Sgt. Alli officially quits YPD

The former cop said he'll buy his police department gun for 1.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Rick Alli's resignation letter to the city police department arrived nearly four months too late. Had Alli resigned in early January, he'd still be Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann's chief of law enforcement operations in Columbus making 118,000 annually. Alli accepted the "top cop" job but stayed on the YPD payroll to string out his vacation and accumulated time.
Having Alli on the YPD payroll as a detective sergeant after he left to work for Dann ended badly for all involved late last week. Dann, once he confirmed Alli was drawing two checks, fired him and asked the Ohio Ethics Commission to investigate.
Jennifer Labatte, civil service commission administrator, said Alli's resignation letter arrived in her office midafternoon Tuesday. The letter will be put in Alli's personnel file and copies sent to the finance and risk departments, she said.
Quotable
Alli's typed letter to Police Chief Jimmy Hughes, which is dated April 21, says:
"This letter is to reaffirm my resignation from my position as an officer of the Youngstown Police Department effective April 24, 2007 contrary to May 1, 2007 as previously noted. My resignation is being submitted to pursue my retirement as announced January 2, 2007. This letter shall replace any and all correspondences or utterances previously submitted prior to April 21, 2007. I will return any outstanding equipment or departmental property as soon as possible or make restitution for same. Please note that I will be exercising my option as outlined in the prevailing labor agreement to purchase my duty sidearm at the agreed one dollar ... "
Alli, 52, could not be reached.
Alli's resignation takes a load off those who would have had to deal with the prospect of his trying to reclaim his job at YPD.
Law Director Iris Torres Guglucello said Alli would have been put on administrative leave pending a review of whether the city had grounds to terminate him. The possibility of a criminal charge is part of the ongoing investigation, she said.
Guglucello said it was easy for Dann to fire Alli, who worked as a nonclassified employee for the AG. Because Alli remained on the YPD payroll, his union dues were deducted and he remained a union member.
Changes wanted
Capt. Dave Williams, staff supervisor, said Tuesday that the way the department handles payouts to employees leaving to take another public job has to change.
"I didn't give it a second thought; it was a normal retirement," Williams said of the way Alli has collected vacation and accumulated time since early January. "What happened was past practice. I think this is the first time the practice has ever been questioned."
Williams kept track of Alli's accumulated time. The captain said some officers take a lump sum when they resign/retire but most string out their pay. He said it "behooves retirees to run it out" because of the health coverage.
In hindsight, Williams said that if officers leave for another public job, as Alli did, there should be safeguards to avoid the appearance of impropriety. The law department, Williams said, is going to have to say that those going to another public job cannot stay on the payroll here.
Guglucello agreed with Williams that steps must be taken to prevent another situation like Alli's.
"Yes, definitely, changes are coming ... We need to try to establish policy and safeguards," she said. "If the ethics commission says this is a definite 'no-no,' we should have steps in place; and if they don't find [wrongdoing], we still have to look to prevent this. We don't want to pay taxpayers' dollars for health insurance and retirement for three months to someone not working."
Mayor Jay Williams has said city policies and procedures are being reviewed as part of the Alli investigation.
State law prohibits a person from receiving paychecks from two public-sector jobs at the same time, according to the ethics commission. Also, a public employee cannot have a private relationship with a party connected in some fashion with his own public employer.
Severance
Alli, former YPD public information officer, had 31 years with the department. He still has a severance package coming from the city.
Laura Brown, YPD project analyst, oversees severance packages. She said Alli will receive prorated longevity pay from September 2006 to now and a percentage of unused sick leave. He also will get prorated hazardous duty pay from January until his resignation date.
"If [police] get a raise in the new contract, we will pay him retroactive," Brown said. By staying on the payroll, he earned vacation and sick pay, she said.
Brown said that once the severance package is calculated it will be signed by Detective William Blanchard, fiscal officer, and Chief Hughes. The paperwork then goes to the board of control for approval.
Guglucello said the severance check will be held up until the investigation is complete.
The YPD Internal Affairs Division said this week that Alli didn't turn in any of his police-issued equipment -- gun, handcuffs, ID and so forth -- when he left to take the job with Dann in Columbus.
Taken by police
Blanchard collected Alli's city computer, and Alli's YPD car was taken by police from his driveway two to three weeks after he left for Columbus.
Calls to Alli's YPD cell phone on Monday and again on Tuesday showed the service was still active and still carried the greeting he placed on it as YPD public information officer. Hughes said Monday he was in the process of reassigning the phone but declined to say when it was returned.
Last week, Dann said he presumed Alli had taken a lump-sum payment from YPD when he joined the AG staff.
"He definitively and affirmatively, before we hired him, told us that he had resigned," Dann said on Friday. "The fact is, what he did was not what he told us he did, and that's an issue of trust. If I can't trust the person I have in charge of law enforcement operations, then I'm not going to have that person."