Des Plaines mayoral veto stands

Des Plaines Mayor Marty Moylan’s first mayoral veto, over the restructuring of the city’s police administration, stands after a city council vote Monday night to override it failed to gain a two-thirds majority.

Moylan said he felt strongly enough about not having a top-heavy police department to issue the veto.

“We need more policemen in the field,” Moylan said. “(Residents) are concerned with boots on the ground and so am I. I believe that a police chief and three deputy chiefs is too much. This is not the way that I think the police department should be managed.”

The total number of police department employee positions authorized in 2012 is 116, including 68 uniformed patrolmen. The department has only two deputy chiefs after the recent retirement of Deputy Chief Rich Rozkuszka, who headed the investigations division.

“And the department has been working fine without one deputy chief,” Moylan said.

During a November meeting, aldermen voted 7-1 authorizing changing the title of three deputy chief positions to the lower rank of captain to save money and eliminating a vacant detective position. The reorganization would have allowed for three administrators under the police chief.

The change would have affected the salary only of the new person appointed to the captain’s position and not the salary of the two current deputy police chiefs, Angela Burton and Mike Kozak.

At the end of that meeting, Moylan read a statement opposing the plan. His veto would allow for two deputy chief positions to remain, and he suggested the salary of the third deputy chief be allocated to fill officer positions.

The vote to override Moylan’s veto was 5-3 with Mark Walsten (6th Ward), Dan Wilson (7th), Mike Charewicz (8th), Patti Haugeberg (1st) and Matt Bogusz (3rd) voting with the majority, and John Robinson (2nd), Dick Sayad (4th), and James Brookman (5th) voting against it.

“Being chairman of public safety, I feel that I really want to get behind the management of the chief of police,” Walsten said. “I think it’s going to save us money.”

Charewicz said Police Chief Jim Prandini, who wasn’t at Monday night’s meeting, has done a great job of reducing the police department’s operating budget and that he couldn’t envision making more cuts.

“I’d like to try the three-tier system and see how that works,” he said.

Brookman said he supported Moylan’s veto because he felt it would save more money.

Deputy Police Chief Mike Kozak said the department’s three divisions — operations, support services, and investigations — likely will be consolidated with support services and investigations merging into one division.

However, the city council must still vote on the plan to run the department with only two deputy chiefs and eliminate the third position, which is likely to happen in the coming weeks.

The department reorganization won’t occur until the new year, Kozak said.