Police department's OT budget exhausted

The Southampton police department has exhausted its annual overtime budget, and there are still nearly 10 weeks left in the year.

Lt. Robert Pearce spoke Friday to the town board at a work session, explaining that there were several factors that boosted the overtime, including Tropical Storm Irene, eight officers out on disability, an increase in crime and the chief's decision in August to add a sector car round-the-clock in the Riverside-Flanders area.

While Pearce did not have exact data on how much of the overtime cost was linked to Irene, he noted that some of it, up to 75 percent, could be reimbursed by state and federal emergency funds.

The town board approved $175,000 to pay back payroll costs up to Oct. 15 at its Tuesday meeting, said town comptroller Tamara Wright.

The uptick in crime also meant three officers were assigned detective duties, taking them off regular rotation, Pearce said. A large portion of the overtime costs were for those increases, about double last year's amount, according to the comptroller's office. In the first half of October, overtime costs totaled 150 hours; for all of July the department had 91 hours of overtime.

Some council members questioned the additional overtime costs, and wanted to know why they were not alerted earlier. Councilman Christopher Nuzzi said Police Chief William Wilson should appear before the board to explain changes, such as the need for an added sector car. Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst said Wilson, who could not attend the meeting for personal reasons, would be available Monday and would be at a town board work session Friday.

Southampton's town board members sit as commissioners of the department and approve its spending.

The supervisor's proposed 2012 budget includes cuts to the police department, taking the officer staff down to 90, with eight fewer officers, mostly supervisory positions. It would add extra clerical workers to the department, which would allow officers now doing that work to return to patrol duty.