Chief: Police Short-staffed; Overtime Grows

CAPE MAY – Cape May Police Chief Anthony Marino informed Cape May City Council his department is “short four officers right now.”
Officers leaving for other municipal departments, a process known as “department hopping,” retirements and a disciplinary firing have left the department with a serious shortage during its busy summer season when the population of the city swells to 10 times its year-round level.
Those four officers represent almost 20% of the full-time police officers in a department which would be at 23 if fully staffed.
The message, delivered at the July 23 council meeting, was prompted by concerns from Council member Stacey Sheehan about the overtime payments made to police lieutenants whose contract bars them from receiving overtime except in very specific circumstances, which are spelled out in the contract and do not include the present arrangement.
Marino said his officers are “burnt out” by working an average of 10 to 15 hours of overtime per pay period. He made a proposal to City Manager Neil Young to use command staff officers, lieutenants, and on-patrol duty in an overtime capacity. 
According to Marino, Young “worked out an arrangement with the PBA (Policemen’s Benevolent Association)” and the lieutenant began receiving overtime. Marino also said in a small department it is not uncommon for officers with administrative duties to be used on patrol.
A copy of the city overtime report for June shows one officer’s name under the Finance Department rather than the Police Department. Sheehan raised the issue at a point in the meeting when monthly reports are routinely accepted. 
Two Issues
This placed two items before council and the public.
One issue was the remarks by Marino, who made clear the staffing problem in the department. This was an issue which had not been publically discussed at previous council meetings.
The other raised a question of special compensation for a salaried command officer in the department, an issue which was at the heart of a demotion of the previous police chief, Robert Sheehan, Council member Sheehan’s brother, and the forced retirement of Mayor Clarence Lear, who served as a lieutenant under Sheehan and whose retirement was part of a legal settlement with the city. 
Department Staffing
As Marino discussed the staffing problems in the department, he said patrol squads which normally have four officers per shift have been running with three, with one squad using only two full-time officers and a full-time Class II.
The June Police Incident Report showed Cape May Police dealt with 1,144 incidents.
The large majority of those incidents did not involve criminal behavior and are listed as administrative, traffic and parking enforcement, vehicle crashes, lost and found missing persons, animal complaints and the like.
Interspersed in the routine were 11 thefts, one drug arrest, eight fraud incidents, two assaults and 38 disorderly conduct incidents. These and other possible criminal activities are the unknowns in any month. Violence and crimes against property pop up with no predictable regularity.
Marino said he hoped he would not be in this situation next year. He admitted the department may face another retirement in the fall. He went on to outline all the efforts underway to get the department back to full strength.
Marino said he plans a presentation at a future council meeting to explain the long and cumbersome process the department must go through to hire full-time officers, train them and get them on patrol.
One difficulty the department faces is an outdated Civil Service list since no test has been given for the Cape May area in two-plus years, Marino said. While he can use county and state lists, the results are less optimal since many on those lists are not interested in the relocation which would be involved.
Part of Marino’s solution as he juggles personnel, is the use of a ranking officer on the patrol rotation, leading to the overtime issue.  
The Overtime Issue
Sheehan’s expressions of concern about the practice were carefully coached with support for the chief in his use of available personnel.
“I agree with your use of a lieutenant on patrol,” she said.  “What I am not in agreement on is paying him overtime,” she added.
Sheehan suggested the chief could alter the lieutenant’s work schedule in such a way as to have him on patrol within normal work hours.
“We will have to agree to disagree on that,” Marino responded. In a conversation after the meeting, Marino said the overtime in question largely came at the end of pay periods when the ability to use flex time was constrained.
For over two years, the city was embroiled in litigation due to actions by a previous city administration and the previous chief of police, which involved similar issues, compensation of then Lt. Lear through compensatory time for added hours worked.
The city claimed it was a violation of Lear’s contract for him to be compensated for the extra hours and then police chief Sheehan was removed from the position one day short of the ending of his probationary period, largely because he had approved Lear’s compensation.
The conflict over the issue resulted in a settlement with Lear who retired and subsequently ran for mayor. It also resulted in a settlement with Sheehan who received $800,000 and the ability to remain in the department at the rank of captain.
The issue also was instrumental in Lear’s victory over mayor Edward Mahaney, with several voters expressing displeasure with the way the city handled the controversy.
In the earlier controversy involving Sheehan and Lear, there was not a clear decision made by the city manager to allow the practice although debate continued throughout the controversy on who reviewed and approved timesheets.
Stacey Sheehan’s concerns did not elicit any definitive response from city officials. When she asked Marino if he planned to “continue to pay the lieutenant, his response was to say the city manager is paying the overtime. The city manager remained silent during the exchange, leaving Sheehan’s question hanging.
Whether the practice will continue was not clarified. Whether the practice is a good response to the staffing problems in the face of the contract prohibitions was also not settled.
Solicitor Frank Corrado stated it was a decision which belonged to the city manager as the custodian of the city’s executive functions. No member of council other than Sheehan voiced concern over the practice. 
It is council which approves the contracts negotiated by the city manager, raising the question of what role council has concerning exceptions to contract terms.
One observation made by some residents, who asked not to be named, was the entire dialog on the issue never moved Lear to comment. Lear had over 30 years in the department and was the subject of disciplinary action over a similar, but not identical, practice, yet he remained silent.
Marino expects the staffing shortage to continue throughout the rest of the summer. While he hopes to be at full staff for the start of next summer, Marino has warned council in the past the distribution of age and years of service in the department could portend clusters of retirements in future years.
That would necessitate proactive planning by the city to avoid similar or worse staffing problems.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.