Hauppauge, NY – Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy spoke out today against a proposal introduced by Legislator Jack Eddington that would severely curb the ability of the executive branch and the police commissioner from managing the resources of the police department in a cost-efficient manner.

This is one of the most anti-taxpayer pieces of legislation I have ever seen, in that it would virtually cede control of the police department to the Suffolk County PBA,” said Levy. “And it is an assault on the taxpayers.”

According to Levy, through civilianization and strategic redeployment he and Police Commissioner Richard Dormer have slowed the annual growth of police taxes by two-thirds – while at the same time lowering total Part I and Part II crimes by over 20 percent over a six-year period. Suffolk also experienced an 8.3 percent decrease in Part I crimes in 2009 according to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services.

Levy said the average resident within the Police District has saved more than $845 over the last six years because of this slowed growth.

Eddington’s proposed charter law would mandate that the transfer of, or changes in, services performed by police officers would require legislative approval; Levy said that move would handcuff the ability of the commissioner and the chief executive officer of the county from controlling costs and managing resources.

"The commissioner needs to maintain the ability to rapidly deploy officers in any division how and where they are needed,” Levy stressed.

Levy also noted that last year he had negotiated $12 million worth of concessions from the PBA, in exchange for preservation of certain functions. “Legislator Eddington would now merely cede power away to the PBA and get no concessions in return for the taxpayers,” said Levy.

“Plain and simple, management – not the PBA union – needs to run the department,” he said.

The county executive said the PBA has opposed many of his reforms that have cut into their overtime – in fact, he said, loss of overtime was specifically cited by the PBA as the reason for bringing a PERB action over the redeployment of officers from highway patrol.

Said Levy, “While I understand that the PBA’s role is to be concerned about their overtime, it is mind-boggling to me that a legislator has now put in a bill to try to stop the department from running more efficiently.  When legislators are doing the bidding of a union in such a blatant fashion, it is the taxpayers who will suffer.”

“What the public needs to realize is that the PBA exerts far too much control over much of the Legislature, and certainly Legislator Eddington’s Public Safety Committee,” said Levy. He cited as one example the committee’s refusal last November to accept $50,000 in federal Homeland Security money for a bomb-detecting canine in the Sheriff’s office, after a member of the PBA, who works for the police department’s K-9 and bomb detection units, voiced objections.

Eddington’s resolution specifically cites “…the most significant policy change was the reassignment of highway patrol duties on the Long Island Expressway and Sunrise Highway from the Suffolk County Police Department to the Suffolk County Sheriff Department in September 2008.”

Levy countered, “It has been nearly 18 months, and Legislator Eddington does not seem to care at all that we saved $12 million on that redeployment, or that we put 55 more officers back into our local communities, or that accidents have declined, or that we have slowed the growth of police taxes. He is merely continuing to fight old turf battles for the PBA, at the expense of the vast majority of his taxpaying constituents.”

“The people of this county must rise up and call their legislators to fight this anti-taxpayer measure,” Levy added.

The resolution (I.R. 1164) is before the legislatures Public Safety Committee on Thursday, March 18.

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