In a Press Release dated October 29, 2020, Putnam County Executive Maryellen Odell
alleges, “there have been false and erroneous statements circulating regarding law
enforcement and the 2021 county budget.” She claims that allegations that she
“defunded” the police are untrue. I guess the County Executive does not know the
meaning of the word defund. Defund means “prevent from continuing to receive
funds.” In the budget that the County Executive submitted, she, among other things,
defunded a Sergeant’s position and cut the Marine Patrol budget. Despite her
protestations, the people of Putnam County can clearly see what has taken place to the
Sheriff’s Department Budget at the hands of the County Executive and by a majority of
members of the Board of Legislature: Personal Politics over Public Safety. The County
officials who supported these outlandish cuts to public safety seem to forget they work
for the taxpayers of Putnam County, who deserve better, not less, police services.
The release further states that families across Putnam County have experienced
financial difficulties due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Apparently, Legislative Deputy
Chair Neal L. Sullivan does not seem to think so. After not restoring the Marine unit and
other budget transfers for the Sheriff’s Department, Legislator Sullivan made a proposal
and motion to give a raise to all the legislators under “other business” during the Budget
Meeting on October 29, 2020. This was seconded by Legislator Ginny Nacerino. This
was an increase which was not put on the Agenda but placed under “other business” to
hide it from the people of Putnam County with no transparency to the taxpayers. All
but two legislators voted yes for these raises with Legislators Montgomery and
Castellano voting against the raise. It is disingenuous for the Legislature to reduce
police services while at the same time giving themselves a raise.
The County Executive, in her release, further makes allegations of budget
mismanagement by the Sheriff’s Office; especially regarding the patrol overtime budget.
This is an outlandish and unsupported accusation. The Sheriff’s Department has
followed a long precedence in managing the budget that was never questioned under
the past two administrations. It seems that standard business practices that were
acceptable under past administrations now only raises questioning by the County when
the duly elected Sheriff does not share the same party line. The Sheriff’s Office puts the
people first to ensure their safety and constitutional rights. This Sheriff does not play
personal politics with Public Safety or any aspect of the Office of Sheriff.
The County is not even following its own memorandum regarding unnecessary spending
when advising that spending should be only for essential services. Why then do a major
construction project to build new restrooms at Tilly Foster at a cost exceeding three
quarters of a million dollars, a project that is still ongoing. That is clearly not fiscally
responsible nor good management when funding is being cut to public safety.
The Sheriff’s Department operates 24/7/365 and is responsible for providing police
services in towns and villages that do not have their own police department.
Additionally, the Sheriff’s Department responds to emergencies and various situations in
towns that have dedicated policing along with providing backup and support services to
these police agencies countywide. The Sheriff’s Department also maintains a Jail and a
Civil Division.
If the County would allow for the hiring of more deputies, it would reduce a large
portion of overtime for shift coverage. However, overtime is substantially cheaper to
the taxpayer since no additional benefits packages are needed as with new hires. There
are many situations that create overtime in the Sheriff’s Department such as shift
coverage due to the lack of staffing resulting from retirements, illness, line of duty
injuries, family emergencies, vacations, personal days, compensatory time off, military
leave, arrest processing, court appearances, emergency calls near the end of a tour, and
training.
Another enormous expense is the Municipal Police Training Counsel that each newly
hired deputy is required to complete at an approved police academy. In addition, they
must also do a requisite amount of field training. This is an eight plus month process to
complete. Currently, we have two new deputies in the Police Academy and interim
coverage is needed for what would be their shifts. We can go on with reasons overtime
is generated and the bottom line is this is an essential public safety service. To ensure
public safety and the safety of our deputies there is a minimum number of patrols
maintained that often require to be filled on overtime.
As for the allegation that $2.8 million was spent on overtime incurred by deputy sheriffs
and corrections officers, perhaps it would be fair for the County Executive to provide the
amount put back into the county fund through chargebacks and what is reimbursed by
the State. ?????? It is correct to say that 48 deputies earned an average of $128,430 in
salary and overtime. Those individuals, however, work long hours in often dangerous
conditions to earn that compensation. They are not given additional job titles to
increase their compensation at taxpayer’s expense.
It is true that three deputy sheriffs earned more than Sheriff Langley. These are hourly
waged employees unlike management and elected officials who do not receive overtime
compensation because their salaries are fixed. The fact that deputies made more than
the salaried position of the Sheriff says that these outstanding members of the
Department are dedicated to serving the community and this agency. There are several
who work available overtime while many prefer to dedicate their time off to their
families and friends. Similar to other police departments we depend on these members
to provide the shift coverage required to maintain adequate public safety.
It is important to understand that all overtime is equalized among the members.
Overtime is assigned on a rotational basis, which means that the last person to work an
overtime position goes to the back of the list before being assigned their next overtime
assignment. The list must rotate throughout all the deputies volunteering before a
member is again eligible to be assigned another overtime shift. It is a fair and equitable
system that provides the same overtime opportunities for all members.
The County Executive, in her proposed budget, eliminated the funding for Marine
Patrols on the Hudson River. The Marine Patrol Unit was established on the Hudson
River and Lake Oscawana in 1998 by then Sheriff Robert D. Thoubboron to patrol these
bodies of water in Putnam County. Note that the Hudson River shorelines have always
been a part of Putnam County since its birth in 1812. The New York State Park’s
Department provides the boats that the Sheriff’s Office use at no cost to the County
with the stipulation that we patrol the Hudson Valley waterway. The Marine Patrol has
always been funded through overtime since its inception. Of note is that NYS reimburses
the County 50% of the overtime costs required to provide public safety on the Putnam
County waterways.
The Marine Patrol continued to operate on overtime throughout the entire
administration of Sheriff Donald B. Smith for 16 years unchallenged by County officials.
Although other agencies may have marine units, they are not dedicated to Putnam
County and there is no overlap of services. As a factual matter, the Sheriff’s Department
is most often the first and only responder to marine incidents. It has responded to
numerous incidents throughout the years including, but not limited to, security related
to September 11 and ongoing terrorist threats throughout the Hudson Valley, the
recovery of bodies from the waterways, personal injury incidents and other boat
accidents, searches for suspects and evidence, and safety checks and education to
boaters. The mere presence of the Marine Patrol in these waters is critical in ensuring
that boaters operate their boats safely and legally.
with the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S Customs, most notably “Operation Small Fry.” During
these drills members of these federal agencies ride with the Marine Patrol on our boats
to seek out foreign flagged and domestic vessels checking for proper documentation.
Other drills have included operations to see if it is possible to shut down river traffic in
an emergency with neighboring county and state agencies participating.
One can only question the motive for eliminating the Marine Patrol of the Hudson River
given the history and vital services it provides to keep residents and visitors to Putnam
County safe.
Additionally, the position of Civil Sergeant, which has been in existence for over thirty
years, has been eliminated in the 2021 budget without even an explanation to the
Sheriff’s Department. The position was not funded in the 2021 budget despite the fact
that it is currently not vacant and may result in a layoff in January. Several memoranda
explaining the necessity and value of the Civil Sergeant have been sent to the
Legislature, who would not even consider it for discussion under “other business” at the
Legislative Budget Meeting. I would like to thank Legislators Jonke, Castellano and
Montgomery for voting to add the issue of the funding of the Sergeant’s position to the
agenda on October 29, 2020 at the full legislative meeting to adopt the budget.
Clearly the 2021 Budget that the Sheriff requested was cut by County officials. These
cuts will have an impact on the Road Patrol, Marine Patrol and Civil functions. The
eliminations and reductions to funding were done without the input or support of the
Sheriff’s Department and will clearly reduce police services to Putnam residents.
It is important to note that after realizing that the Patrol overtime was reduced for the
second year in a row, the Marine Unit was reduced to eliminate patrols on the Hudson
River and Lake Mahopac, and the Civil Sergeant was eliminated, the Sheriff’s
Department went back to review our budget submitted to the Legislature and made
cuts to other areas to fund these items. We did the responsible thing in finding the
money and attempted to work with the Legislature so that the Legislature did not have
to find the funding for these valuable services. What was the outcome? The Legislature
did not restore any of the above. Instead they verbally attacked the Sheriff’s
Department only to move the savings from our budget to the County sub-contingency
budget line. How is this fair to the Sheriff’s Department, who did everything it could to
resolve this issue? I would like to thank Legislators Jonke, Castellano and Montgomery
and Gouldman who did vote to approve the proposed budget transfers to fund the
Patrol overtime and the Marine Unit.
One only has to listen to Legislature Committee meeting audios to hear the disrespect
some members of the Legislature show towards the Sheriff’s Department. Almost all
County business involving other County departments, DA’s Office, and County Clerk’s
Office is approved without comment. Virtually every Sheriff’s Department agenda items
are fiercely contested by the Legislature. In fact, the Legislature postpones numerous
Sheriff’s Department items routinely. A recent example is the Sheriff’s Department’s
2020 proposed budget amendment to transfer available existing funds into Patrol
overtime lines that was submitted to the Legislature in early October to ensure that
there was adequate patrol coverage through the end of the year. That proposal was
tabled by the Legislature for a second time this week by the Legislature without
discussion. It is now November, so when does the Legislature intend to approve or deny
this transfer? In an attempt to work with the Legislature, the Sheriff’s Department
completely complied with their resolution passed last year requiring the County
departments to put in a request for a budget amendment for this reason in advance. We
have responsibly done so. I would point out that last month the Legislature passed a
budget overtime resolution for the Highway Department without discussion, yet it has
been over a month since our proposal was submitted without any movement, from the
Legislature, on discussing a resolution that directly impacts the safety of our residents.
To be perfectly clear, the result of the Legislature’s inaction and their passage of a
resolution last year that prohibits the Sheriff from incurring overtime from a specific
budget line will be to give the Sheriff only two choices. The first will be to eliminate
Sheriff Department’s patrols and emergency coverage to areas of the County where
there is no designated police response. The second will be to continue to patrol all areas
of Putnam County by backfilling these patrols and incurring overtime even if the
Legislature does not approve the fund transfers in the next couple of weeks to cover
adequate patrols for the safety of Putnam County residents and its deputies and
countywide police officers. This choice, however, will most likely result in the Legislature
ultimately accusing the current Sheriff of violating the County Charter section 7.08.
Again I would note that the Sheriff’s Department’s has identified existing Sheriff
Department funds to cover adequate patrols through the end of the year that has no
fiscal impact to the County but the legislature has failed to approve the transfer of those
funds to cover the expense.
The Sheriff and his command staff have professionally dealt with County officials on all
levels and only wants to manage the Sheriff Office’s public safety mandates and
operations free from the perceived oversight that some officials think is inherent in
budget appropriations. These officials should provide the financial support to the
Sheriff’s Office and recognize the tremendous work that the deputies and corrections
officers do every day, not by shallow words that are so often publicly said on the record,
but by their actual actions. To date their actions do not support the words they say.
Let’s properly fund the Sheriff’s Department, support its initiatives that enhance public
and put partisan politics aside.