FOR THE RECORD

For The Record

Even as Police Commissioner Ray Kelly worries about the impact the most recent Patrolmen's Benevolent Association contract is having on the department's ability to recruit top personnel, a similar headache may be developing in higher ranks.

Captains' Endowment Association President John Driscoll, whose tenure in the NYPD includes a stint in its personnel bureau, said last week that not only are significantly fewer candidates filing for the Police Officer exam, a dwindling number of incumbents are taking promotion tests.

"When I took the test [for Captain], 98 percent of the eligible Lieutenants applied for it," said Mr. Driscoll, who was promoted in 1992. Less than 50 percent of the Lieutenants with enough service time to be eligible took the most recent exam for Captain, he said.

The drop-off has coincided with a series of police union contracts that have struggled to keep pace with inflation and left officers falling further behind what their counterparts in suburban police departments are paid. The added pressure placed on Captains over the past decade by the NYPD's COMPSTAT system, which relies heavily on positive movement regarding a variety of indicators, has added to the reluctance of some Lieutenants to move up, Mr. Driscoll said.

The pay scale for Captains has suffered since a prior CEA leader, Bill Kelly, was forced to make concessions beyond those accepted by the PBA to match that union's wage gains under a 1988 contract. After the contract problem contributed heavily to Mr. Kelly's defeat at Mr. Driscoll's hands, the union's focus has been on upgrading the pay scale for new Captains - the group that bore the brunt of the concessions more than 15 years ago.

History is repeating itself, with the PBA last summer having gotten an arbitration award that provides 5-percent annual raises but includes concessions affecting new hires. Since the turnover rate among Captains is lower than for Police Officers, the Bloomberg administration wants even greater givebacks from the CEA, with another stretching of the pay scale the most likely avenue.

That led Mr. Driscoll to remark, "If I had less than 50 percent [of eligible Lieutenants] taking the Captain's test after I used the last two contracts to fix the old stretch, what's gonna happen if I'm forced to take another one?"

He continued, "I don't want to put in another stretch; it hurts the Police Department and as a union leader I feel it's just wrong. The problem is, you need to maintain the same raise that everyone else gets."

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Three major figures in the city's labor relations - mediator Ted Kheel, labor lawyer Basil Paterson and mediator/arbitrator George Nicolau - are being honored for their mediation work by the New York City Chapter of the Industrial Relations Research Association at its Jan. 23 meeting.

Mr. Kheel is a nationally known mediator who is perhaps best remembered locally for his work in mediating transit disputes.

Mr. Paterson is a former Deputy Mayor for Labor Relations whose clients include prominent unions such as the United Federation of Teachers, Transport Workers' Union Local 100, Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union and Teamsters Local 237.

Mr. Nicolau is a longtime neutral member of the city's Board of Collective Bargaining.

The reception in their honor will begin at 5:30 p.m. at the Williams Club, 24 East 39th St. in mid-Manhattan. Tickets are $50 for members who make reservations by Jan. 19, $60 for nonmembers who do so, and there will be an additional $5 surcharge for all those without reservations. For further information, call (212) 627-8100, ext. 209.

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Virtually all state civil service examinations can now be filed for online, Civil Service Commissioner Dan Wall has announced, with those utilizing that option able to pay filing fees by credit card using a secure system.

Eventually, he said, the department expects that exams consisting of minimum qualification reviews and responses to training and experience test questionnaires will also be conducted on-line. Candidates will not have to repeatedly enter background details when applying for more than one job.