Naperville to rehire three more police officers

Three former Naperville police officers will be sitting by the phone this morning, anxiously awaiting being called back to the force.

Council members voted 6-2 Tuesday night to bring back three more of the six police officers laid off in November. The city rehired the most senior of the laid-off officers in mid-February after a commander position was vacated by a retirement.

City Manager Doug Krieger said the officers will be called this morning and each has preliminarily agreed to come back.

“They're absolutely expecting a phone call but we have steps we have to go through,” Krieger said. “We have to notify them in seniority order, offer them the position, they come back, we send them for a physical and there's a reorientation process we have to follow.”

The callbacks were made possible by a plan city officials say could save the city $320,000 annually by eliminating several unfilled positions.

The retirement incentive plan offered to sworn police employees in January resulted in the retirement of three commanders and one officer. Additionally, two officers have recently resigned to take jobs with other departments, leaving the department with a total of six sworn vacancies.

The department will increase the maximum number of deputy chiefs from two to three, decrease the number of commander positions from eight to five, rehire three police officers from the layoff eligibility list and eliminate a communications supervisor.

A sergeant is also expected to be promoted to commander and an officer to sergeant.

The plan is expected to save the city $320,000 annually, and factoring in the annual $851,000 savings from police layoffs last year, about $1 million less in fiscal year 2012 than 2011.

But that's not enough to satisfy outgoing councilman Dick Furstenau, who along with councilman Grant Wehrli opposed the rehires. Wehrli was ill and participating by telephone.

“At this point in time, with the future we've got in front of us with dollars and cents, I don't believe we can afford to be bringing people back,” Furstenau said. “We've been getting along without those folks and I'm sorry about that. But left up to me, we wouldn't be calling anybody back at this point in time.”

Police union President Vince Clark was not available following Tuesday's meeting but said Monday that patrol officers are excited about the plan to bring back three more officers but hopes council members don't stop there.

“Once this goes through, we'll be pushing for more hires,” Clark said Monday. “We still feel there is more room for growth at the officer level.”

The layoffs were announced in November, days after the council approved the pact that gave officers raises of 3.3 percent for 2009-10 and 3 percent in both 2010-11 and 2011-12. The deal also included a 50 percent increase in police personnel health insurance premium contributions, to 15 percent from 10 percent of the total premium cost.

Members of the union, which represents 137 Naperville officers, argued the subject of layoffs never came up during negotiations and the final contract agreement was based entirely on the city's own offer. They have since been awarded a May 26 hearing before the Illinois Labor Relations Board.

Clark said the union is likely to pursue the Unfair Labor Practice suit, despite the hiring plan.