilch," Manfredi said. "There was a meeting (between the police union and the administration) last week and we have no information."
The letter has apparently been distributed to council members. The Breeze obtained a copy from a reliable source.
Lombardi said on Friday that council member John Zambarano has attended negotiation sessions with the union, and could have informed Manfredi and other council members.
FOP Local President David Drezek said in response to a call from The Breeze Wednesday, Oct. 7, "I am disappointed that the newspaper has obtained a copy of this letter. I will not go into specifics about the offer because we are in ongoing negotiations with the town."
The source who provided the letter to The Breeze said the offer from the police union has the potential to extend over the next two fiscal years at a savings to the town of $1.4 million.
Drezek declined to directly address the further savings disclosed to the newspaper.
"Look, at this time the FOP would like the process to work, so I am not going to say anything about this," Drezek said. "We are in ongoing negotiations. I would like to keep this private and I would prefer that we keep on working with the mayor in these negotiations."
Drezek did say that the police union "stepped up and worked with the mayor in February and provided $200,000 in savings to the town and we were the first to go to a co-pay."
Drezek stood by the estimated savings included in the offer.
"The savings are black and white," Drezek said. "They are done by an attorney. They are factual."
Lombardi accused Drezek of self interest in advancing the contract offer.
"I am hearing the union president wants this adopted because it includes a promotion for him," Lombardi charged.
Drezek told The Breeze on Monday, Oct. 12, that he has taken the test for the lieutenant's position and is ranked third in line.
"That is just more rhetoric by the mayor," Drezek said. "The mayor has come to our membership meetings and told us openly by name that there are people he does not want to promote. He offered us two sergeant positions if we would eliminate one captain's position, because he didn't want to promote the person in line for that job. The only reason is their political allegiances to the previous mayor. This is how bad he does not want to promote a certain lieutenant. He openly talks about the upper administration position and the officer who currently holds the position. So you tell me who is playing politics."
Drezek continued, "The position which has been seven lieutenants since before 1985, some 30 plus years. I am not fighting to add a lieutenant position. I am attempting to maintain the positions the members of the North Providence Police have always had."
The town's negotiations with the police union took a new turn on Oct. 6 when Lombardi filed a complaint for declaratory judgment in Superior Court that the mayor said essentially asks a judge to determine whether the table of organization for the Police Department is controlled by the mayor and Town Council or by the labor contract between the town and the FOP.
"It is our opinion that the taxpayers, mayor and council are responsible for the make-up of our Police Department, not the police union," Lombardi said.
He cited the Town Charter, "the chief of police shall be the commanding officer of the Police Department. There shall be such other officers of subordinate rank and patrolmen as the council shall establish upon recommendation of the director of the public safety. The council may provide for such organization of the Police Department as it may deem necessary and appropriate for its efficient operation."
Lombardi said a clarification of authority and power is required because one section of the collective bargaining agreement seems contradictory: "Any changes in the organizational chart, including but not limited to, changes in its design, staffing, numbers and/or ranks shall be management's prerogative. However, changes resulting in reduction in ranks and/or department strength are prohibited."
Lombardi said, "That is why we are not acting on any proposals."
He added, "As far as I know, no contract may contravene the law."
The supervisory vacancies in the Police Department, for which lists of officers who scored on tests to qualify for the jobs, have generated most of the 19 grievances that the FOP is offering to settle.
The contract offer letter was written by Joseph F. Penza, the union's attorney, and addressed to Vincent Ragosta Jr., the town's negotiating attorney.
"Our proposal would require the department to promote three sergeants, two lieutenants and one captain," Penza wrote. "It is important to note that ... promoting these officers would restore the staffing level of supervisors to the same level that had been in existence since at least 1985."
The offer includes leaving the deputy chief's position vacant in the wake of the retirement of Paul Marino at a savings of $130,000.
The town apparently wants to reduce the ranks at the Police Department, so the letter points out that the offer accomplishes that.
"... Currently there are 43 patrolmen/detectives in the department. Promoting three of them to the rank of sergeant would leave 40 patrolmen - which is consistent with the proposed TO (table of organization)," the letter said.
The offer is very detailed and breaks down the expenses of filling the now vacant positions through Jan. 1, 2011: from three to four captains, from five to seven lieutenants and from seven to nine sergeants. The number of current patrolmen and detectives is now 43 for a total staffing of 59. The union proposal would drop the number of patrolmen and detectives to 40, while increasing the total staffing to 61.
The letter concludes, "The FOP feels that its offer as set forth is real and substantial. Once again, the FOP has stepped up to the plate in an effort to work with the town to save taxpayers of the town of North Providence money."
Copies of the letter were provided to council members and Manfredi asked on Tuesday night that the mayor keep the council informed of negotiations.
Manfredi went so far as to reference a state law that requires fiscal impact statements be provided to the council during collective bargaining and that the final contract be made public upon ratification.
Drezek said on Monday, "I spoke to several council members who said they like the agreement and think that it is good for the town. Councilman (Mansuet) Guisti and Councilman Manfredi have openly advised to tell my membership they support the proposal of $1.4 million in savings. Three other councilmen like the money savings in the proposal but will not commit at this time."
Lombardi said that his goal is to reduce the size of the Police Department, which he asserts is too large for the area of the town, 5.2 square miles.
"We need to get to 61-62 officers," Lombardi said. "Cumberland has 49 officers and it's 25.5 square miles. Do the math. Bottom line: We can't afford the government we have. We need to reorganize and this is reorganizing."
We’d appreciate readers’ thoughts on this story, especially those that provide greater insight and information to all of us.
Please avoid comments that are obscene, hateful, or otherwise inappropriate. If you post offensive comments, we will delete them as soon as we can. If you see such comments, please report them to:
Marcia Green, Editor-in-Chief, The Breeze newspapers
10/14/2009
Lord faquad is a punk. I'm sorry but it's true he talks down to people , lies, and acts like a dictator. Now he has certain people in the media BS but like anything else his true colors are starting to seep out.
10/14/2009
It is not just the Police Department that has dealt with the Mayor letting personality conflicts cost the taxpayers money.. Rumor had it that the Fire Department had their contract agreed upon and then there was a speaking engagement and the Mayor backed out of and they blacked out his name on the pamphlet he in turn then declined the contract and now it has gone to arbitration.. More $$$$$ for the lawyers and the more our taxes are gonna go up.. As for comparing our town to Cumberland it is not a reasonable comparison. The Demographics are very different. The bordering towns are very different and the number of calls for service and types of calls are very different. But it seems like when the Mayor wants to use numbers to make a point he blindly finds the numbers that fit his argument. And when the numbers are logical (Police Proposal) he lets Personality conflicts effect his decisions.. Thought it was not going to be business as usual in the town, seems like it to me....
10/14/2009
All this is a waste of time and money. The great mayor will be out of office in 36 months and all this litigation will still be in the courts system for some time. Appeals will be made and so on. Then the new adminstration comes in and everything is back to normalicy. So people wake up and put an end to all this time and money and why not agree on these issues. The council needs to step in on this period, enough is enough.
10/14/2009
Well the Wizard of Smith St. is at it again! He continues to spin the lies. The Presient of FOP trying to help town. Here is Union willing to work with the town and the Chief most likely with the Mayors blessing continues to harass him. We as tax payers should call Chief Whitting and request all service related calls. We should also call our Councilman and have them use their power as elected official demand the Chief to provide all official stats for all communities in the state Then the truth will come out officially. I am willing to bet the police hand pick the reports they want released.
10/14/2009
How brash is the Mayor " he tells members of the FOP that " He has the $%#@*&% taxpayers in his pocket" ask councilmen Zambrano, he was there.
10/14/2009
HE'S GOING TO RAISE OUR TAXES BECAUSE THE STATE ELIMINATED ANOTHER 1.2 MILLION IN FUNDING TO NP AND THE POLICE ARE OFFERING 900K-1.4 MILLION IN SAVINGS OVER 16 MONTHS. HE WOULD ALSO BE ABLE TO USE THIS AS A TOOL WHEN NEGOTIATING WITH OTHER UNIONS. THE MAYOR IS DUMB AND PERSONALITIES COME INTO PLAY AT THE EXPENSE OF THE TAXPAYER. TAXPAYERS, REMEMBER THIS WHEN YOU GET YOUR ONE TIME ANTICPATED TAX BILL.
10/14/2009
I cannot believe the people of NP elected this man. This man is a bear face liar to the taxpayers not to mention his total incompetantcy as an administrator. How does it only equate to 350k in savings when the deputy chiefs position with benefits is 130k and not replacing 10 officers at 78.5k with benefits is 785k for a total of 915k. Then you figure the attorney expenses for the town being saved for not going to arbitration. This Mayor is definetly mathematically challenged. How does he compare us to Cumberland ? Big deal there 25.5 square miles most of it is rural and affluent. Johnston is also 25 square miles and they have 80 plus officers. The botttom line is population and calls for service. Ask the Mayor to provide the arrest, incident, and accident call numbers in Cumberland and compare them to NP Police. The numbers speak for themselves. We also border two cities Pawtucket and Providence. The public needs to be aware of this because the Mayor will brainwash the average taxpayer with inaccurate comments and figures. As far as not acting on any proposals he doesn't want to promote certain members that took a test and are entitled to get promoted by contract. This is his way of getting it done at the expense of the taxpayer. Seems very ironic that he wants to eliminate a Captains position and one of the Lieutenants he dislikes is next to get promoted to Captain. He dislikes the Lieutenant because of his allegence with the previous administration. As far as the Union President also getting promoted to Lieutenant he has it coming to him by contract. He took a test and passed and there are vacancies. If he finished first on the list he would have already been promoted or maybe not because this is another member of the police dept.the Mayor dislikes. Maybe the proposal needs to be posted in the Breeze and the taxpayers could see the savings. How can the people of NP trust their Mayor who sold a trailer that didn't belong to him.
10/14/2009
Cumberland is a whole different world than NP. Just look at some of the bordering communites. Although the popupulations are close a lot more goes into figuring out the number of police you need. The biggest thing to consider is this: last year Cumberland PD had approximately 17,000 calls for service (this included their police and fire combined). NP had over 33,000 calls just for the police alone. Go ask Cumberland officers how many they have on the road at one time. It's almost the same as NP. So your NP officers have handled almost double the amount of calls with the same number of officers on the road. You can't simply compare the number of officers with the number of residents and throw in there the size of the towm. Take a look at Central Falls. One square mile and they are busier than Cumberland by far. It's funny how the mayor states "I am hearing the union president wants this adopted because it includes a promotion for him". The mayor knows exactly who is on what promotional list and he doesn't want certain guys promoted. What happenned to his campaign promise of not interfering with the promotions.
10/14/2009
Seems like it's time to grow up. Chief whiting is the big bad wolf "I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your door down". Why the heck would you remove subordinates doors in the work place. How can we taxpayers respect the PD when we hear of these childish antics. I'm glad it's all coming out to expose this unprofessionalism.
10/14/2009
To the NON NP Reader, you must be mathematically challenged like Lombardi. What about the 200K the police department gave Napolean in Feb. of 2009. What about the attorneys fees that would be included in the savings any where between 10k-20k or more labor attorney Ragosta doesn't come cheap. So keep praising Mayor Lombardi who is sinking the town on a daily basis because of personalities.
10/14/2009
I would like to see the crime statistics and the number of calls the police handle. Just because cumberland is larger doesn't mean a thing. Foster is 10 times the size of NP but they only have about 10 officers. The reason is simple NP is a urban area that is surounded. by providence/ pawtucket. So to compare the two towns is apples and oranges. To the previous writer you are correct Np is a funny place and Lombardi is a narsositic man with a lot of hate.
10/14/2009
NP: Less people and space than other departments; NP=70 police others: 50.---- "union" "lawyers" say the proposal is worth 979K this Drezek says 1.4 million-----A councilor has been at the table; so the council knew about the letter----Manfredi is mad HE did not know----You Lombardi haters must be the ones adding this up to the 1.4 and the ones who want the un-needed positions in the PD----These comments from a Non-NP person just reading these articles---funny placed that NP. Grow up and accept the need to cut back and change.
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