New Britain is currently advertising to fill 17 police officer positions here in New Britain. One of the biggest problems with attracting good qualified candidates is the low salary offered here in New Britain when compared to surrounding towns: Salary range $47,957-$58,073. The problem is that 2 neighboring towns are also hiring:
Berlin, salary range: $51,688-$65,873
West Hartford, salary range: $51,298-$65,494
Another bordering town is not currently hiring, but does also offer a much higher salary:
Newington, 54,002-$68,952
Due to its status as a larger city, with a much more diverse community than the other three towns, New Britain offers its police officers many additional challenges while offering the lowest salary. If New Britain expects to compete with the neighboring towns for the best candidates, then they need to offer a competitive salary. The council should look into bringing our salaries up to par with our neighbors.
27 comments:
you get what you pay for!
Mr. Smith, you missed a good comparison. New Britain starts out at $200 more than a state trooper $47,717, but that includes personal use of a brand new car from the first day of work. At $4.00 a gallon, that adds up to a lot of free gas! Also, a state trooper maxes out at $78,101, roughly $20,000 more than what New Britain offers, so for a young person seeking a career in law enforcement, the state is obviously a much better opportunity.
We should attrack the best qualified available to serve our Police department. i agree with Mr. Smith
I would support bringing Officer salaries to a range that is more competitive with similar and surrounding towns.
There's much energy and cost that goes into training an officer, that if we don't have competitive salaries/benefits, we risk losing that investment of energy and tax dollars when an Officer chooses to move on.
The state needs to do more to control the health care costs though. It's not that the public is inherently opposed to public employees getting paid good wages but towns can't afford the cost of the health care. If we can get health care cost under control, towns like New Britain could much more easily justify paying Officers more competitive wages.
perhaps if they can't raise the salaries, they could look into giving the officers personal use of cars as a benefit the same way the state does.
health care is a problem for everyone, but the state police manage to give their people free insurance in additional to the free use of the car.
Interesting point raised by Alderman Sherwood, but am I missing something?
Don't Newington, Berlin, and West Hartford face the same challenges regarding health care and they somehow manage to pay higher salaries.
Since it is raining today, maybe we could find out where the mayor stands on this issue, or does his golf cart have windshield wipers?
New Britain Town Crier, another point you missed is that West Hartford is a similar size department with roughly 10 to 15 thousand less residents.
Obviously Alderman Sherwood is for the cops, but what about the firefighters, don't they deserve the same treatment?
i would love to know what you all do for a living. Talk smack about the mayor and his golf all you want, i guarantee he still puts in more hours than most of you.
Even the MDC police in West Hartford and Farmington hires at a starting rate of $52,728 base salary, plus shift differentials which brings the estimated starting rate to around 60k and all they patrol is a reservoir.
It must be nerve racking squeezing in 18 holes of golf into one's workday!
WOW, the mayor has one friend, unless he posted that one himself. I have never found anyone that had anything good to say about him.
I am not the mayor....and you never find anyone that says anything good about him because all you do is hang around the haters...aka democrats. They are all too busy thinking up stupid resolutions and giving awful superintendants raises....
to anonymous: The Democrats have submitted many respectable resolutions. If you are reading stupid resolutions, you must have been reading the ridiculous nonsense proposed by that jerk Salvio. His stuff is usually so idiotic, the Democrats just laugh and ignore it, they usually don't even bother to vote on his ridiculousness. All you Republicans can do when you have nothing constructive to offer is to attack the hard work of the Democrats.
WORKING FAMILIES Said... Key Press Clips...
"A change in state law last year eased the rules for cross-endorsements, setting up the Working Families Party as a potential kingmaker in close races, such as…Salvio, the highest vote getter in the ward, said he was convinced Gerratana was able to bump of Kirejczyk because he was cross-endorsed by the Connecticut Working Families Party.” -Rick Guinness, New Britain Herald ,“Gerratana Wins After Recount,” Saturday November 10th, 2007
"Michael Edwards says he stands up for what he believes. Edwards could lose his job at the Farmington Avenue Wal-Mart because on Monday, he held a sign that read, “You can roll back your prices, but not our rights” as he joined the Connecticut Working Families protest there with about 50 other people."
"The protest was sparked by the July 9 sacking of Edwards’ best friend and co-worker at Wal-Mart and allegations of ongoing racism at the store." -Scott Whipple, New Britain Herald, “Discrimination?” July 31, 2007
Maybe if he went to the office once in a while, and actually addressed a few of the important issues facing the city, then people would have something good to say about him. Isn't this the same guy who blew off welcoming a new business to the city to celebrate his birthday? I'd love to hear what that business owner thinks of him.
These guys are a great group of dedicated professionals and they deserve the same $78,000 that the state police get!
i wouldn't do their job for any amount of $$$
it is better for all of us when little Timmy doesn't go to work for that is every day that he can do less harm.
I guess it is true that Alderman Sherwood isn't as interested in helping raise the salaries for the firefighters like he is for the police, by his lack of a response to the question about the fire department, that tells us all a lot about where he stands.
No one cares about the police or fire dept until they need help, then we're everybody's daddy!
Most of those 17 officers will take the job, let New Britain pay for their training and then after they do their 2 years as required by P.O.S.T., will then use the experience they gained here to easily move on to a higher paying department with a better pension and benefits, and who in their right mind could blame them.
Anyone who doesn't believe we deserve a raise is welcome to watch this video, and then get back to me on it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HghaoDu9Ac
I for one would like to hear what they think about the firefighters
WOW, another story where this mayor is letting someone down, go figure.
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