The city lists a total of 2,781 employees, including part-time workers, for the 2019 calendar year. The president of the CLSA could not be reached for this story. Moreover, he contends that many of the people on the top earners’ list are from the higher ranks represented by the Captains, Lieutenants, and Sergeants Benevolent Association. “If they (the city) were to add the right amount of police officers, then you would severely reduce the amount of overtime," he said. He made that estimate based on the number of officers in Rochester, which has around 200 more police officials and a similar-sized population. The department, Olson said, should add 200 police officers. Olson also said that salaries look inflated because they include overtime that is paid out since there aren’t enough rank and file police officers. Keith Olson, president of the Yonkers Police Benevolent Association, said the equal disbursement of overtime had been a concern for him but that the situation has improved under the tutelage of Police Commissioner John Mueller. And, we have to get rid of arbitrary or discretionary overtime.” “What you need to do is spread that pie out. “You have the bulk of the overtime pie going to a small group of people,” Khader said. To help correct the city’s overtime cost, Khader said that vacancies need to be filled and overtime should be equally distributed across the workforce to patrol officers and others, not just "the bosses." Former Police Officer Betty Morales was the only other employee to exceed $130,000 of additional pay in 2019, taking home $131,110 on top of her $111,461 wage, according to city records.Ĭouncil President Mike Khader agreed with many of Yonkers' sentiments on extra pay, going as far as to call the city's overtime “out of control.” Police Officer Vincent Starkey and Police Detective Dale Hughes made $135,505 and $131,110 in addition to their base salaries. It's the highest amount for anyone on the list.įormer employees Delash, McLaughlin and Perrotta pulled in $137,894, $136,209 and $135,581 respectively in additional pay, according to city salary records. Kostewich, who was the second-highest earner in the city by gross pay, pulled in $165,482 in extra pay, or almost $44,000 more than his base salary of $121,687. Former Police Detective Michael Kostewich.Former Assistant Fire Chief Joseph Delasho.The three highest earners in the city last year were departing employees. “That's a majority of their life dedicated to this job." Who was paid the most? “Most of the guys that I met with had over 30 years of service and were at the top ranks of our department,” Goldfeder said. Goldfeder noted that many of the higher earners are approaching retirement or about to retire and are entitled to extra pay and pay for termination that may make their earnings appear exorbitant. In Yonkers, the police and firefighter unions are beginning contract negotiations. The city hopes to take on those issues in a collective bargaining agreement, Gilmartin added. Officials contend that it’s very difficult for any municipality to prevent these sorts of modifications unless there’s a change in state law. “It’s a culture ripe for abuse and our administration has long been battling this so we can save precious taxpayer dollars.” ![]() “Many of the top earners are gifted extra OT (overtime) by their fellow officers as part of a long-standing practice so that those planning on retiring can pad their pensions,” city spokeswoman Christina Gilmartin said. The city argues that the means by which police and fire officials become top earners is a “culture ripe for abuse.” All of Yonkers’ top 100 earners in 2019 worked for the police and fire departments. Twenty-three of those employees pulled in more than $250,000 in total. YONKERS - Some 98 city employees took home more than $225,000 in gross pay last year, when including overtime, retirement buyouts and other extra pay. The Yonkers PBA chief said Yonkers should add 200 more police officers, based on Rochester's manpower.The actual amount paid out to the police department for overtime was approximately $19 million.For fiscal year 2018, the actual amount paid for fire department overtime came in around $12 million.
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