Weathersfield police chief to run against Sheriff Altiere

Sheriff Thomas Altiere has rescinded high pay increases that he gave out by mistake.

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

WARREN — Joseph P. Consiglio, 63, Weathersfield’s police chief since 2002, is making his third try to be elected Trumbull County Sheriff.

He got 47 percent of the vote to incumbent Thomas Altiere’s 53 percent in the March 2004 Democratic primary. He also lost to former Sheriff Richard Jakmas in the 1980s.

Consiglio criticizes Altiere for giving pay raises of up to $8.71 per hour over 39 months to six Sheriff’s Office managers early last year and hazardous duty pay of about $1,000 per year to his personnel director, Leslie Stredney. Altiere later reduced the pay raises to less than $2 per hour.

Altiere said the pay-raise issue was a misunderstanding resulting from his having knee surgery on a Friday and asking Stredney to give his managers the “same pay raise” as union personnel on the Thursday before that. However, doing that resulted in larger pay raises than he anticipated. When he came back to work the following Wednesday, he adjusted the raises down, Altiere said.

“If I wouldn’t have taken them back, that would have been an issue,” Altiere said.

He added that the hazardous duty pay he gave to Stredney and others a short time later is warranted because Stredney spends at least some part of every work day in the jail, sometimes to notarize documents for inmates, sometimes to discuss time sheets for employees, Altiere said.

Consiglio says he believes hiring mistakes have been made at the sheriff’s office under Altiere because he does not give prospective employees psychological or lie-detector tests.

Consiglio cited the case of a former jailer now charged with bribery and illegal conveyance of a cell phone into a detention facility. Phyllis A. DiTunno, 50, of Girard, resigned her position after being questioned about how a cell phone and the prescription medication Xanax got into an inmate’s cell in October 2006.

Altiere said the extensive background checks that are done are the best method of checking a person’s qualifications.

“You can go through all the polygraph [lie detection] tests, and there’s still going to be people coming in who have problems,” Altiere said.

Consiglio agrees with Altiere that additional road deputies are needed. In Altiere’s latest budget proposal, he seeks three more.

As for the future, Altiere, 58, of Howland, says county commissioners have a proposal before them to purchase the most modern type of ankle bracelets available. They will allow offenders to serve jail time at home, which will save the county the $67.50-per-day cost of housing an inmate in the county jail, Altiere said.

runyan@vindy.com