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Front-runner for police chief emerges
Brian Kilcullen, who joined Schenectady force in 1994, may succeed Mark Chaires
By Paul Nelson
Published 9:08 p.m., Thursday, October 4, 2012

SCHENECTADY — Assistant Police Chief Brian Kilcullen has emerged as the front-runner to succeed retiring Police Chief Mark Chaires even though Mayor Gary McCarthy is remaining silent about his plans to fill the high-profile command post.

Chaires, who has been chief since 2008, told the Times Union on Thursday that he still needs to "clear up a few administrative matters" but has formally notified McCarthy of his departure date.

"My plan is to be gone by Nov. 17," the chief said.

While the mayor Thursday declined to comment about the candidates or selection process, he remained adamant that the next leader of the 145-member force must live in the city.

McCarthy also said that he wants to see what happens during the City Council review of the police budget, which is scheduled for Wednesday, but that gathering could be delayed until Kilcullen returns to work the week after that. As a cost-saving measure, the command staff is expected to be streamlined.

The chief would earn a $132,968 salary under the 2013 budget......................>>>>................>>>>....................Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/loca.....00.php#ixzz28QGM2zle

For sure, IF and that's a BIG IF, this guy is chosen and has to move to the city, that McC WILL use taxpayer money for Kilcullen's move to the city, probably pay all the moving expenses, if the guy his children then pay for them to attend private school, but most notably, a house purchase will be made thru the McC Key program taxpayer subsidized home purchase program.

Then McC will trot around saying "my Key to the city program is successful."   So successful that a sale had to be made to a high level Key Bank employee just to generate a sale!

where is Visitor when you need him to comment?

Mike Christine - You're reaching my friend.  I can assure you that will not happen.

Quoted from visitor

Mike Christine - You're reaching my friend.  I can assure you that will not happen.

What won't happen?   That he won't move INTO the city?

Or that McC won't "bribe" him with one of those "Key" houses just to brag about success of the taxpayer subsidized program?

Either way, nothing against Kilcullen. it's the mayor who will be on the hot seat

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SCHENECTADY
Mayor firm on chief living in city
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

    A police chief who lives outside the city will be a clear message that there’s better places to live, Mayor Gary McCarthy said.
    “The public will notice a difference. [The chief] is saying there’s better real estate outside the city,” McCarthy said. “I’m looking for a community leader.”
    McCarthy noted that there have been reports that he will promote one of the assistant chiefs even if they don’t move here. But he dismissed those reports as inaccurate.
    He added that he will not accept a candidate who simply has a second home in the city. The chief also cannot just rent out an apartment and still commute out of the city to his family’s home.
    “I would look at a strict defi nition of residency,” McCarthy said, adding, “You’re there 99 percent of the time.”
    “You live there, you sleep there, you mow the lawn, your neighbors know the police chief lives there,” he said. “I own property in Hamilton County. I’ve been there twice this year. I doubt they consider me a resident.”
    McCarthy’s priorities will be difficult to enforce. None of the civil service-approved candidates live here. The three assistant chiefs were the only candidates who took a civil service exam for the position.
    None of them have told the mayor that they’re willing to move.
    But McCarthy is still waiting.
    “Whoever I hire will live in the city,” he said. “I get to make the decision. I’m not sure I have to hire someone immediately.”
    If he stands his ground, the city might end up without a top cop when Chief Mark Chaires retires on Saturday, Nov. 17.
    McCarthy said he’s not worried about going chief-less.
    “The garbage is still going to get picked up on Nov. 19. We’re still going to answer police calls. The public will not notice a difference,” he said.
    He added that he won’t make Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett the chief — because he, too, does not live in the city. .........................>>>>......................>>>>.......................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01302&AppName=1

Wonder if McC is getting the hint---that the city is too dangerous to live in and that the taxes are too high.   Perhaps the candidates need to tell the mayor they do not want to be paying for downtown's taxes


But let's see how long this lasts, and we ALL know why the mayor is saying he wants the chief to live IN the city, it's because of the squeaky wheels who talk at the council meetings, they are embarrassing the mayor into it

Mayor says public won't notice a difference because he has a poor grasp of what the Chief's responsibilities are.

He thinks Chief's main job is to stand next to him at press events.  

He's quick to point fingers re: how the police need to do more to raise parking revenues but MIA when it comes to admitting his own role in the City's
financial crisis. police didn't buy parking garage, a 30 million dollar buidling on Van Vranken, etc.  

Quoted from visitor

Mayor says public won't notice a difference because he has a poor grasp of what the Chief's responsibilities are.

He thinks Chief's main job is to stand next to him at press events.  

He's quick to point fingers re: how the police need to do more to raise parking revenues but MIA when it comes to admitting his own role in the City's
financial crisis. police didn't buy parking garage, a 30 million dollar buidling on Van Vranken, etc.  

VERY TRUE.....

those who control the $$ control the masses
those who control the guns control the masses
those who control the information control the masses

united front yet/ divide and conquer

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SCHENECTADY
Assistant chief may be bumped
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Kathleen Moore at 395-3120 or moore@dailygazette.com.


    The police department is looking at a bit of a shuffle in the near future.
    Due to complex bumping rules, Assistant Chief Brian Kilcullen is facing a demotion to lieutenant at the end of the year.
    The proposed 2013 budget eliminates Assistant Chief Jack Falvo’s position. He could choose to step down to lieutenant, but Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett said Falvo will instead move laterally into one of the other assistant chief positions.
    That will push assistant chiefs Michael Seber and Patrick Leguire into new slots. When the game of musical chairs ends, Kilcullen will be left standing.
    Of the four assistant chiefs, Kilcullen has the least seniority. He was actually promoted to assistant chief six months before Leguire, but Leguire has worked for the police department longer, so he gets to stay. Kilcullen has to step down.
    Falvo has indicated he won’t step down, but Leguire or Seber could choose to take the lieutenant’s position. Bennett said they probably won’t.
    “To me it would be unlikely,” he said.
    Falvo and Seber also have more than enough years of service to retire, but neither intends to do so, Bennett said.
    “So presumably the most junior member, Brian Kilcullen, would bump down to lieutenant,” he said.
    The assistant chief position is being eliminated because the city assumed one of the assistant chiefs would be promoted to chief. But the mayor is refusing to promote any of the assistant chiefs to chief because none of them live in the city.
    If McCarthy changes his mind, or if Kilcullen moves to the city, he will still have a chance at the big promotion to chief, even as a lieutenant.
    He passed the Civil Service promotional exam — as did Seber and Leguire — and is on the list of acceptable candidates for the position. To take the exam, he had to be an assistant chief, but Civil Service says he doesn’t have to remain in that position to be promoted.
    “He would still qualify,” Schenectady County spokesman Joseph McQueen said. “If an individual qualifies to take an exam, that does not change.”
    His demotion will result in a salary reduction — but Kilcullen could end up with more money and better benefits than he receives as an assistant chief.
    As a lieutenant, he can get overtime again. And he might get to accumulate unused sick and vacation time again, too, saving up for a big payout.
    When he became assistant chief, he signed a contract agreeing to give up his accumulated sick and vacation time when he retires. In other words, he won’t get paid upon retirement for time off that he didn’t take.
    But that contract was not a union agreement. As an assistant chief, he was not a member of the union.
    As a lieutenant, he will be back in the union again, and Bennett expects disagreements over the details.
    “The union has a responsibility to its members,” he said. “They could ask, ‘Do we have an argument to restore a certain portion of what he gave up?’ ”
    He noted that Kilcullen was offered higher pay in exchange for giving up accumulated leave — but that he will no longer be receiving that pay when he’s demoted.

http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01002&AppName=1

Quoted Text

When he became assistant chief, he signed a contract agreeing to give up his accumulated sick and vacation time when he retires. In other words, he won’t get paid upon retirement for time off that he didn’t take.
    But that contract was not a union agreement. As an assistant chief, he was not a member of the union.
    As a lieutenant, he will be back in the union again, and Bennett expects disagreements over the details.
    “The union has a responsibility to its members,” he said. “They could ask, ‘Do we have an argument to restore a certain portion of what he gave up?’ ”
    He noted that Kilcullen was offered higher pay in exchange for giving up accumulated leave — but that he will no longer be receiving that pay when he’s demoted.

As there IS  a contract that I assume is a legal and binding there is NO way any portion should be given back.

Quoted from rpforpres

As there IS  a contract that I assume is a legal and binding there is NO way any portion should be given back.

The "contract" was the conditions of employment in the assistant chief position   That conditions of the "contract" do not apply to rank and file workers.   It may not seem right to many, and we intelligent and hard working taxpayers probably don't agree with the lavish benefits given to public sector union represented employees, but this is something that most often is done in private sector as well when one attains a management level position with a different set of employment conditions.  If for any reason that management level person goes back down to be "one of the average workers" they will gain back anything they lost.

There is a "contract" for regular workers (rank and file) which spells out the pay and work conditions for those workers
There is a "contract" for management level which spells out the pay and work conditions for those level.  

The provisions of one contract do not apply to others.   If you rent and apartment in Complex A owned by Smith Co and have a lease (contract) that does not allow pets and a year later you move to an apartment in Complex B also owned by Smith Co for which the lease (contract) for that complex allows pets, but then after another year you move back to the an apartment in Complex A, the provisions of the lease (contract) of for the apartment complex that allow pets no longer apply.


I guess another way of explaining it, is should Kilcullen, upon being "demoted" to a lieutenant position continue with the higher "regular" pay of the assistant chief position?   If so, I would think he would turn down any overtime offered because he wouldn't gain anything by it.

The problem is that the city gives in to much too lavish of a union contract for regular workers.   Overtime however, if I'm correct, is not a union contract provision, rather it is a state law applied to private sector and public sector; and while there is a point, a level at which employees would not get overtime, I'm not sure if the law specifically defines that level; for example if the law was written "managerial staff don't get overtime," many employers loosely refer to someone as a manger, "You are in charge....when the manager is not here" or merely a supervisor of other employees, but does that meet a definition of "managerial staff" as the law might interpret.


Unrelated to the police staffing specifically, I don't like the how the city does layoffs as far as, what it seems happens, is mayor says "I'm going to eliminate two positions of Senior Helper" but instead of the people in those positions (assuming seniority) being demoted to two Entry Helper positions and the two people in the Entry Helper positions go out the door, what actually seems to be happening is that the employees in the two positions of Senior Helper merely move into two vacant Senior Helper positions, thus no one goes out the door which does not result in any savings.


Just glad I'm not in the city paying those outrageous taxes.   It's bad enough having to foot the county's portion of the tax exemptions on downtown, and it's bad enough my tax dollars go to pay Philip Morris' lavish salary.  

A few facts - the ACs do not work under a  contract.  Rather, it is a benefit package.

AC Kilcullen was hired under the Unlimited Sick Leave clause.  That is, as  bargaining unit member he was under this clause which did not afford members an opportunity to cash in sick leave.  If he did get bumped back, he would probably return to the Unlimited Sick Leave (based on date of hire), so he would not have the buyout.

The bulk of the officers (anyone hired after 1997) have earned sick leave, they can cash in a very limited amount of sick leave.

What the article did not address was that if AC Kilcullen's bumping will have a domino effect, in that, he would bump a lieutenant back to the rank of
sergeant, who in turn, would bump a sergeant back to a patrol officer rank.

Bottom line,  two tests were offered, Promotional and Open Competitive, the latter was the only one containing a residency requirement.  The rules were set, when the Mayor did not like results, he changed the rules.

And, keep in mind, he swore in Chief Della Rocco ( a good man) who is not a  city resident, and  trien to maneuver so the Commisioner or Sheriff
Dagastinio could sreve as Chief, who are also not city residents.    

Quoted from visitor

A few facts - the ACs do not work under a  contract.  Rather, it is a benefit package.

AC Kilcullen was hired under the Unlimited Sick Leave clause.  That is, as  bargaining unit member he was under this clause which did not afford members an opportunity to cash in sick leave.  If he did get bumped back, he would probably return to the Unlimited Sick Leave (based on date of hire), so he would not have the buyout.

The bulk of the officers (anyone hired after 1997) have earned sick leave, they can cash in a very limited amount of sick leave.

What the article did not address was that if AC Kilcullen's bumping will have a domino effect, in that, he would bump a lieutenant back to the rank of
sergeant, who in turn, would bump a sergeant back to a patrol officer rank.

Bottom line,  two tests were offered, Promotional and Open Competitive, the latter was the only one containing a residency requirement.  The rules were set, when the Mayor did not like results, he changed the rules.

And, keep in mind, he swore in Chief Della Rocco ( a good man) who is not a  city resident, and  trien to maneuver so the Commisioner or Sheriff
Dagastinio could sreve as Chief, who are also not city residents.    

In not sure what is worse Unlimited Sickleave (Without any test for resonability) which results in Overtime of others and the member collecting pay for a bump on their knee or the earned Sickleave which is earned at an alarminly quick rate an then is paid out lavishly.  Its a double edged sword and is similar only to executives in the largest of companies.

they want to make sure Hamilton's run law enforcement for the quid pro quo of the copservative endorsements