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SCHENECTADY
City to ask cops to use fewer take-home cars
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Kathleen Moore at 395-3120 or moore@dailygazette.com.

    City officials will negotiate with police officers in hopes of getting some of them to voluntarily give up the city car they take home every night.
    The city currently pays the commuting costs for eight offi cers who don’t regularly use their car for city business after they head home from work. Four K-9 officers and four evidence technicians get to bring their cars home in case they get called in for an emergency overnight. Two officers are on call each night, but the others are occasionally called in too.
    Some officers live nearby, but some live more than 20 miles away and the cost of fuel and maintenance is adding up.
    City employees also racked up 98 fender-benders and other accidents last year, leading the city’s insurance company to hike the rate by $1.5 million. The fi nance commissioner quickly negotiated a deal in which the city will essentially pay for all accident-related damage this year instead of paying the rate increase.
    But that’s still a staggering cost increase. City Council members decided the best way to cut back on accidents, and on costs, would be to put an end to most commuting with city vehicles.
    After months of discussion the mayor recently issued an executive order limiting vehicle usage.
    City Council members had questioned why any officer, even those on call, had to have a city car. Some members proposed that everyone drive their personal vehicle, as many workers in the private sector do, and charge the city for mileage when they’re called in.
    Other council members said that, at the very most, only the offi cers officially on call should drive a city vehicle home.
    But the mayor’s policy does not set any such restrictions. It allows Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett to decide which officers get to take a car home.
SEEK TO COMPROMISE
    Bennett said he can’t simply tell officers that they have to drive their personal vehicle home. The police union would fight it, he said.
    “They will argue past practice. I am also of the opinion they will win,” he said. “Knowing that, perhaps we should try to come to a compromise.”
    Bennett and Chief Mark Chaires are trying to develop a policy that the officers might accept.
    “We have to ascertain how many evidence techs are needed,” Bennett said. “On any likely night — is one sufficient on most nights? Probably. But we know for a homicide? We want to be careful how we do this.”
    Officers’ home addresses may also be taken into consideration. One of the evidence technicians lives in the city — but his commute to the police station is longer than that of another technician who lives just outside the city, Bennett said.
    “The chief and I are still in discussion with the best way to implement this and the fairest way,” he said.
    He hopes to have a compromise in two weeks.
    The new policy says that only managers and employees who are on call can drive a vehicle home. But that’s exactly who was driving home vehicles before the City Council began to investigate the issue. The policy does not reduce the number of city-vehicle commuters.
    The policy does make one change: Only the mayor can authorize managers to drive cars home. Bennett and Commissioner of General Services Carl Olsen can decide which on-call employees drive a vehicle home.
    Department heads can authorize emergency take-home privileges, which must be limited to one day. They can also authorize up to fi ve days of take-home privileges for temporary assignments. ...........................>>>>..................................>>>>..................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01501&AppName=1

Oh pretty please Mr Union Rep .. with sugar on top?

More than 20 miles away? Ya mean like commuting from Lake Luzerne? lol Your City DEM morons at work. You wanted implosion you gots implosion. Brucker and McMayor need to think about it more. Right into bankruptcy. At least Nero fiddled.

Asking them if they will accept it?  Read everything Moore writes witha grain of salt.  

There are two sworn personnel who get take home cars -  - you cannot transport the animal in a civilian car, just doesn't make sense.  And, the ETs -  
they get aclled in more than anyone.  They keep their gear in the cars.

RE: Command Staff - You will probably see some reductions there.  

Quoted from visitor

There are two sworn personnel who get take home cars -  - you cannot transport the animal in a civilian car, just doesn't make sense.  

You're right on this one Visitor, I mean, when these sworn personnel have to go to Price Chopper on their way home to Warren County, who's going to watch their animals for them?

Maybe they can get a dog sitter paid for with the taxpayer money.

They have an K9 officer who lives in Warren County?

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City to ask cops to use fewer take-home cars

The city has to ASK???
Don't they KNOW???

Quoted from rachel72

You're right on this one Visitor, I mean, when these sworn personnel have to go to Price Chopper on their way home to Warren County, who's going to watch their animals for them?

Maybe they can get a dog sitter paid for with the taxpayer money.

Sorry....Saratoga, Albany, Warren....they certainly do not live in Schenectady County.

Why would you doubt that a member of the K9 division would use their PERSONAL vehicle to transport their K9's? Guess in the Union, they don't like thinking outside the box...

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City Council members had questioned why any officer, even those on call, had to have a city car.

Some members proposed that everyone drive their personal vehicle, as many workers in the private sector do, and charge the city for mileage when they’re called in.

Other council members said that, at the very most, only the offi cers officially on call should drive a city vehicle home.

But the mayor’s policy does not set any such restrictions.

Typical DEM BS.   Dems REFUSE to make employees live IN the city (and pay the taxes that those who pay their lavish salaries do).

THANK GOD for Vince Riggi -- the ONE SOLE LONE TRUE REPRESENTATIVE of the homeowner taxpayers and residents of the city since he raised the question and has forced some change.  

Of course, the DEM leaders are pawns of the greedy union.

And the city will fall further and further into deeper financial doo-doo.  


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Quoted from mikechristine1

Typical DEM BS.   Dems REFUSE to make employees live IN the city (and pay the taxes that those who pay their lavish salaries do).

THANK GOD for Vince Riggi -- the ONE SOLE LONE TRUE REPRESENTATIVE of the homeowner taxpayers and residents of the city since he raised the question and has forced some change. Of course, the DEM leaders are pawns of the greedy union.And the city will fall further and further into deeper financial doo-doo. .

EXACTLY! The hypocrisy of the DEM morons has no bounds. Residency for City employees is the law. Enforce it or get out.  Even the police chief lives in Scotia. But according to the joke Gazetto "he is a life long City resident". The City needs more animal control officers who must reside in the City or fire them. McMayor is a total fraud on this issue like every other issue. He must be removed immediately by Gov Cuomo. Vince Riggi is too good for the City. He should run for the open Assembly seat and get the heck out.

In the NYPD, if they find out you've been living any place other than the 5 boroughs, they send you packing.
Fast.
No negotiation.