Saugus FinComm tackles police overtime budget

SAUGUS – The Police Department?s overtime account came under some scrutiny from the Saugus Finance Committee Wednesday, as committee member Louis Rossi noted that, at $780,000, it?s the highest the Finance Committee has ever seen.Committee member Theresa Katsos also noted that she was under the impression that all departments were to offer between 3 and 6 percent cuts, and pointed to the Fire Department overtime account which was cut by $450,000.?I?m trying to make sense of why we go up in one budget and why we zero out another budget,” said Katsos. “I?m not pitting one department against another. This has nothing to do with manpower it has to do with the numbers that are here.”Police Chief Domenic DiMella, however, said overtime has always been in the $750,000 to $780,000 range, but noted it has been underfunded in the past and had money transferred into the account throughout the year.?If you cut the overtime, you?re cutting the manpower,” said Dimella. “It?s a safety risk for the men and a safety risk for the town. I don?t want to put one department against another department, but I?m going to advocate for my department. All we have protecting this town is five patrolmen shift by shift, day by day. To answer 21,000 calls with the manpower we have is extreme.”Fire Chief James Blanchard also spoke on his budget Wednesday, and said while there?s “no doubt” that the Police Department deserves the money needed to operate, he said the double-zeros in his overtime line item aren?t enough to run the Fire Department.?I don?t know why that?s there like that,” said Blanchard. “All I can surmise is that the selectmen and the manager want to roll the dice that we?re not going to have a fire. We?re going to have two pieces of apparatus to run his whole town. My firefighters under these conditions are under extreme risks. What?s going to happen is, my injury rates are going to go sky high. My guys are not going to quit, they?re going to do the work of two men.”Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].