PEABODY — Faced with another multi-million-dollar request for police and fire overtime pay, the City Council voiced growing impatience, warning that the City cannot continue approving unsustainable and consistent appropriation requests.
Director of Finance and City Auditor Mike Gingras’s first transfer of funds request, and the only one garnering serious discussion, was for $2,100,000, which would go toward police salaries, police overtime, dispatch overtime, police holiday pay, fire salaries, and fire overtime.
This was attributed to previously budgeting for a 2% salary increase, but raises wound up being 3%. Police Chief Tom Griffin also noted that, when officers are injured or out for long-term sickness, some of those shifts need to be backfilled, which comes with a higher price tag.
Ward 5 Councilor Dave Gamache was the first to push back on this request, even though he emphasized he would ultimately support it. Gamache stated that “the overtime is out of control,” and “it’s getting ridiculous.” He expressed frustrations that these million-dollar requests from the police and fire departments are “a yearly thing now,” at least for the last three consecutive years.
“I’m going to support it, but I’m going to go on record right now that, next year, if you come in with more appropriation for overtime, I’m not going to support it,” Gamache said.
He added, “Every year at (the) budget hearing, I listen (and ask), ‘Do you have enough (for) overtime?’ ‘Yep, we’ll be OK. We’ll be OK.’ And every year, it’s a million bucks.”
Gamache also mentioned how Mayor Peter Torigian handled overtime requests, suggesting similar actions should be taken.
“Years ago, when Mayor Torigian was here, and they came in for appropriations for overtime, we were closing the station. And if we have to start doing that to make things palatable, I mean, we’re not talking a couple $100,000. We’re talking millions,” he said.
Councilor-at-Large Jon Turco pointed out that this $2,100,000 request brings the total requests for the year to $4,400,000. He asked Gingras how confident he felt that this $2,100,000 request would be enough.
“Based on when I made these projections a few weeks ago, things are trending a little higher. They’ve kind of come down a little bit, and again, these are estimates, and I basically rounded for these transfers. These are not exact numbers because we have, as of the time I did this, 10 more pay periods, so almost anything could happen,” Gingras said.
He added, “But this is pretty solid, and I’m fairly confident that we will complete the year using these funds, without any further appropriation. In fact, I think there may be some left to be able to use elsewhere at the end of the year.”
Ward 1 Councilor Craig Welton brought up how, during this year’s budget hearings, it would be wise to collect some data on comparably sized cities to look at what their allocations are for police and fire.
“We just look at these numbers without much of an apples-to-apples comparison. It would be helpful for us to maybe look at Beverly, Salem, Lynn, (and) others, just so we have something to compare it against,” Welton said.
Gingras noted, “That was a great suggestion.”
Another aspect of this overtime conversation was how police details for strikes, such as last summer’s Republic Services strike, have affected the overall police budget. While the police department is reimbursed for fronting the wages of the officers who are part of the police detail, there may be added costs associated with it.
Griffin explained that a regular detail at a regular time of the year is a daytime sergeant’s rate, and because the Republic strike was for a labor dispute, it was twice that amount, plus a 10% administrative fee.
Councilor-at-Large Jarrod Hochman pointed out that the strike has indirectly affected the police department’s budget “because if officers work details, they might not have worked their regular shift, which would have caused another officer to fill that shift.”
Regardless, the motion to approve the $2,100,000 transfer of funds passed unanimously.
Gingras’s other transfer of funds requests were: $55,000 for software and IT services for the library, which was needed because the capital set aside for this was used last summer when Peabody had a data breach; $13,885.51 for a common, quarterly transfer for the cable fund, which will go toward Peabody TV; and $174,054.63 for another cable fund expense, which was to address the Comcast receipts. All requests were approved unanimously.
Later on, Gamache made a motion to “send a recommendation to Mayor (Ted) Bettencourt to place a freeze on all overtime for all municipal employees until the end of FY26, and also move to recommend that all departments cut their budgets by 5% for the remainder of the year.”
He added, “On the motion, all department heads have been asked to reduce next year’s budget by 5%. I think this would be a good way to get that ball rolling.”
Councilor-at-Large Anne Manning Martin also made a motion “to recommend that the mayor implement a hiring freeze on all departments except police and fire.”
Additionally, Bettencourt received a 3% raise, courtesy of the City Council, making his annual salary $146,260. His annual salary was previously $142,000.
“I think the standard raise given to every municipal department in the City this past year would be appropriate to give to the mayor,” Turco said. “The 3% raise was given to all union and non-union personnel, and I would gladly support the 3%.”
Manning Martin and Councilor-at-Large Jaclyn Corriveau voted against this raise, both citing overall budget concerns, especially considering how the police and fire overtime conversation went.
“As we are heading into the worst budget season I’ve seen in recent memory, now is not the time for automatic pay increases, but rather hiring freezes and belt tightening,” Manning Martin said.
Corriveau added, “I’m not happy with the fact that we gave the mayor and councilors a raise (his salary is connected to our stipend) and then picked apart spending on public safety. We’re going into a treacherous budget season, and we’re going to have to make a lot of cuts. Our salaries should be the last priority, and public safety should be the first.”
Acknowledging the councilors’ concerns, Bettencourt said, “I know that a raise for any elected official, especially during challenging financial times, is a sensitive issue. The City Council sets the mayor’s salary, and they made that decision… in an open meeting. My focus is the same as always: managing the City’s budget responsibly, overseeing our important infrastructure projects, and keeping services strong for residents.”
Addressing both Manning Martin and Gamache’s motions, Bettencourt noted that those suggestions were implemented a few weeks ago.
