Clifton’s City Council rejected a measure Tuesday that would have increased the Police Department’s table of organization to 195 officers.
Current staffing levels call for 171 officers, but the department has about 150. The council agreed in principal in October to increase the size of the department and introduced the ordinance for additional positions.
For Tuesday’s second reading of the ordinance, a majority of the council members present said they could not support the measure.
Council members Bill Gibson, Tony Latona and Mary Sadrakula cited the city’s inability to maintain staff levels at 171, as well as the concern that in a tight budget year, the city could not afford to fund “phantom” positions.
The concern, Latona and Sadrakula said, is that if the positions went on the books and if the council decided to fully fund the positions, the city would create a massive surplus funded by taxpayer dollars.
“I am 110% for adding more cops,” Latona said, but he added that it is not realistic that the city would be able to fill those positions.
Even before COVID, Clifton was having a difficult time keeping sufficient officers. Lower pay than surrounding departments and longer times to reach comparable salary levels would drain a number of the younger officers, who took jobs with higher-paying police forces.
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With that and the post-COVID difficulties in finding enough qualified officers, there is a concern that the city, in hopes of funding and hiring additional positions, could be looking at budgeting six or seven additional tax points to pay for the new hires. Latona said it’s likely that little would be spent and the money would ultimately be rolled into surplus.
Gibson, a retired Clifton officer, also said he was in favor of adding staff if the current table of organization were filled.
“We are so far behind,” he said. “We need to fill our current table first before we add another 25.”
He is also concerned that if too many officers come on board at one time, the department might have difficult time getting them the field training they need.
A different perspective
Councilman Joe Kolodziej, who pushed for the increase in the table of organization, voted with Mayor Ray Grabowski for the ordinance.
When discussing the matter in October, Kolodziej said a larger table of organization would allow the city to hire more officers to send to the police academy and it ultimately would wind up with more officers on the job.
For one thing, the city does not need to reach the 195 number all at once. In the meantime, the additional positions might make it easier for the department to maintain staffing levels near or above the current 171.
Nor does the city have to fully fund all 195 positions. It could decide to fund fewer.
In his comments after the vote, Kolodziej said the council’s failure to increase the table of organization also negates the city’s ability to use a $750,000 federal grant, fought for by U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., which would have funded the first three years of a newly created police officer’s position.
That might have supported the addition of six police positions, Kolodziej said.
