Colerain Police Officer made $81,000 in Overtime Pay as Township asked Residents for Tax Levy

Colerain police levy failed twice in 6 months; Trustees sit idle as debt accumulates daily and the financial hole gets much deeper.Photo byColerain Police Levy, March 2024

"I think the trustees need to learn how to do a budget. Every year they ask for more money, " posted John Stemen, on social media shortly before voters rejected the trustees' 2nd request for a police levy in 6 months. Stemen, like other residents, blames the trustees as the township faces a $4 million annual budget shortfall. Per the meeting agenda on March 26th, 2024, page 32:

With the failure of the police levy last week, the Township is now faced with an operating deficit in the Police Department's multi-year forecast in excess of $4M per year (emphasis added)

The police levy would have generated $6.6 million to shore up township revenues. The sentiments of residents is consistently, "I support the police, but with these taxes it just take, take and take," posted Paul Williams.

Since March, the trustees have done nothing to resolve the $4 million annual shortfall except to threaten cuts in policing services, according to the departments Restructuring Response Model. The most common proposal is to sell off township assets at whatever costs to plug the financial drain amounting to about $70,000 per week, or $330K monthly.

Trustees refuse to impose an income tax on their commercial properties nor to place township property into a JEDD that would require township employees who do not live in Colerain to contribute to funding township services. Unger also refused to consider becoming a city/township territory like Harrison.

Trustee Matt Wahlert suggested menial savings by township trustees voluntarily reducing their salaries by a meager 3-5%. Trustees Ulrich and Unger refused to contribute to filling the financial shortfall caused by their policies by sharing in the sacrifices they ask of residents.

In reviewing the policing budget, some concerns came to the surface that indicate the fiscal problems may well have been self-inflicted wounds.

For example, one police officer, alone, raked in over $145K in pay plus another $40K in benefits in 2022, according to documents acquired through a public records request. He earned more overtime pay than he earned in straight time, demonstrating that the township could've hired a 40-hour police officer for the amount they paid in overtime. The officer earned almost $63,992.28 in "straight time" and an additional $81,497.32 in overtime pay, according to a public records request fulfilled by the township. Including taxpayer-funded benefits, this 1 officer cost the township over $200K in 2022.

Colerain officer earns $81K in overtime in 2022 while taxpayers are asked to up the ante in back to back police levies.Photo byThe Cincinnati Post, LGD July 2024

This officer worked an average of 34.46 hours per week, 1723 hours for the year. However, he worked 1,371.92 hours of overtime, per the township records, with less than 10 hours being for private duty at Walmart. He averaged working over 60 hours in uniform per week.

According to a summary of a study conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice entitled, Police Overtime: An examination of key issues,

Unusual payouts to individuals or units may indicate problems of organizational management"

The report continues,

There is a sense both inside and outside the law enforcement community that overtime is overused, misused, and only halfheartedly controlled."

The study concludes, in part,

"Reliance on overtime in American policing may have harmful consequences that are not sufficiently considered by police managers, such as exhaustion on the part of officers, unwillingness to provide any service without a tangible reward, increased antagonism between supervisors and line officers, and the undermining of professionalism"

Another study, The Alarming Consequences of Police Working Overtime, concludes,

Research shows long hours and off-duty work can negatively impact officers’ performance and even worsen their racial biases"

We inquired as to the accuracy of the records regarding private duty pay and the Colerain Township Fiscal Officer, Jeff Baker, candidate for county treasurer, reiterated that "[T]he document does state when these are “Walmart” wages." Baker offered no explanation for the financial anomaly.

Paying out huge sums in overtime is exactly the type of concern residents have for the township's financial policies, as Stemen posted.

According to the Police Levy website, crime and expenses have gone up 22-24% across the board since 2012. However, police staffing has gone up 31.5%, from a total of 48 staff to 70.5 staffers, including police officers. Most of the increases in staffing were administrative and non-sworn staff, primarily due to transferring the duties of the zoning department to the police department despite the much higher overhead. These staff average more than $20K / year more than when housed under the zoning department because property inspectors rarely-ever are sworn police officers nor are their expenses so exorbitant. Police patrols have been reduced since 2012 from 36 patrol officers responding to calls for assistance to just 28 patrol officers.

Literature on police budgeting is fraught with concerns for overtime abuses as seen with this 1 police officer in Colerain Township. Shifting employees from township operational staff like the zoning department to the police department escalates the budget needs for policing without the public receiving more policing services.

Other than the austerity measures, the township trustees have not proposed a solution to balance the budget since the levy failed. Per the figures provided by Jeff Weckbach, Township Administrator, in the Restructuring Model, the deficit continues to accrue and the financial hole is dug deeper, depleting reserves and relying on the liquidation of township assets to sustain service levels. A post-mortem of the levy and a glimpse of public records provides examples of opportunities for improvement in the financial management of the township and the police department.