Putnam Legislative Committee To Discuss Report On Sheriff's Department

PUTNAM COUNTY, NY — A consultant hired to evaluate staffing and overtime at the Putnam Sheriff's Department has recommended hiring more deputies, re-evaluating how much road patrol resources are spent in Carmel, and surveying residents to see how comfortable they are with the low level of officers per capita.

Putnam County officials brought in Bonadio & Co., LLP after years of arguing with then-County Sheriff Robert Langley over use of overtime, to evaluate whether the Department was properly allocating resources.

Overtime had been paid for in part through a budgeting mechanism called fund transfers that the department had used during the administrations of Sheriff Donald Smith and Langley. While the Putnam Legislature let it slide during the former they objected vociferously during the latter.

The Bonadio report is expected to be on the agenda of the Putnam Legislature's Protective Committee meeting June 23.

According to the final report, written in 2021 and released to the Protective Committee by the County Executive in June, the department's Road Patrol "operates with a lean workforce and relies on the use of overtime to maintain the Department's minimum coverage levels."

The report said providing the minimum level of coverage on each road patrol shift was, in fact, the main reason for the Department's use of overtime. Based on then-current staffing levels and then-minimum coverage levels for the road patrol operation, the report concluded "The level of overtime was within an expected range."

The Bonadio Report said their research suggested that resources may have been under-allocated to the Road Patrol. The standard nationally is 60 percent.

Under the previous administration, the department allocated 46 percent of its sworn workforce to road patrol.

Since then, that percentage may have dropped. While current Sheriff Kevin McConville told county legislators and Patch he would not reveal how many patrols are now assigned per shift, he did say that he was not following the previous administration's routine daily deployment of what he called an "unfunded patrol."

The consultants recommended that the county solicit input from residents about how comfortable they are with the low level of officers per capita.

They also recommended the Department hire more deputies for road patrol. While that would have an impact on the budget, it would have "the largest reduction in Shift Coverage overtime" which would partly offset the cost.

Also, because of the pattern of calls for service, the consultant recommended the staffing level on the evening road patrol shift be raised to seven from six for the day shift and lowered to five from six on the evening shift.

Another of the conclusions in the report is that the Sheriff's Department is allocating significant resources to calls for service in Carmel, which has its own police department. According to the report, roughly one in eight calls to which the road patrol responds is in Carmel.

"As such, it is crucial that the county evaluate the status of its shared service agreement with the Town of Carmel Police Department. The goal of such an evaluation would be to ensure the service provided by the Department is appropriately aligned with the Department's current resources, capability to provide such service, and the County's desired arrangement with the Town of Carmel."

If that is done, they said, "it is reasonable to expect that future changes to the shared service agreement may impact the number of deputies needed to effectively operate the Department's Road Patrol unit."

The report was commissioned in 2020 and received in January. It was sent to Legislator Ginny Nacerino, chair of the Protective Services Committee, June 8.

Patch made a FOIL request for the report in May, which was rejected on the basis that consultants' reports are exempt intra-agency communication under the New York State Freedom of Information Law.

SEE ALSO:

• Putnam Sheriff Working To Reorganize Department
• Putnam Lawmakers, Sheriff Spar Over Budget Process
• Op-Ed: Putnam Officials Have Defunded The Sheriff's Department
• Op-Ed: Law Enforcement And The 2021 Putnam County Budget
• Letter To The Editor: Langley Responds To Odell's Attack
• Putnam County Government: Letter To The Editor 10/22/2021 "Much Ado About The Boat Patrol"