Better planning cut OT for extra police patrols

Overtime through eight months is roughly the same as for all of 2006.

By PATRICIA MEADE

VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER

YOUNGSTOWN — Lessons were learned after the first round of “zero tolerance” patrols cost roughly $260,000 for police overtime, the mayor says.

The Youngstown Police Department’s Special Interdiction Patrols were set in motion by Mayor Jay Williams after a quadruple homicide on the South Side.

The patrols operated for most of February and a few days in March and April. The extra patrols made traffic stops a priority as a way to make it too hot for drivers carrying guns and drugs.

The patrols were on again for six days in July and four days in August.

The quadruple homicide remains under investigation.

Williams called the $267,000 spent for the first round of patrols the “cost of doing business.”

He said for the second summer round, for which there was more time to prepare, a better scheduling plan emerged to reduce overtime.

Aside from about $1,300 paid out for the summer overtime, most of the project’s hours worked in July and August, around 500, were not paid in cash. These were banked to be used as days off later on or saved for retirement, records show. The amount to be paid later depends on officers’ hourly rates.

Williams said there were a few “kinks” in the first SIP round and lessons learned in getting as many officers on the streets as possible.

Revamping schedules to avoid overtime and striking a balance between paid overtime and accumulated hours to be used later are among the lessons learned, he said.

He said he’s aware that certain officers involved in scheduling and participating in the patrols, such as Capt. Mike Vodilko and Detective Sgt. Doug Bobovnyik, worked more overtime than any other officers.

Vodilko was paid more than $13,000 in overtime and Bobovnyik more than $9,000, records show.

In all, 10 officers were paid more than $5,000, with Vodilko and Bobovnyik being the top two earners.

For the second summer round, Vodilko banked 64 overtime hours. The top earner for accumulated time was Patrolman Dave Wilson, with 165 hours, records show.

Williams said feedback from citizens was “99 percent positive.” He also received positive feedback from officers and supervisors who participated in SIP.

“It seemed like a general calm came over the city,” said Capt. Kenneth Centorame, chief of detectives.

“The four murders ratcheted up hysteria and [the patrols] had a calming effect,” he said. “ ... I think it was needed at the time, needed to be tried and I thought it was a good program, very worthwhile.”

Centorame used the analogy of a shaken bottle of soda that bubbles over when uncapped. The extra patrols, he said, allowed the “shaken” community to settle down.

Centorame said getting Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers to participate in SIP was unprecedented and greatly appreciated.

Lt. Chris Heverly, commander of the patrol post in Canfield, said troopers’ overtime was minimal. Troopers were scheduled for 10-hour shifts in the city, the first eight being their regular shift, he said.

Councilman Paul Pancoe, D-6th, didn’t like the idea that the extra patrols were announced in newspapers and on TV news. More criminals would be caught if not given a warning, he said.

The mayor said if more saturation patrols are scheduled before the end of the year, they likely won’t be announced.

Pancoe freely acknowledged that his South Side ward — which runs from the Market Street bridge south to Midlothian Boulevard and Erie Street west to Hudson Avenue — is the most crime-ridden in the city. He said many of the extra patrols operated on the South Side “and I thank them for that.”

The councilman said he’d like to see increased police presence again. Of the overtime dollars spent, Pancoe said: “Overtime’s a killer in the safety forces but necessary until they fill the jail.”

Police overtime through eight months of the year is neck-and-neck with what officers were paid for all of 2006.

Kyle Miasek, deputy finance director, said $1.02 million has been paid out in police officers’ overtime through August, with another $26,000 paid to other YPD employees. Of the $1.02 million, $144,000 will be reimbursed through grants or law enforcement partners, he said.

Miasek expects the total police overtime for this year to hit $1.4 million.

He said his department steered an extra $150,000 to the original overtime category budget of $1.3 million to meet the needs of the special patrols.

For 2006, YPD spent $1,023,488 for overtime. Of that, $178,000 was reimbursed through grants or law enforcement partners, Miasek said.

meade@vindy.com