A meeting this week between town leaders from across the state and the Department of Public Safety resolved some issues regarding overtime pay for resident state troopers, but Bethany First Selectwoman Derrylyn Gorski said important matters still need to be worked out.
About 60 towns use the resident trooper program to provide public safety coverage.
According to a statement from state Sen. Joseph Crisco, D-Woodbridge, state statutes require that resident trooper pay and benefits be split between towns and the state at a 70 percent to 30 percent rate, respectively.
However, DPS had been billing some towns for 100 percent of benefits accrued during overtime hours, instead of the 70-30 split, Crisco said in his statement.
“Perhaps the most important breakthrough (in the meeting) was convincing (DPS) Commissioner (John) Danaher that there is money in the budget to cover the DPS share of those overtime expenses,” Crisco said in the statement.
Danaher could not immediately reached for comment late Friday.
The other issue is the rate towns are charged for hiring an off-duty officer to cover for a resident trooper or to police a town event.
Gorski said that DPS began contracting work for this position to the state’s centralized overtime coordinator’s office in November, which boosted costs for the towns.
A town is normally charged a maximum of $56 per hour for a resident trooper, but this changed to $82 per hour under the new system. She said this is the same amount as private businesses are charged. Since the town’s taxpayers support the state police, she said the town should be given a lower rate.
Crisco’s statement said Attorney General Richard Blumenthal’s office issued a ruling last summer “affirming the 70/30 cost-share arrangement for all hourly pay, whether straight time or overtime.”
“We should not be billed the same as a for-profit business,” Gorski said. “From my perspective, if we hire a trooper to perform the duties of a resident trooper, we would like to be charged the resident trooper rate.”
However, Gorski said the recent meeting helped foster communication between the towns and the DPS. She said she will be meeting in the near future with DPS officials to continue negotiations.
State police Lt. J. Paul Vance said there is an open discussion on overtime pay for resident troopers.
“That’s where we are right now. We’ll discuss it and see if we can come to a conclusion,” he said. “We’re looking to work out any kinks in the system.”
Chris Rhatigan can be reached at chris.rhatigan@gmail.com.
