More so than other public servants, police officers are expected
to put their life on the line to protect citizens. Accordingly,
they are well-compensated. However, in cities such as Morgan Hill
police are working more overtime than an average citizen they
protect.
MORGAN HILL
More so than other public servants, police officers are expected to put their life on the line to protect citizens. Accordingly, they are well-compensated. However, in cities such as Morgan Hill police are working more overtime than an average citizen they protect. For instance, four Morgan Hill officers each earned more in 2006 overtime alone than what a worker paid the state minimum wage of $7.50 per hour would earn the whole year.
The base pay for a Morgan Hill officer is $76,350, $82,176 for a corporal and $88,382 for a sergeant. With overtime, however, some high-ranking veterans are taking home more than $160,000 a year. In addition to their salary, Sgts. Shane Palsgrove and Ricardo Rodriguez, officer Kyle Christensen and Cpl. Michael Brookman took home more than $30,000 in 2006 overtime.
The story is different this year. Records show police overtime decreased from $538,277 in 2006 to $519,704 in 2007. Citywide, overtime decreased from $727,017 to $375,664, helping the $22.5-million city budget achieve a $53,871 surplus, in part thanks to an unexpected savings of $100,000 in police overtime and salaries, the Times reported in August. Officials budgeted $481,291 for police overtime in the current $25.5-million budget and are projecting a surplus exceeding a half-million dollars in the current fiscal year.
As city leaders grapple to reign in costly police overtime and simultaneously find funding to add more police officers, Morgan Hill residents may not be receiving the same level of public safety as other cities – such as Campbell, for example.
“At some point in time it’s more efficient to pay for a full-time officer than to pay for overtime. I think Morgan Hill needs more officers,” said Campbell police Capt. Greg Finch.
It’s not like crime is getting out of hand in the city exactly. Crime rates in Morgan Hill haven’t increased between 2003 and 2005, according to statistics. Incidents of violent crime, which include murder, rape and robbery, among others, decreased in 2004 but rose again in 2005 and averaged 57.7 incidents per year during the time span. The same trend happened with property crimes, which include burglary, grand theft and car theft: the average was 1,036 incidents per year.
The issue with overtime is that it pits the city’s bottom line against the police department’s ability to provide a full range of services. Due to cutbacks, the department is unable to offer more than “reactive policing” and some officers left because they were asked to work too much overtime, police Chief Bruce Cumming wrote in a January staffing report to Morgan Hill City Manager Ed Tewes.
“In fact, for the last several years hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent on overtime for minimum staffing and major investigations. This year alone that amount may approach $500,000 department-wide,” Cumming wrote. “I believe that overtime should be used carefully and used for unusual, non-routine situations because paying people time and one-half for work in the long term is costly and can lead to employee dissatisfaction or ‘burn out.”
Tewes and the Morgan Hill City Council heeded Cumming’s words and approved the hiring of three additional officers in the summer, bringing the Morgan Hill Police Department payroll to 38 officers. The police department in the city of Campbell, whose population is similar to Morgan Hill in size, has 43 sworn officers compared to Morgan Hill’s 38. Police overtime has decreased there since 2005. That year, police overtime cost the city $415,750; in 2006, it was $287,850 and in 2007, $239,502. Campbell officials budgeted $126,615 for police overtime in 2007-08.
“The Council’s Public Safety and Community Services Committee prepared a report and recommendation which was later the subject of a four-hour council workshop in which they outlined their reasoning for proposing a significant increase in staffing,” Tewes said. “They cited increases in population and complexity.”
The council committee is considering options to raise money to add nine more officers to raise the total to 47 sworn officers, the cost of which is estimated at $1.5 million per year. Any combination of a 911 emergency call center fee, a Mello-Roos tax, a general tax, sales tax or utilities tax and reduction in recreation services are possibilities, said councilwoman Marby Lee. All but the 911 fee would have to be approved by the voters.
Even with the expanded force, police overtime may continue to rise as more officers would mean more time spent in court or attending training, Cumming said. “(Expansion) wouldn’t eliminate overtime entirely. What we’re spending is what we have to spend,” Cumming said. “Is it good to rely on a lot of overtime? The answer is no.”
Adding more officers is necessary, Cumming said. The department is last in the numbers of officers per 1,000 residents in Santa Clara County and is second to Los Altos in actual number of officers, Cumming wrote in the staffing report. The city has grown but the police force hasn’t in 12 years, he added.
An expanded force would allow the department to implement a schedule preferred by officers: four 10-hour shifts with three days off per week, instead of three 12-hour shifts one week and four 12-hour shifts the following week, Cumming said.
“This schedule is more costly relative to the numbers of personnel needed to staff,” Cumming wrote in his report, but it allows “for improved deployment of officers during peak activity times, provides increased coverage in the field when other officers are busy and does allow for an overlap period for training and briefings.”
MORGAN HILL POLICE EPARTMENT TOP OVERTIME EARNERS, 2006-2007
Name Rank 2006 2007
Shane Palsgrove sergeant $37,982 $8,486
Kyle L. Christensen officer $31,086 $1,629
Michael Brookman corporal $30,575 $6,573
Ricardo Rodriguez sergeant $30,262 $925
Mark Brazeal sergeant $24,408 $742
Thomas Vestal officer $22,424 $2,516
Troy Hoefling sergeant $21,350 $5,046
Max Cervantez officer $18,697 $1,629
Ray Ramos corporal $18,381 $920
Eric Mosunic officer $16,269 $1,533
David Ray officer $13,930 $401
