The Wilton Select Board is seeking a compromise with Police Chief Eric Oleson after the board found the department’s proposed police pay scale increase exceeded the $30,000 approved by voters at Town Meeting.
Olesen appeared before the Select Board during their work session this week to discuss police retention and salary increases for the department. In June, Olesen stood before Town Meeting to request a $30,000 increase to the Police Department budget, for the purpose of retention and recruitment. Olesen told the crowd that competition for police officers was high, and Wilton was struggling to keep its roster full. Voters approved the increase resoundingly.
However, members of the Select Board told Olesen that his pay scale proposal increases far outstripped the $30,000 originally approved by voters.
Currently, the town’s pay scale for a part-time police officer is $17.31 per hour for an entry-level position, with a maximum of $23.08. A full-time officer has a starting pay of $22 per hour and an upper limit of $28.60. A sergeant starts at $24.66 per hour and can earn up to $35. A lieutenant starts at $26.70 per hour and goes up to $38. The department’s prosecutor position has a range of $24.66 to $35. The chief salary ranges from $64,201 to $90,000.
Olesen’s proposed wage scale would increase salaries significantly, in some cases with the starting salary exceeding the current maximum pay for the position.
If approved, the proposed wage scale would have uncertified officers start at $25.92 per hour, experience officers start at $31.96 per hour, the prosecutor at $34.85, sergeants at $36.36, lieutenants at $41.44, and the chief at $47.50, or a salary of $98,800.
“And at the end of the year, as stated, this is not my money, this is not the police department’s money, this is the taxpayers’ money. And with it being the taxpayers’ money, they said yes, that we agree with the police department that we need to pay our employees to retain them. These are the numbers I came up with,” Olesen told the Select Board. “I said at the poll, when I came up with these numbers and figures, that there are going to be some large increases.”
Olesen said the pay scale, if implemented now, kept the department within its budget for 2021. However, currently, the department is not fully staffed, and the increases use funds that would otherwise be going to pay officer salaries in those empty slots.
Select Board Chair Kellie-Sue Boissonnault said she was in favor of upgrading the police department pay scale. But, she said, Olesen’s proposal was more than the town could support.
“I still feel that way,” Boissonnault said, of increasing the police wage scale, “but I can’t support what you’ve brought before us. We need to come to a compromise.”
Board members Matt Fish and Kermit Williams said when Olesen spoke of the $30,000 increase and what it would be used for at Town Meeting, their impression was that it would be used for one-time bonuses for either hiring or retention, and mainly to attract officers to fill empty or soon-to-be-empty slots, not an ongoing wage change.
“I think most people viewed it as the issue was recruitment,” Williams said, saying he was expecting to have a discussion on bonuses or a higher starting pay.
Boissonnault said she, too, saw the pay scale as a “separate issue” and was expecting a less sweeping proposal.
Olesen objected that he never used the word “bonus” when speaking at the polls, and while he did express to voters that his department was currently understaffed, he also spoke about retention of its current roster of police officers.
Williams said the total amount of the increases would significantly impact future budgets, if the department was able to get up to a full roster – not by $30,000, as approved by voters, but by more than $100,000.
“That’s a lot more than what people were seeing as an increase,” Williams said.
“That’s a huge amount of money,” Fish agreed. “I can’t swallow that. An [unfilled] position could be funded tomorrow. That’s a huge, huge increase.”
Olesen said not every position would be filled with a person making the maximum grade, and offered to have his own salary increase proposal put towards officer pay.
He said the department had “open positions, with no bodies,” and officers working large amounts of overtime, and he feared officer burnout. “We need to get people here, and we need to pay a fair wage,” Olesen said.
The board said the proposal was still too rich.
“The town can’t afford that. We have to come up with a compromise, but we also need a consistent pay scale so we don’t go through this every year,” Boissonnault said.
The board directed Town Administrator Paul Branscombe to research other comparable towns, and to present a possible compromise solution as a counter-offer to Olesen’s proposal. The board set a work session for July 9 for a meeting focused solely on the police pay.