Cost-cutting measures effective at Mass. PD

By Dick Lindsay
The Berkshire Eagle

OTIS, Mass. — Police Chief Roberta Sarnacki is urging townspeople to keep her position part-time.

The Otis Annual Town Meeting tonight is being asked to consider re-organizing the Police Department to include a full-time police chief, or keep the job part-time and make no changes to the force.

The police chief issue is one of 28 articles town meeting voters will act on starting at 7 p.m. at the Town Hall.

If voters support the concept of a full-time chief, the Selectmen will advertise the position and decide who will fill the job. Town officials said on Monday that Sarnacki would be welcome to apply because she won t automatically become the full-time chief if the measure passes.

"The voters are just being asked to choose a structure for the department," said Town Administrator Christopher Moore in a statement clarifying the intent of Article 11 on the warrant.

However, Sarnacki said Otis doesn t need a full-time chief. In a letter to The Eagle, Sarnacki cited how as a part-time chief since being hired last summer, she has used grant funds to pay for two new police cruisers, hired three new part-time officers and upgraded police training and policies in town.

"I ve put together a great team of people and to dissolve that at this point doesn t seem like it would be beneficial to the town or to the Police department," she wrote.

While the police chief's salary would jump from $10,000 to $36,000 if the job becomes full-time, the net increase to the overall police budget would be from $63,000 to $70,000 in fiscal 2011, which starts July 1. Town officials said the reliance on part-time officers for police protection would be reduced, saving $19,000 in hourly wages.

Sarnacki claims the budget with a full-time chief doesn t include health insurance costs and other benefits that could balloon the $70,000 figure to "quite possibly a cost of $100,000 to the town."

Copyright 2010 MediaNews Group, Inc. and New England Newspaper Group Inc.