Hoffman Estates lays off four police officers

Four Hoffman Estates police officers were laid off on New Year's Eve for financial reasons as expected, and the local police union says it plans no further action to save their jobs.

However, the president of the Metropolitan Alliance of Police - the umbrella union that represents the department's officers - is continuing to argue that public safety is taking a hit due to the village's financial mistakes, including its takeover of the struggling Sears Centre arena.

Hoffman Estates Police Chief Clinton Herdegen already disputed the union's allegations that public safety would suffer, in a mass e-mail to residents last Sunday.

In his message, Herdegen said that patrol staffing would be maintained at current levels and that the department's reduction in personnel would be accounted for with reassignments from desk jobs and the DARE program.

But Metropolitan Alliance of Police President Joseph Andalina on Thursday accused Herdegen of backing the politicians rather than his officers.

"The chiefs never sit on the right side of the table, and I understand that they're department heads," Andalina said. "But he would have been a wiser individual not to say anything. If you're the chief of police, stay out of it. Don't let your police officers get mad at you."

Andalina added that the village seems to have already forgotten the two-day suburban crime spree of escaped prisoner Robert Maday in the fall, or the recent killing of four police officers in Washington state.

Herdegen could not be reached Thursday.

Hoffman Estates officials have steadfastly denied that any of the financial concessions they've recently asked from the police, fire and public works unions have any connection to the $1.2 million to $1.8 million they expect to spend on operating the Sears Centre in 2010.

Andalina said that of the 180 police departments his union represents, 30-35 have threatened layoffs but only three have followed through.

Considering that the weak economy is a universal condition, he attributes the fact that only a few have laid officers off to unrelated financial messes.

But Hoffman Estates Village Manager Jim Norris said he's heard of many unionized departments across the state - police or otherwise -- that have granted concessions or faced layoffs in recent months.

To avoid layoffs, Hoffman Estates asked its police, fire and public works unions to each take $600,000 in concessions, including postponing raises in 2010.

The police union was specifically asked to forgo a 4 percent salary raise in 2010 that is promised by the current four-year contract.

But Andalina said his union has a policy of not granting concessions on contracts already negotiated.