City Shelved Layoff of 395 NYPD Civilians To Give Cops Duties

EDDIE RODRIGUEZ: City saved itself embarrassment.

Mayor Bloomberg's threatened layoff of 395 civilian members of the NYPD was taken out of this year's final budget after it was revealed that higher-paid Police Officers would be taken off the streets to fill the jobs of Police Administrative Aides, who earn less than $30,000 a year.

"They would have been embarrassed if President Obama found out about police doing clerical jobs," said District Council 37 Local 1549 President Eddie Rodriguez in reference to the NYPD waiting on funds from two Federal grants to pay for the hiring of Police Officers. "When money comes down from Washington, they really have to look where it goes."

A mayoral spokesman, Marc La- Vorgna, did not have details on where the funding to restore the civilian cuts came from, but he said in a phone interview, "We worked with the Police Department and budget staff to identify savings so we could retain those positions."

Mr. Rodriguez has been out-spoken in opposition to the layoffs that he called "unnecessary."

"In these difficult times, replacing 989 civilians with trained police officers is unacceptable," Mr. Rodriguez, who represents about 3,000 PAAs, Senior PAAs and other clerical workers at the NYPD, told a City Council panel in May. "Reducing civilians who save money at the NYPD is the wrong thing to do, especially at a time when the city is spending $9 billion on private contractors. How could you spend so much money on private contractors?"

Awaiting Ruling

The union continues to await enforcement of an arbitrator's ruling five years ago that clerical work in the NYPD should be done by civilian rather than uniformed employees.

"We're still fighting," Mr. Rodriguez said in a phone interview. The NYPD continues to use as many as 3,500 uniformed officers in civilian positions despite the ruling, according to Ralph Palladino, the second vice president of Local 1549. Mr. Rodriguez said the budget restoration "was nothing but a smokescreen. Police are still doing administrative jobs."

Despite increased funding to retain many of these workers, the civilian NYPD ranks will continue to dwindle through the loss of provisional workers. "We don't know how many people are going to be lost," he said. "The Mayor is looking for people with longevity" to cut from the employment rolls.

Switch Could Save $36M

City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. and his predecessor, Alan G. Hevesi, both estimated major cost savings would be produced by civilianizing. Mr. Hevesi once forecast savings of $36.2 million by civilianization.

Mr. Rodriguez said the union has been fighting since 1975 to ensure that civilian employees perform clerical work that before then was generally handled by cops. In 2004, an arbitrator directed the NYPD to replace uniformed officers occupying clerical positions with civilians. A State Supreme Court Justice upheld the ruling in 2005, as did the Appellate Division two years later.