It's been a short while since we've had a newsletter. It's not because there has not been anything going on though.
The independent audit has been completed. The audit showed no irregularities of the money reported as income or money shown for disbursements. I did have one question concerning money spent for Union related expenses and am awaiting documentation from the Secretary/ Treasurer.
If you haven't added your personal email address to the GPOA, please do so. Just send a quick email to Gavin Naquin at naquin@greensboropoa.org. After he verifies you as a member, he will add you to the GPOA group email list. No ci.greensboro addresses please.
A quick question. What do you think is the Supervisor to Officer ratio? The ratio of Chief, Assistant Chiefs, Captains, Lieutenants, and Sergeants to Corporals and Officers. The answer will be later in the article.
The GPOA supported a member in his appeal of his recommended discipline. With the assistance of GPOA Counsel William Hill, he was successful in having the charge dismissed.
Concerning pay issues, the Association has gathered some facts that we are planning on taking to the City Council. I want to credit a member and a few of our Board members for compiling the stats. They had problems with the increase as well and decided to investigate it further. Thanks to them for their diligence.
Many of you have expressed outrage at the Department raising the incoming pay for rookies to almost $34,000 with a B/A and almost $31,000 with a HS Degree. Better than a 10% increase over last year, while the rank and file officers only receive a 4.5% increase on average. The Department now is able to boast that they have the highest pay for incoming officers among medium sized police departments.
As I said earlier, they increased the incoming pay 10%. Now they will be the first to tell you that they also raised the top pay for a POII. What happens when the bottom side is raised and the topside is raised is the middle salaried officer's pay is compressed.
But how many people are at top pay for a POII? Not many. Most are guys and gals who were promoted to Corporal, and then gave up their stripes to go into an investigative or special unit. A few POIIs have topped out, but there are few. The City stresses it doesn't want anyone to top out.
Representatives of the GPOA looked at all salaries of POIIs. They grouped the POIIs into years of service. Then they threw out the topped out POIIs, mostly former corporals, then they averaged the salaries of the remaining POIIs and graphed all this info.
What the graphing shows is POIIs now reach the $41,000 mark around their 6th year with a gradual increase in pay until they retire. What we also found is starting rookies are being started higher than 2 yr officers so the City adjusted the salaries of 2yr officers so they aren't being passed in pay from the onset.
This doesn't help the 29-year veteran officer making $39,000, or the 25-year veteran officer making $38,000, or the 22-year veteran officer making $38,000, or the 17-year veteran officer making $38,000.
Here is one example. Officer A with a B/A degree started with the Department 2 years ago at around $29,000. With evaluations over the last two years, Officer A presently makes around $33,000.
Presently, Rookie B with a B/A degree starts out at $33,977. Because Officer A makes less than Rookie B, Officer A's pay is adjusted to match Rookie B's. But, Rookie B gets an evaluation and raise next year and the next year as well. Then passes the POII exam and gets a 5% increase and BOOM! Rookie B has left Officer A behind.
Here's another look. Rookie B starts at $33,977. Rookie B does standard work and gets a 3.5% raise this year to $35,166. Officer A with the adjusted pay does standard work and gets a 4% increase to $35,366. The following year, Rookie B again does standard work and again gets a 3.5% raise to $36,397. And Officer A again does standard work and gets a 4% increase to $36,749. Then, Rookie B passes the POII exam and gets a 5% increase to $38,216. Thirty- eight thousand two hundred sixteen dollars. While Officer A is still at $36,749. And that's using a relatively conservative 3.5% increase for Rookie B. (Of course these figures are based on pre-2002 raises. I'll get to the 2002 raises later)
Its no wonder 35 officers have left the Department between January 1999 and July 2002. Actually 40 left with 5 returning. A few left for Federal jobs. A few left for State jobs. A few left for other reasons. But many left because they didn't want to be a supervisor and there was not much incentive to stay. 10 year, 14 year, 15 year and 16 yr veterans.
Now the Department has asked for increased funding for a planned career path for working cops, the much-heralded POIII and POIV positions. A study committee was established and made recommendations concerning requirements for each level. Some of those on the committee stated their recommendations were either ignored or changed in the final draft. If the Administration was going to do this, they said, why have a committee to make recommendations. So far, the City hasn't funded it.
The GPOA's stance on the POIII/ POIV is this. We like the idea of a career advancement for POIIs. We believe the POIII is attainable. We feel the POIV position is the proverbial dangling carrot. The qualifications are as follows. To qualify, you must be a POIII and have achieved 500 additional hours of Department recognized training, over and above the 400 hrs you had to have to qualify for POIII, some of which is in the area of first line supervision. And you must complete 40 hours of community service. Sounds like a sentence handed down by a judge.
Also, I have been told that the Department, due to manpower and budget shortage, will not be able to send officers to the training. It would be up to the individual officers to put herself/ himself through the training. Your own time, your own money. All that work for a measly 5% increase.
Officers have told me that trying to gain the training and qualify for the POIV would cut into their present off duty time. They would rather work a couple of off duty assignments to make up the difference and remain a lowly POIII.
Should the City choose to fund the present POIII/POIV proposal, the Department will be able to advertise for recruitment purposes that they have a career path in place for non-supervisory officers.
Many of you have asked when we are going to take this to the City Council so you can show up. Well, to go before the Council you can be recognized as a speaker from the floor or you can be put on the agenda. The negative side of being a speaker from the floor is you speak last in the meeting. And should you have a contingency of supporters to your cause, they may have to sit through the entire meeting just to voice their concerns. And the meeting may be 3 hours long or 6 hours long. Not a good thing for the working cop that has worked all day or has to work all night or has off duty work. To be put on the agenda, City Manager Kitchen, who controls the agenda, has to put you on the agenda.
So, on late February, our Legal Counsel sent a letter to the City Manager asking to be placed on the agenda. We received a very polite "thank you but no thank you" letter from him. It stated that after reviewing the GPD's overall benefits package, he felt it was competitive with comparable sized cities and should we have any questions, we could contact the City's Human Resources Department.
The reason we have chose to take the issue to the City Council instead of Human Resources is we know they will try to justify the City's position instead of listening to us. Also, we recognize that Human Resources doesn't control the City's purse strings. Only the City Council and the citizens do.
On July 20th, 2002, Fox8 reporter Kristal Griffith followed up on the pay issue raised by the GPOA. She interviewed Captain Hartley prior to interviewing me. Basically, he stated the Department has a performance based evaluation system, which has been in place for approximately 25 yrs. Prior to that, the Department had a tenure based pay system.
During my interview, I went over all I have said earlier in this article. I told her we didn't wish to go to a tenure based pay system. But rather the GPOA wanted the Department to raise the salaries of all POII's, excluding those who had topped out, to coincide with the percentage of increase given to entry POIs. I also told her of the veteran officers that had left and of those who were being passed in salary by officers with 5 yrs experience. She asked what the GPOA thought it was worth to keep those senior POIIs with the Department. I stated it was at least worth the $30,000- $33,977 to the city. This is the salary of a rookie for one year and the cost to train him or her to replace the veteran. You can never really calculate the cost of experience.
Prior to the interview, I spoke with Captain Hartley. He wanted to know our position. I told him and he stated that would cost the City a lot of money. As I told Ms. Griffith it cost a lot to replace a veteran.
This issue isn't dead yet.
I have heard that though the Greensboro Police Department can presently boast of having the highest starting pay for departments in the area, the Guilford County Sheriff's Department is catching up to the salaries of our veteran POIIs. Also, officers of the GCSD get two raises a year. One is a cost of living raise and the second is a performance- based merit raise. I'm in the process of gaining the documentation to substantiate or disprove this rumor.
Oh yes. I must address the most recent raises. I have heard from some who have complained about the small percentages given. I have also heard from some who have stated we should be thankful for any raise considering the tough economic times as we are now in. Personally, I understand times are tough. What I don't agree with is how the city rewards performance.
You have an officer who does her/ his job extremely well in the eyes of her/ his supervisor and appears to be walking on water (Level 5) and receives a 3.7% raise. Then you have an officer who does her/ his job well, but not quite walking on water (Level 4) and receives a 2.7% raise. While at the same time you have an officer who isn't doing her/ his job and does not meet expectations (Level 2) and receives a 2.0% raise. Where is the logic? But more importantly, where is the incentive to do anything more than what is expected.
I often tell people that I never expected to get rich doing this job. I have further come to realize that no matter what the Mayor, City Manager, City Council member or Chief says about the street cop being the backbone of the Department, the true heroes or the first line ambassadors of Greensboro, the City has not demonstrated it. We must remember to do the job well enough to be proud of it ourselves, until such time as they back up their talk.
Concerning the Death of Chris Beane. Chris worked over 4hrs on his 3rd shift and while on the way home, fell asleep, crossed the centerline and struck an oncoming vehicle. Chris was killed. Workman's Comp has taken the position that Chris was off duty, so they should not have to cover. A State Labor Commissioner ruled that fatigue did play a role in the accident, but sided with Workman's Comp. The case is on appeal to be reviewed by the full Commission of Labor.
Though Chris was not a member, the GPOA believes that had Chris got off on time and not worked over, he would have safely arrived home. We support the working cop's position and support his wife, Donna in seeking these benefits.
A reporter for the News and Record asked me if there had been any changes following Chris' death. Let me put it this way. On National Night Out, some officers were brought in to make the rounds before working their normal 3rd shift. And some officers were expected to make the rounds following their 1st shift. Roughly 14 hours straight.
Which brings me to my next thought. I was talking to a member of the Administration following the decision concerning Chris Beane. He stated should the full Labor Commission overturn the previous decision and side with Donna Beane, he felt it would be the nail in the coffin for the 4/4 schedule. He believed the schedule would be changed with more workdays per week and fewer hours per day.
If we bring up the issue of a manpower shortage, we hear "We can go to a different schedule to put more officers on the street if that's what you want." If we try to discuss doing away with O-time we hear "We can go to a different schedule if that's what you want."
Here's my prediction. Sooner or later, something will occur and the Administration will change the schedule away from the 4/4. Then they will say they tried to keep it but due to some issue the GPOA raised, they had to abandon it. Some field officers may leave the GPD, and the Department will lose out on some candidates when recruiting. With the new schedule, it won't take long to see we're still short in all areas of the Department. No change except in the work schedule.
The city continues to grow. Response times are slower. Calls for service continue to increase. JUST ASK FOR MORE OFFICERS, PLEASE!
At the October 4th, 2002 Association meeting, I advised the GPOA's Board of Directors that following the return of the independent audit, which gave a positive review and expressed financial soundness with the Association, Jason Padgett has resigned as our Secretary/ Treasurer. Jason had held the position for the past 7 years and I appreciate his commitment to the advancement of the Greensboro Police Officer's Association. Chris Schultheis was appointed and will serve as the new Secretary/ Treasurer until the regular elections, which will be held in July 2003. Thank you Chris for accepting this appointment.
In closing. What do you think is the Supervisor to Officer ratio? The ratio of Chief, Assistant Chiefs, Captains, Lieutenants, and Sergeants to Corporals and Officers. With 504 authorized officers, we presently have 98 persons supervising the remaining 406 of us. That's roughly a 1 to 4 ratio. One supervisor for every four officers/ corporals. But all of these figures are based on us being at full strength. Which we aren't and never will be.
Lastly, Shop with a Cop will be held on Saturday, December 14th at 0815hrs. For those not familiar with this program, we play host to kids at a local department store and as cops in uniform, we shop with them. It's not too difficult. Mostly it's walking around, talking and shopping with them. It should only take two hours at most. Please, I strong ask you to come out to help us. Put it your calendars now and we will get with you later with the location.