Warren to rehire 2 officers

July 16, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

By ED RUNYAN

WARREN

City council has approved the transfer of $52,900 for salaries and $38,800 for benefits so that the Warren Police Department can rehire two laid-off police officers — possibly by the end of the month.

Mayor Michael O’Brien said an uptick in burglaries in recent weeks is most likely the result of poor economic conditions in the county and a further indication of why additional officers are needed.

“I need officers, and I need them now,” Police Chief Tim Bowers said after council’s action.

Adding two more officers will bring the department to 62 plus the chief.

The city laid off 20 officers effective Jan. 1, 2009.

Meanwhile, O’Brien said he appreciates the assistance the city has received lately from federal law- enforcement officers and from a federal Weed and Seed grant, noting that it is “the first time in many years” the city has gotten this type of help.

O’Brien said he believes the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announcement last week that Trumbull County had experienced the most severe job loss among the nation’s 334 largest counties between December 2008 and December 2009 opened a few eyes to the severity of Warren’s economic difficulties, which have led to lower income-tax collections.

“Federal and state officials are starting to take notice of Warren’s challenges,” O’Brien said, adding that Warren was the “poster child of manufacturing-job loss.”

The report said nearly 54 percent of the employment decline occurred in manufacturing, which lost 3,504 jobs over the year.

The $91,700 provided to employ two officers the second half of 2010 came from a fund for the city’s health department that was originally going to be used to pay for rental property inspections and a police department fund that was going to be used for housing of Warren inmates in the Trumbull County jail.

The health department now conducts inspections in-house, and the cost of housing inmates dropped in a recent agreement, officials said.