Suffolk police claim county violated deal

Suffolk's largest police union alleged Thursday that the county has violated an agreement in which officers agreed to defer $12 million in wages by allowing sheriff's deputies to perform more law enforcement work in Mastic Village.

Sheriff's chief of staff Michael Sharkey told a legislative committee that the sheriff's office temporarily added "a couple of more deputies" to work in the village. Beyond performing traditional sheriff's functions such as serving eviction orders, deputies also are issuing speeding tickets and performing other law enforcement work.

Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association Vice President Noel DiGerolamo said that in a 2008 agreement, the county had guaranteed that other law enforcement agencies would not take over police "command duties and responsibilities."

He said the union will file a complaint with the state's labor relations board and that the union expects the county to pay the deferred wages if the board finds the agreement to have been violated.

Mark Smith, a spokesman for County Executive Steve Levy, denied the additional sheriff's presence in Mastic Beach violates the agreement with the PBA, saying no police have been displaced from their jobs as a result of the deputies' work.

DiGerolamo said the agreement guarantees that police responsibilities will not go to other law enforcement agencies, regardless of whether officers lose jobs.

The dispute came a week after the police union expressed anger over a new deal between the deputies' union and the county that extended sheriffs' patrols on the Long Island Expressway and Sunrise Highway until 2017 -- a duty police had handled until 2008 and wanted back. In exchange, the deputies union agreed to defer $4 million in raises until 2015.