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Health & Fitness

Reaction To The May 19 Memorandum

Information, statistics, and opinions regarding the policy and code changes requested by our city administrator through the May 19 memorandum.

Fellow Residents:

Congratulations on voicing your opinions to your aldermen and to the City Council! Your voices were heard and the City of Darien has agreed to retain the position of chief of police.  We should all be celebrating, canceling the public protest, shaking hands with our city administrator and council, and getting ready to congratulate our new chief – right? Wrong.

Our city administrator on May 19 sent a memorandum to the City Council that outlines a new plan to be publicly discussed on May 23 at 6:30 p.m. This is in preparation for the June 6 vote by the council to put these new policies into effect. This new plan allows Darien to retain a police officer as police chief but raises a whole new set of issues for the public to be concerned about.

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In case you have not seen it, the new issues on this memorandum are as follows.

1            revise the code to allow the Mayor, with the consent of the Council, to appoint 2  deputy chiefs. Currently the 2 deputy chiefs are appointed by the police chief. 

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2            revise the code to allow the city administrator to appoint a police chief from the 2 deputy chiefs that were appointed by the mayor and council. An additional merit amount, determined by the council, would be offered to the appointed chief based on an annual evaluation by the administrator

3            revise the code to add the specific police administrative duties that would fall directly to the city administrator. This requires no change in the

administrator’s title but a revision to the administrator’s duties outlined in the city code.

When you read these proposed changes to the code, one comes to the obvious conclusion that the city administrator is attempting to completely take over control of the administration duties of the police chief, eliminating a check and balance system. The mayor, to whom the city administrator reports, is also jumping in on the action with the approval of the City Council to take more power away from the chief by naming who the two deputy chiefs will be.

Under this memorandum, which will be discussed for new policy, our new police chief will only have one responsibility and that is to direct his officers in the law and order of the city. No longer does he have the responsibility or duty to help plan his police department’s budget. No longer does he negotiate and discuss with the city administrator the final needs of the city’s police budget. No longer does he give firsthand experience and firsthand knowledge from the police in addressing these needs. He is now to accept whatever budget the city administrator issues his department, and he is powerless to do anything about it. He is fully stripped of his administrative duties within the police department and is powerless to use his experience as a useful tool for our city administrator to use in addressing the budget.

Under this new policy, our city administrator, who is not an elected official but an employee of the city, rules the police department’s administration with an iron fist. He dictates the budget and he gives orders to the police chief as to what his budget will be. 

In the history of this city, the police chief has always had a say in what he thinks is best budget-wise for his police department and then he and the city administrator layout the city’s plan. 

Now the chief is powerless and the city administrator lays out the plan. How is someone who is not a police officer supposed to know what is best for police officers?

The city administrator also now, under item two, dictates who that police chief is. This changes city code from always leaving that responsibility to the mayor. In the past the mayor would make her suggestion to the City Council, who would then take a vote to approve or disapprove this new chief. 

No longer do our elected officials decide who the police chief is – a city employee does. Under this memorandum, the city administrator has narrowed this choice down to our current two deputy chiefs.

But shouldn’t our mayor who is the elected voice of the people of the city be the one making that decision? And shouldn’t our city council, as they have always done, further express the will of the people by either accepting or denying this decision?

The new chief of police, also under item two, now no longer has the right to name his two deputies. The mayor will now exclusively hold that right with approval from the City Council, as her previous powers permitted her to do with selection of the chief.

Our new police chief, who will be the most trusted police officer in the department and who will represent our city in law and order has now lost his ability to name his deputies. Add that to his loss of all administrative power. His vast experience with all officers of the department and working knowledge of their abilities provide him supreme insight into making the decision of whom his deputies should be. He alone would know best who would do the best job as deputies – not a public officials who has never been a police officer and truly has no insight into who is best qualified for these positions.

All these issues mentioned bring up serious concerns and serious issues with this new proposed plan. In conclusion we now know the following things:

1               Our city administrator now takes over all administrative duties of the police department leaving our new chief powerless in the negotiating, bargaining and compromising it takes to come up with the city police budget.

2               Our new chief is to be selected by city employee Mr. Bryon Vana, and our mayor and City Council have no say or voting power in this decision.

3               Our deputy chiefs, who have always been hand picked by the chief, are now selected by the mayor and approved by the City Council.  The chief is stripped of his authority to name his deputies.

Now that we have broken down exactly what is happening to our police department under this memorandum, let’s breakdown what is happening under another statement made in this memorandum.

- Reduces costs by eliminating one police administrative position

To be perfectly clear about why this statement is misleading us let’s talk about the administrative position that is being eliminated. 

In the current arrangement, the city administrator deals with the police chief to develop an annual budget.  This budget is then taken to the mayor and to the city council to be voted on and approved. There is no administrative position being eliminated by this plan, there is only the administrative power of the police chief being transferred to the city administrator.

On Thursday, May 19, I used the Freedom of Information Act and requested the salaries of all police officers and police administration from the City of Darien. Legally the city has up to five days to approve or disapprove my request. To my shock, I received a phone call at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, May 20, from the city specifically asking me what I was looking for.  At 4 p.m. on Friday I received all of the information I was looking for from the city. I applaud and am impressed with their willingness to share this information with me. 

So with the city’s blessing, I was provided the 2010 and 2011 base salaries for every police officer in Darien. With this information and a few hours of research, I was able to come up with the following, accurate numbers based on the records of the City of Darien.

Here is the current pay arrangement in Darien for 2011.  The total combines the pay of the city administrator, the police chief, and the two deputy chiefs.  Please keep in mind that these numbers are BASE PAY and do not include INCENTIVES or DEFERRED COMPENSATION. Those numbers, which I do not have, obviously raise the numbers for all parties involved in this breakdown and would then raise the total.

CITY ADMINISTRATOR $128,554.00
CHIEF OF POLICE $126,073.00
DEPUTY CHIEF $112,711.00
DEPUTY CHIEF $112,711.00
TOTALS:  $480,049.00

Under the new arrangement that the mayor and City Council would like to pass on June 6, these are the new figures.  These numbers are based on the current base pay of the promoted deputy chief, the current deputy chief, and the figures factored in for the new deputy chief are based on the base pay of the highest ranking sergeant in the department.  The pay of the city administrator reflects the raise Vana is expected to receive on June 6.

CITY ADMINISTRATOR $154,547
POLICE CHIEF   $112,711.00
DEPUTY POLICE CHIEF   $112,711.00
*DEPUTY POLICE CHIEF  $97,224.96
TOTALS: $477,193.96

You can clearly see the new arrangement that the city would like to pass does NOT save a significant amount of money. In fact it is a low-ball estimate of the salaries because we do not know what the new wage will be for the new deputy police chief and we do not know what the pay incentives will be for the new chief.  This new arrangement, including the low-ball estimate, will save our city only $2,855.04.

While looking at those numbers you will immediately question Bryon Vana’s dramatic raise. If you add in the deferred compensation of 13 percent of his salary, Vana is receiving a package deal that gives him a raise worth an estimated $46,094,11.

In our city’s expense-cutting mode, he is receiving an increase that no other city worker can compare to. 

In the city’s initial plan to name Vana as police chief and take over the administrative duties of the police department, this was justified by removing Chief Pavelchik’s salary from the books. 

Because our residents vocally raised their objection to the removal of an officer as police chief, the city administrator has suggested in his memorandum to the city to promote one of our deputies. He still claims, as our numbers have rejected, that the city will still save a lot of money.

Well, what would happen if Vana did not receive such an extreme raise? What would the numbers look like if only he received 50 percent of that raise? His annual salary and deferred compensation would be $141,550.50. If you plug in that new amount to our last given numbers, this means the city actually WOULD be saving significantly more money under this new plan. $15,851.54 would come off the books if Vana’s new deal was cut in half.

In conclusion, these are very scary times in our city, as our city administrator, mayor, and City Council attempt to consolidate power and seize total control over the Darien Police Department by completely changing the city code and city traditions. 

The question to ask is WHY are our city administrator, mayor and City Council attempting to do this?  We have always had a professional, committed and efficient police department. Why do they now feel it is necessary to try and fix something that was never broken?

If you are as concerned as I am, the only solution is to show the city that this is not an acceptable course of action. Continue to write your alderman, continue to write your mayor, and begin writing and voicing your concerns to the city administrator. The best reaction in a democracy and a free society to unjust actions by a government is an informed, united and well-voiced resistance. Talk to your friends, talk to your neighbors, and show up in force on May 23 at 6:30 p.m. to the council session and let them know that their attempts to dominate our police department and change city code are unnecessary and unacceptable.

The public protest is still on for June 6 at the City Council meeting during which our elected officials will attempt to vote in these changes to our city code and changes to our police department’s structure. Visit the protest’s page on Facebook at:

http://www.facebook.com/update_security_info.php?wizard=1#!/event.php?eid=163869930343853

Or you can email me at braddrake9@gmail.com.

BRAD DRAKE

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