By Susan C. Moeller
Senior Reporter

RUTHERFORD (July 30, 2009, 10 a.m.) — The Rutherford Police Department is being scrutinized by the borough council for possible budget cuts. All of the officers were notified that their jobs would be discussed at a special meeting Wednesday, July 29. That meeting was canceled.

As it stands, borough code requires that the police department be staffed with 43 officers. It also delineates how many of those officers should hold specific ranks. But, Councilman John Genovesi introduced an ordinance Tuesday, July 28, that would eliminate the minimum officer requirement for the department as a whole and the higher ranks individually.

Instead, the composition of the police department would be composed of “officers as shall be deemed necessary from time to time by the mayor and council,” according to the proposal.

Finances are driving the decision.

The size of each department, including police, must be based on the residents’ ability to pay, Genovesi said in a phone interview. “I feel that I have to take a hard line approach … because these are hard line kinds of times,” Genovesi continued. “We have to afford ourselves the ability to change force size and strength … based on our ability to support that force size and strength.”

Genovesi’s bottom line: the residents of Rutherford can’t afford the police department as it is currently configured.

Mayor John Hipp agrees. The borough has structural problems with its budget and continual tax increases “cannot be the solution.” The employees themselves refused another cost saving measure — contributions to their health care, Hipp noted.

The rest of the council is not unanimously behind Genovesi. President Maura Keyes is opposed to lowering the number of officers who patrol Rutherford. “Crime doesn’t usually decrease over time,” she said.

But, Hipp rejects Keyes’ assertion. “I’m not accepting the gloom and doom argument that if you touch the police department, we are all going to die,” Hipp said.

Changing the ordinance is irrelevant, according to Police Capt. Joseph Merli.

“They don’t adhere to it no matter what the number is,” Merli said. The police department has been operating with 41 officers for more than a year.

As the shifts are configured now, six officers, with one at the desk, handle all of the calls to the Rutherford Police Department during the day and night shifts. Eight officers typically cover the busier 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. window — equivalent to one patrol officer for every 2,200 people during the toughest law enforcement period of the day.

An additional five officers fill out the detective bureau; three officers have special duties (traffic, schools and administration); and two captains and the police director are at the helm of the department.

With less manpower, the department would incur higher overtime expenses, Merli said.

“The idea was that we needed at least 43 people to keep the place running efficiently,” he said of the current ordinance. Going even further below that number would have an “adverse effect.” Merli also accused the council of having insufficient knowledge of the department to make effective decisions. Some of the calls handled by the officers, such as domestic violence or incidents with emotionally disturbed people, can be very time consuming, Merli noted.

“Do they really know how to run a police department?” Merli asked of the council.

Police director

Also up for discussion by the council is the vacation time allotted to the borough’s civilian police director, John Thompson.

Hipp explained at the July 21 council meeting that the borough had neglected to spell out a vacation policy for the police director when the position was created in 2008.

Lacking a specific clause in the ordinance, Hipp said, “We had to give him something.”

Thus, Thompson “got the 20 days because that’s the minimum allowed,” Hipp said after the meeting, with reference to other vacation days allowed other employees in the department.

Keyes objected. If the ordinance doesn’t spell out time off, then employees don’t have it, she said after the meeting. If Thompson took vacation time he doesn’t technically have, a corresponding amount of money could be deducted from his pay, Keyes suggested.

Regardless of Thompson’s time off last year, Hipp would like to see the police director’s vacation days set higher — at 34.

Merli was surprised. “Who gets an increase of 14 vacation days in one year?” he asked.