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SCHENECTADY
More officers may see street duty Faster responses among goals
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

    Police will patrol more and respond to crimes faster under a major realignment from new Chief Mark Chaires to be announced Wednesday.
    Both City Councilman Gary Mc-Carthy and police union President Robert Hamilton are supporting the effort, which may move supervisors and officers with desk jobs back onto the streets.
    The goal is to improve coverage and reduce response times without expanding the force, said McCarthy, chairman of the public safety committee and a major player in the realignment.
    The first few details on the new plan are expected to be discussed at Wednesday’s City Council budget review session, which will focus on public safety. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at City Hall.
    But much of the plan will take shape slowly over a matter of months as the new chief decides which officers to reassign to patrol. The internal decision about which jobs can be done with fewer people does not have to be made public during the budget review session because it will not change the overall police budget. Officers will continue to draw their current salaries even if they are reassigned to patrol.
    Hamilton and McCarthy said they had agreed to the realignment in principle but would let Chaires decide how to implement it.
    As McCarthy described it, the realignment has three basic goals: increasing the number of police on the street without hiring more offi - cers; deploying those officers more effectively; and reducing response times.
    McCarthy had planned to forc- ibly reorganize the department while reviewing the 2009 police budget if he could get the rest of the council to support him. He had suggested that the council could simply increase the number of officers in the patrol division and drastically reduce the number elsewhere.
BENNETT’S CONCERNS
    But Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett expressed deep concerns. He said he feared the councilman would move detectives to patrol, hurting the department’s ability to solve crimes. Schenectady already solves a much smaller percentage of its serious crimes than other cities of similar size, according to national statistics, and Bennett said the city can’t afford to cut back on detectives.
    McCarthy — who never said which divisions would be cut to provide more patrol officers — argued that crimes could be solved more easily if police arrived in time to collect critical evidence or arrest the perpetrators.
    But after meeting with Bennett and Chaires, McCarthy said he agreed to let the new chief handle the reorganization himself.
    “I think we’re on the same page. I’m not going to force allocations in the budget. I’m going to give him a chance,” McCarthy said. “It’ll be within his prerogative to move people around.”
    Hamilton said he, too, will support Chaires in the reorganization.
    “We’ll hopefully establish units within the police department to improve our effectiveness in combating crime,” Hamilton said. “I’m looking forward to working with [Chaires] on that. We’ve got to work together.”
    In the past, police and city leaders have complained that Hamilton would block even the smallest policy changes, seeking to negotiate anything that wasn’t already in the contract.
    Hamilton says city management causes most slowdowns in negotiations.
    Either way, policy changes generally do not happen quickly. For example, it took more than a year to require police to wear seat belts after an unbelted officer died in a high-speed crash while hurrying to a serious accident.
UNION ON BOARD
    But this time, neither side appears to be bickering. Hamilton emphasized repeatedly that he will support Chaires in his reorganization plan.
    “We have similar goals overall,” he said.
    Bennett and Mayor Brian U. Stratton could not be reached Monday night, but McCarthy said they were in support as well.
    “Everybody may not be 100 percent happy with it,” McCarthy said. “But we’re all going to give Chaires a chance. I believe we’re all going to get what we want. I think there will be substantial improvement.”
    He said his measuring stick would be the speed at which police can respond to emergency calls.
    The last response times made public by the department, back in 2006, showed that it took police 9 /2 minutes, on average, to get to the most serious crimes: acts of violence in which people are in imminent danger.
    For nonviolent complaints — including car accidents without injuries and drug dealers selling their wares peaceably outside residences and businesses — the average response time was 45 minutes.
    McCarthy predicted response rates would improve dramatically under the new plan.
    But if they don’t, he warned that the council could still step in and force the reorganization that he wanted.
    “That budget is only good for two weeks,” McCarthy said, referring to the amount of time between council voting sessions. “The budget can be amended anytime there’s a majority vote of the council.”
    But he said he won’t move to change the budget significantly this week.
    “The [current proposed budget] gives Chaires enough flexibility to implement some of the procedural changes he wants to do,” McCarthy said. “I’m cautiously optimistic.”

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SCHENECTADY
Police union chief gets 4th term
Lieutenant said to be effective negotiator for department
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Kathleen Moore at 395-3120 or moore@dailygazette.com.

    Police union President Robert Hamilton is poised to become the longest-serving president in the Schenectady Police Benevolent Association’s history.
    Hamilton, 38, has been re-elected to another two-year term, his fourth as union president. At the end of his term, he will have served longer than any president in his union’s 97-year history.
    Hamilton has also spent more time on union business than any president in the PBA’s history — for the past four years, he has worked just a handful of days as a uniformed officer. He draws full pay as a lieutenant each year, but spends most days on union business.
    It’s that focus that has gotten him re-elected three times, he said.
    “Whenever one of my members has a problem, I’m there,” Hamilton said. “I’m always available for them. When something happens to them, I’m always first in line to fight for them.”
    City leaders say he fights so effectively that they can’t change anything in the department without negotiating with him first. They have also criticized the number of days he takes for union leave, questioning whether he’s really spending all that time on union work.
    In the most recent contact negotiation, Hamilton beat the city soundly, winning the same raise as the city firefighters received without any of the givebacks that the fi refighters used to get their pay increase. Hamilton took the city to arbitration to get that deal, which he noted did come with one disadvantage: The police officers’ 4 percent raises were for just two years, while the firefighters got the same raises guaranteed for 5 years.
    “I think my guys were happy with the way the contract came out,” he said. “They wanted a longterm deal. When that wasn’t made available to us, we did the next best thing.”
    He’s preparing to head back to the negotiating table now. By the end of his term — which concludes in December 2010 — he hopes to have a new contract.
    Then he plans to retire.
    “I’m young, but I started young: just after I turned 21,” he said. He was hired in 1991.
    The PBA on Friday also reelected First Vice President Mark LaViolette and Second Vice President Jeremy Pace.     

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SCHENECTADY
Man wrongfully imprisoned sues
City, 3 officers are defendants
BY STEVEN COOK Gazette Reporter

    A Bronx man who spent two years in state prison on a conviction based on an improper search is suing the city, seeking $20 million in damages.
    Rafael Solano, 25, filed suit this week in U.S. District Court in Albany claiming unreasonable search and seizure, false arrest and malicious prosecution.
    Solano was convicted in 2006 of possessing crack cocaine. But he challenged that, arguing that the drugs were improperly seized. The Appellate Divison of the state Supreme Court in December agreed, throwing out the evidence and paving the way for Solano’s release.
The federal suit references the ruling.
“Based upon the misconduct of the defendants, [Solano] was arrested and illegally imprisoned without reasonable suspicion or probable cause,” the suit reads. Solano is represented by attorney Warren Redlich. He could not be reached for comment Friday.
Named as defendants are the city, along with officers Eric Hesch, Sean Clifford and Steven Sheldon.
    City Corporation Counsel L. John Van Norden said Friday the city had yet to be served with the suit. He expected it to be defended.
    Solano was arrested Nov. 14, 2005, after officers said they found two pieces of crack cocaine in a pat-down search, according to the Appellate Division ruling.
    Hesch initiated the stop after spotting a man he said he knew as a drug abuser driving on Eastern Avenue. He spoke with the man briefly, when the man was honked at by the driver of another car. The man then followed the car around a corner.
    Hesch found the two cars a short time later, pulling his patrol car close to the first car.
    They ultimately found the alleged drug abuser in the back seat, with Solano in the front passenger seat. Solano, who was on parole, was ultimately arrested by a parole officer, officials said.
    The court ruled that Hesch seized Solano when he parked the patrol car and, at that point, did not have enough cause to do so.
    “At that time, Hesch had ob- served no criminal activity of any kind,” the Appellate Division ruled then, adding later, “the conduct which he observed is susceptible of innocent interpretation.”
    Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney said in December he disagreed with the court’s findings, saying he believed the court did not consider that the officer saw the initial car change directions and that the two cars were found illegally parked.
    Carney said then they could ask the Court of Appeals to consider the case, but said that would be a long shot. It was unclear Friday if that was tried.
    The suit seeks $5 million each on four claims, unreasonable stop and seizure, unreasonable search and seizure, false arrest and imprisonment and malicious prosecution.

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Schenectady adds assistant police chief

By PAUL NELSON, Staff writer
Last updated: 6:08 p.m., Monday, October 20, 2008

SCHENECTADY -- Brian Kilcullen, most recently the department's public information officer, has been promoted to assistant police chief, according to information released today by the mayors office. He joins Michael Seber and Jack Falvo Jr. as the other assistant police chiefs in the 166-member department.Kilcullen will take over as commander of the investigative services bureau, which includes the detective division, youth aid division, vice squad and crime scene technicians.
     
The detective division has recently taken a hit because of a missing drugs scandal and accusations that investigators were working out and eating dinner while on the clock. "I'm looking forward to being part of the management team with Commissioner Wayne Bennett and Chief Mark Chaires and moving the department forward," Kilcullen, 44, said in a phone interview. The Schenectady native will make about $89,000 a year. The assistant police chief post became vacant when Chaires was elevated to police chief last month.Kilcullen joined the department in February 1994, was promoted to sergeant in December 1998, and lieutenant in April 2001. Falvo and Seber will see lateral changes in their assignments. Seber will take over the patrol division while Falvo will take over as commander of the administrative services bureau. The changes take effect immediately.

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SCHENECTADY
Smoother contract talks goal of mayor
City attorney blames disorganized effort
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

    A lack of leadership left the city floundering during the last police contract negotiations, city offi cials said, blaming themselves for the recent arbitration that forced them to hand out pricey raises and get no concessions in return.
    Police officers got retroactive raises for 2006 and 2007 — 4 percent each year — but no long-term deal. Now both sides are preparing to restart negotiations.
    Mayor Brian U. Stratton said he will push for the same concessions he tried and failed to get last time. But this time will be different, he vowed.
    “Listen, the old adage is, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again,” he said. “I wouldn’t characterize it as a ‘disorganization’ but we can certainly learn from it.”
    The city’s own attorney was so Share your unhappy with the city’s performance thoughts on that he wrote an opinion agreeing this story at with the arbitrator’s decision last www.daily  month. In it, Corporation Counsel gazette.com  L. John Van Norden criticized the city for being disorganized and said the city could have gotten some concessions from the police.
    “There were areas of mutual agreement,” Van Norden said later. “We didn’t know what was important. When it got to court it had not jelled. It just didn’t seem organized.”
    Everyone involved in the negotiations blamed a different person for the disorganization. Van Norden said the negotiations fell apart when police Chief Michael N. Geraci Sr. left, although that was after the union had declared that the two sides were at an impasse in October 2007. Stratton implied that the city’s labor counsel, Michael Smith, was ineffective. Smith said the union leaders were deliberately obtuse, while union President Robert Hamilton said the city was so disorganized that he never knew what Smith was trying to negotiate.
    But they all agreed that there were heated arguments among the city negotiators, particularly over how to prioritize the various concessions on Stratton’s list.
    “There were some differing opinions on certain issues — whether certain things would be productive,” Van Norden said. “The problem was Geraci left. There were three [assistant] chiefs, all equally ranked … they all had different concepts about what was needed. It’s a little bit like shooting the general in the middle of the battle.”
    The question now is whether the city can pull together a more effective team for the next round of negotiations, which will start before the end of the year. The two sides may argue through all of next year, Van Norden said.
    Van Norden intends to take the lead attorney role, although he has little experience in labor contract negotiations. He said he decided to take over when he watched the city’s argument fall apart during the arbitration hearings.
    Smith was arguing that the city needed to eliminate all compensatory time off, which officers can currently take instead of paid overtime. Many officers use their comp time to take days off on Fridays and Saturdays, leaving the city short-staffed at times when crime surges.
    The union’s argument, Smith said, was that the city isn’t enforcing the limits it already has for comp time, and therefore doesn’t need further limits. Smith was ready for that, but instead the union pulled out its ace in the hole, Van Norden said.
    Union leaders produced paperwork showing that police sergeants have routinely allowed patrol officers to take days off when they didn’t have any comp time left in their banks.
    Van Norden said the paperwork undermined the city’s argument.
    “It really threw me through a loop,” Van Norden said. “This in my mind crystallized for me what needed to change. The pivotal issue was comp time. I think you can make a compelling case that comp time needs to be eliminated — but it’s preparation, preparation, preparation. That needs to be put together as a compelling presentation. If I have to micromanage it, that’s what’s going to happen.”
    Stratton also wants a better legal team. He fired Smith after the arbitration award was announced in September.
    “We’re going to get the most effective, competent and timely labor counsel,” Stratton said after canceling the contract with Smith. “There are law firms that are very expert in police negotiations and turning things around and that’s what we’ll look for.”
    A “very expert” law fi rm may cost a significant amount of money, but the budget for outside counsel has been cut substantially in the mayor’s proposed 2009 budget. The spending plan reduces outside counsel costs by $78,000 so that Van Norden can instead hire a second assistant corporation counsel. He told the City Council that he could handle most labor issues in-house if he had a second assistant.
    There is still $140,000 left for outside counsel, but much of that is intended for attorneys specializing in tax appeals.
    Van Norden said he might use an outside law firm as his adviser during negotiations, which would cut down on the cost.
    He said he believes the city will be able to limit — or eliminate — comp time during this round of negotiations. But both Van Norden and Hamilton predicted the negotiations would quickly head straight back to arbitration.
    And that, Smith said, is exactly what his long-term plan had been all along.
    He said the city’s arguments were not disorganized and that he was not to blame for the arbitrator’s decision.
    “I made it clear this would be a process that would take a series of negotiations and frankly I projected a series of interest arbitrations,” he said.
    He said Hamilton might have viewed the negotiations as disorganized because the city was willing to discuss a range of concepts aimed at putting more officers on the street.
    “We pursued a number of avenues. The union’s response was to put a price on these. The union thought because we were allowing open discussion on an item, that we were interested,” Smith said, citing 12-hour work days as one example. The union agreed to the idea — if the city added another $800,000 to the police raises.
    “We had interest in the topic but not at that price,” Smith said.

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EDITORIAL
Get together on cops, and get it right

    Someone apparently needs to tell Schenectady Mayor Brian Stratton and Corporation Counsel L. John Van Norden that if they’re ever going to negotiate any changes in the notoriously generous contract with the police union that they’ve got to get on the same page. No, not Stratton, Van Norden and the cops; Stratton and Van Norden.
    As Friday’s Gazette story made abundantly clear, the mayor and members of the city’s negotiating team — which included a costly outside counsel — were at odds with one another during the last go-round. That ended up with the cops declaring an impasse last October, and an arbitrator siding with them to the tune of 8-plus percent over two years, and no concessions.
    So obvious — and serious — a failing was this from the city’s perspective that when the arbitrator’s ruling was released, Van Norden took the unusual step of issuing an opinion that concurred with it! He didn’t blame himself or the mayor or the outside counsel, but the conveniently departed former police chief, Michael Geraci Sr. Except Geraci left after the impasse was declared.
    Back to the present tense, the situation doesn’t appear to have changed very much, and negotiations on yet another contract are ready to begin. Stratton fired the outside counsel after the arbitration award was announced in September, then, in preparing next year’s budget, went along with Van Norden’s request to hire a second assistant corporation counsel, so as to handle labor negotiations mostly in-house. (The mayor’s budget proposal reduces all outside counsel costs by $78,000 while providing $90,000 for a new full-time lawyer.)
    But in Friday’s Gazette, Stratton spoke of hiring the “most effective, competent and timely” outside labor counsel to rein in compensatory time, which not only leads to higher overtime costs but padded pension benefits. “There are law firms that are very expert in police negotiations and turning things around, and that’s what we’ll look for,” he told reporter Kathleen Moore. We thought that’s what the last labor attorney was supposed to do.
    So is the financially pinched city going to spend $90,000 more for an additional lawyer and a bundle more for an outside labor counsel? And if it does, will it allow the outside counsel to do its job? Or will the effort get derailed, leaving the cops richer, taxpayers poorer and the mayor pledging to “try, try again”?

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Reinforcements welcome
Marv Cermak

A most unusual sight of Sheriff's Department patrol vehicles hanging out at Schenectady High got the best of my curiosity.

Come to find out, city police asked the sheriff for assistance in case crowd control after the Halloween night football game against Niskayuna High became problematic. As it turned out, there were no incidents.

Anyway, it was nice to learn city and county police agencies are working together. Many can no doubt recall several years ago, city police were tailgating Sheriff Harry Buffardi. City police union leaders were upset because they believed there would be an overtime pay reduction if sheriff's deputies spent part of their shift helping patrol the city.

In fact, there are often not enough cops available to fill shifts and a surplus of available overtime. A city cop told me privately on a recent weekend night there were only five officers on the streets.

If politicians can duplicate the new police cooperation perhaps the forever in limbo countywide centralized dispatch/booking project can finally happen.

When Brian Stratton first ran for mayor five years ago, he promised to deliver the cost-cutting system. The proposal is still in the starting gate.

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Update: Schenectady cop arrested again

By PAUL NELSON, Staff writer
Last updated: 3:42 p.m., Monday, November 10, 2008

A Schenectady cop acquitted earlier this year of harassing his ex-wife has been arrested again, this time for allegedly stalking and threatening to kill the woman and "whoever she was with."
     
Officer John Lewis is charged with third-degree stalking and second-degree aggravated harassment for allegedly threatening Alison Lewis in person and on the telephone. He has been suspended from his job, the city announced this afternoon.

According to a complaint filed in City Court, Lewis told his wife he would: "kill whoever she was with and kill her."

He told his wife "he was never going to let her go and that he was never going to let her be with anyone else," court papers say.

It is the latest controversy for the 39-year-old cop. Several years ago, he was briefly fired from the police department for using a racially charged term at the station, but an arbitrator reversed his termination.

Earlier this year, Lewis was charged with harassment for allegedly pushing his wife, but a City Court jury acquitted him.

The jury rendered its verdict on June 23, rejecting prosecutors' claims that Lewis got into a physical altercation with his then estranged wife over custody of their 3-year-old son.

Lewis, a 14-year veteran, was tried in front of City Court Judge Guido Loyola on a single count of harassment, a violation. Police said Lewis grabbed and pushed his wife on April 29 after she tried to prevent him from leaving their Plymouth Avenue home with their son.

His wife testified under subpoena that she was concerned when Lewis took their son without shoes or a coat on a cold day. The couple were going through a divorce, and she said Lewis, who was not living at the home, was angry that she had changed the locks.

But the jury sided with Lewis who was suspended after that arrest, but returned to work.

It is unclear if he has been suspended in the wake of the current charge.

Court papers alleged several instances of contact with his estranged wife:

• On Nov. 7, he visited her home and repeatedly rang the doorbell, demanding to know who she was with.

• Three days earlier, he told the woman he knew about personal things in her e-mail.

• On Aug. 13, he told her he was going to go to her new boyfriend's home.