Aurora police union proposes alternatives to layoffs, pay cuts

The Aurora police union has ideas it believes will generate enough money to prevent the pay cuts or layoffs that may be necessary to help balance the city's budget.

Start charging an administrative fee for booking prisoners. Enforce overweight truck laws. Begin prosecuting DUI offenders within the city. Begin requiring city vehicle stickers. And train two evidence technicians to run tests that determine whether a substance is marijuana.

The man at the head of the police union, Association of Professional Police Officers President David Schmidt, spoke to city council against police layoffs Tuesday night.

“Any layoffs will jeopardize the public safety,” he said.

But Schmidt said city officials are not taking seriously the union's suggestions for ways to avoid layoffs.

Carie Anne Ergo, chief management officer for the city, confirmed the union raised some possibly revenue-generating ideas during negotiations. She said the ideas are being reviewed and considered by city staff.

“Some are good and we will see implementation,” Ergo said. “Others are administratively difficult and not worth the cost.”

Schmidt said other cities, including Naperville, have proven that booking fees, truck weight enforcement and local DUI prosecution successfully raise money for municipal governments.

Naperville charges an administrative booking fee of $50 and already imposes two other strategies mentioned by the Aurora police union, Sgt. Greg Bell said.

“(The booking fee) brings in additional funds that are applied to the general fund of the city of Naperville,” Bell said.

The Naperville Police Department has a traffic unit that sometimes focuses on enforcing statewide laws about truck weights and truck routes, Bell said. The city also prosecutes drunk drivers in-house, which results in different amounts of money from each case.

Ergo said law enforcement is not intended to generate revenue, which creates an issue with the union's suggestions.

Robin Trettenero, police union vice president, said most of the union's recommendations are designed to increase city revenue without adding costs to average citizens. The union's lowest priority idea implementing city vehicle stickers is its only suggestion that would require residents to shell out more money, she said.

If the city imposes layoffs of between 20 and 25 police officers the number Ergo said is necessary to cover concessions requested from the police union Schmidt said the Aurora Police Department will be forced to remove officers from special assignments such as Community Oriented Policing (COP) in neighborhoods, resource officers in middle schools and high schools, and gang reduction units.

Two Aurora citizens joined Schmidt in speaking to the city council against letting police officers go, specifically the Community Oriented Policing officer in the Eastwood development managed by the Aurora Housing Authority.

“To think about losing our COP officer in that area, that patrols that area, that keeps those kids safe ... just to see the loss of them would really be detrimental to our area and we ask that we keep our COP officers on the street.” Aurora resident Carolyn Williams said.

But Mayor Tom Weisner said there is no immediate threat that Community Oriented Policing officers will be reassigned, even if police layoffs must occur.

“At this point, that is only conjecture,” Weisner said.

Schmidt said the union believes layoffs would hurt the police department's progress in decreasing crime and dealing with calls for service.

“Our sincerest wish is to maintain the ground we've gained in our fight against crime,” Schmidt said.