Because of the current circumstances surrounding Chief Coggins Resignation/retirement I think it is prudent rerun this story. The figures for 2006 should be completed by the end of the week. (Sorry for the lack of proper alignment. The program this site uses doesn’t align properly when spaces are used and there is no way to make tables with it.)
For the last 3 months or so I have been investigating the Town of Hamburg’s Police Command Officers Union for what I was told was abuse of the town payroll system. I really didn’t know what to expect, most of the sources that fed me the information were angry themselves because they weren’t getting the overtime they felt they deserved. The initial allegations were that the top officers in Hamburg were really milking the overtime in their department and while on overtime they wouldn’t leave their office and work for the money.
So I put forth a FOIL request for all the Command Officers Pay list back to the date the union was created and asked for the Town Board voting results to OK the creation of the union itself. The response I received was terrible. First the Town Clerk, Cathy Rybsinski, didn’t want to give me the info or even take the Foil request to begin with. She asked me numerous times if I was sure I wanted to go through with this, even though it was obvious that I wouldn’t drop the request.
I received a letter about 10 days later stating that there was never a vote on the creation of the union and that I could pick up the pay information as soon as I paid $28 for it. I did and instead of a realistic breakdown of the pay scale by the payroll clerk I received about 50-70 little squares of paper with the figures in code and so small, approximately #6 print, that they were hard to read. I had to fight to get the pay codes to do a legitimate break down of the slips. After many hours of calculating, organizing and comparing the figures to the union contract for the pay roll, I noticed that there were several “fishy” pay out’s, but perhaps not illegal.
The most glaring was the amount of time they were allowed to cash in each year. If only all of us in the real world had these kind of pay benefits. For instance, they are allowed to cash in 400 hours (50days) of sick time as long as they have accumulated more than 200 days available to redeem. This alone was a huge pay payday adding to their yearly totals. Another large check adding to the yearly totals is Longevity pay. This pay is supposed to be for a particular percentage of their yearly pay, for what, I don’t know. Why is the town paying people Longevity pay? Isn’t their normal paycheck enough? So now the town has paid the top officers in the town thousands extra just for being part of the force for several years. This makes no sense to me!
Even though I was told originally to look for the overtime issues there were none. The top officers took very little overtime at all. What was interesting was the fact that hey can cash out on Holiday time. According to their contract they are allowed to cash back 14 days each year of Holiday pay at double time. That totals 112 hours each year that they can cash back. What was shown is that they cashed back double and close to triple that amount. That my friends is against the contact and has cost our town thousands of dollars that was supposed to remain in town coffers. Well here is the breakdown of the two top officers pay up to 2005, the last year available for scrutiny. If you see some thing I missed, please let me know.
Pay List
Regular Pay OT Pay VAC/OTH Pay
Chief of Police, Joe Coggins
1998 ——————- $64,584 ——– $7,125.98 ——— $328
1999 ——————- $72,662.40 —- $1,233.08
2000 —————— $82,939.60 —– $957.60
2001 —————– $85,684.80 —–$2,411.37
2002 —————– $88,074.40 ——$5,147.96
2003 —————– $88,129.60 ——$2,986.21
2004 —————– $90,266.16 ——$1,649.52 ———-$49,214.65
Ben# HRS PAY
#1/Reg —————– 2048 ——– $90,266.16
#2/Ovt —————– 22 ———— $1,649.52
#3/Sick —————- 8 —————- $338.96
#4/Vac —————– 104 ———— $4,434.08
#5/Pers
#13&30/Mil ———— 24 ———— $1,099.68
#20/SB Vac ———— 80 ———– $3,665.60
#21/SB OT/Comp —– 120 ——— $5,498.40
#22/SB PL
#23&43/SB Hol ——– 264 ———— $12,068.32
#24/SB Sick ———– 112 ————– $5,131.84
#26&46/Longevity ———————– $10,532.63
#28/Clothing
#45/Retro pay —————————- $6,445.14
#47/ Health Ins. Rebate
Totals —————– 2782 ————- $141,130.33
Regular Pay OT Pay VAC/OTH Pay
2005 $88,819.60 $2,287.20 $59,124.12
Ben# HRS PAY
#1/Reg —————– 1940 ———$88,819.60
#2/Ovt —————– 32 ———— $2,287.20
#3/Sick —————– 8 ————– $381.20
#4/Vac —————– 68 ————- $3,240.20
#5/Pers
#13&30/Mil ———— 24 ———– $1,143.60
#20/SB Vac ———— 80————$3,812.00
#21/SB OT/Comp ——108 ———- $5,146.20
#22/SB PL
#23&43/SB Hol ——– 248 ————$11,817.20
#24/SB Sick ———– 400 ————$19,060.00
#26&46/Longevity ———————- $8,424.52
#28/Clothing —————————– $605.00
#45/ Retro pay
#47/Health Ins. Rebate
Totals 3036 $150,230.92
Pay List
Assistant Chief of Police, Carmen Kesner
1998 $60,257.60 $4,302.05
1999 $60,692.80 $2,284.62 $229.60
2000 $72,956.40 $846.00
2001 $75,686.40 $2,184.61 $384.80
2002 $77,805.44 $2,863.40 $592.80
2003 $77,854.44 $2,582.67 $237.12
2004 $83,061.00 $1,943.52 $42,593.00
Ben# HRS PAY
#1/Reg 1188 $83,061.00
#2/Ovt 32 $1,943.52
#3/Sick 8 $299.44
#4/Vac 64 $2,420.00
#5/Pers
#13&30/Mil 24 $998.76
#14/Comp Time 4 $161.96
#20/SB Vac
#21/SB OT/Comp 60 $2,429.40
#22/SB PL
&43/SB Hol 304 $12,284.00
#24/SB Sick 112 $4,534.88
#26&46/Longevity $9,307.74
#28/Clothing $605.00
#45/ Retro Pay $5,726.82
#47/ Health Ins. Rebate $3,825.00
Totals 1794 $127,597.52
Regular Pay OT Pay VAC/OTH Pay
2005 $85,598.32 $1,894.95 $56,434.57
Ben # HRS PAY
#1/Reg 1952 $85,598.32
#2/Ovt 30 $1,894.95
#3/Sick 8 $336.88
#4/Vac 56 $2,358.16
#5/PL
#11-12/OT REG Time 64 $2,695.04
#13&30/Mil 26 $1,010.64
#14/Comp Time 64 $2,695.04
#20/SB Vac 80 $3,368.80
#21/SB OT/Comp 200 $8,422.00
#22/SB PL
#23&43/SB Hol 248 $10,443.28
#24/SB Sick 400 $16,844.00
#26&46/Longevity $7,445.08
#28/Clothing $815.65
#45/Retro Pay
#47/Health Ins. Rebate
Totals 3126 $143,927.84
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