Making changes to control costs

All Boardman Township departments must find ways to cut costs, one trustee said.

By Denise Dick

BOARDMAN — Down from 63 officers just a few years ago to 47, the acting police chief is making changes to control costs and bolster efficiency in the now-smaller department.

“We’re pulling officers out of investigations” to meet minimum manning requirements and avoid overtime, said Jack Nichols, acting police chief.

Nichols, a 31-year department veteran, became acting chief when Patrick Berarducci resigned last month to take the Medina police chief job.

Three people were moved from the detective division and placed in the patrol division, one for each turn, to accomplish the goal.

The department’s newest officer, hired last April, has been training and riding with other officers but will be ready in a couple of weeks to be on his own, allowing another officer on the road.

The changes being implemented over the next few weeks will mean two sergeants and eight patrolmen will be on each patrol turn. Four additional patrolmen will be used to float among the turns.

This leaves three sergeants and three patrolmen in the detective division.

Nichols believes the changes are necessary, but they aren’t ideal.

“Every move you make comes at a cost to our operations somewhere else,” he said.

For the last several years, the department has had two officers each — a sergeant and a patrolman — assigned to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force and the U.S. Marshal’s Task Force. The patrol officers assigned to each of those task forces are among the officers going back to the road.

The task-force arrangements proved productive for the department. Most of the crime in the township is driven by drug activity, Nichols said. One fewer officer may reduce that productivity.

More manpower intensive investigations, such as those involving embezzlement, also may not get the attention they need.

The department’s participation in the Mahoning County Operating a Vehicle While Impaired Task Force is canceled as part of the changes.

One of the sergeants now assigned to patrol formerly worked as the school resource officer, working in the township schools. Those duties will now be handled by a patrol officer who formerly worked as a detective.

One of the department’s three lieutenants will oversee the patrol division and also may be required to fill in on a shift on the road.

Another lieutenant will oversee detectives but also be responsible for evidence. The third will be over dispatch, records and support services.

Also to save money, Nichols ordered parked 10 old cruisers that formerly had been driven home by officers.

That will save some money in the short term on gas and repair costs, he said.

The cars will be sold at auction.

While voters last November passed a 2.2-mill police-and-fire levy expected to generate about $2 million annually and allow the hiring of new police officers and the recall of laid-off firefighters, the poor economy means revenue isn’t coming in as anticipated, officials have said.

With the township’s financial situation, all departments have to find ways to save costs and limit overtime, said Larry Moliterno, trustees chairman.

The township is awaiting completion of a fiscal analysis by the state auditor’s office that will determine if it’s in fiscal watch or fiscal emergency status.

“We have to try to figure out ways to stretch our dollars as much as we can,” Moliterno said.

That may require restructuring throughout township departments.

“Revenue is well down from what we anticipated because of the economy,” Moliterno said.

Nichols also decided that officers should return to photographing and fingerprinting people who are arrested at the station before transporting them to the Mahoning County jail.

Berarducci had changed the long-running practice, opting to have arrested individuals booked at the jail by sheriff’s deputies in an effort to save officers’ time.

Nichols believes it’s more efficient to return to township officers doing that work.

denise_dick@vindy.com