By: Gena Johnson | Warren Weekly | Published October 15, 2024
WARREN — The Warren City Council has overruled Mayor Lori Stone’s veto of its resolution calling for the Warren Police Department to again begin hiring officers in-house.
The resolution seeks to take the responsibility away from the city’s Human Resources Department, which has been most recently handling it for a year after changes implemented by Stone.
At the Oct. 8 meeting, council members voted 6-1 to overturn the veto and have the Police Department hire its officers.
The mayor said it was an overreach for the council to concern themselves with administrative matters and that they are responsible for matters of the purse and budgets. This is one of the reasons she vetoed the resolution.
“We understand our role,” Warren City Council Secretary Mindy Moore said at the meeting. “Our role is to speak for the residents.”
Councilwoman Melody Magee cast the lone opposing vote.
“My concern is this will go back and forth, and she (the mayor) will veto it every time,” Magee said.
Magee added, “We have been appointed a new (police) commissioner. Maybe we should hold off until the commissioner either accepts wanting to do the hiring or not.”
How this started
At the Sept. 24 Warren City Council meeting, council members voted unanimously, 7-0, to have the Police Department once again handle the hiring of police officers in order to streamline recruiting and expedite the process.
The resolution would give police bonuses and incentives to attract and retain quality officers and make the department more competitive with surrounding communities. The incentives would be paid for by the salary and benefit savings from vacant department positions.
The resolution called for the Police Department to do the hiring for one year, at which time the hiring of officers may return to the Human Resources Department, once that department is fully staffed and can handle the workload of hiring officers in a timely manner.
“Upon taking office, my commitment was to return hiring to human resources,” Stone said. “Hiring is the task and the professional experience of human resources.”
The City Council has budgeted 175 police positions for the fiscal year. Currently, there are nine dispatcher vacancies and 23 officer vacancies. The number grows as officers retire.
“City Council and taxpayers of Warren expect a fully staffed Police Department to protect the safety and welfare of the residents because the residents pay a dedicated police millage,” Council Secretary Mindy Moore said. “Whereas the Human Resources Department does not have the staffing to certify passing police candidate names in a timely manner, resulting in applicants going elsewhere (to work).”
Acting Warren Police Commissioner Charles Rushton was asked to give an impromptu address and answer questions related to the Police Department doing its own hiring.
“We handled hiring up to a year ago. We did it for several years. Again, we’re willing to either assist the Human Resources Department or, if it is sent back to the Police Department, we’ll handle it, like we did before,” Rushton said. “The best thing the Police Department can do is, obviously, we can speed up the process. We’re cutting out the middlemen, basically, or women in this case. So we can get the backgrounds (background checks) done and things like that a little faster.”
Rushton added, “If we went back to the process in which we were doing, it did shorten the time by several weeks that we could get an applicant through the process.”
This resolution was not on the agenda when it was posted online on Friday, Sept. 20. It was added at the beginning of the council meeting, which made some question the transparency of the City Council.
“The lack of transparency was an issue,” Stone said. “I think if this had been out (on the agenda) sooner or had been tabled for more discussion we could have gotten our council members more information so they could make a better-informed decision.”
According to Rushton, the incentives would need to be followed up with the Police Officers Association to make sure it was in compliance with the officers’ contracts.
The commissioner, the mayor and the council all agreed that it is a very competitive job market, and the Warren Police Department is a “destination” agency. However, there are other very good police departments in the surrounding community also competing for talent.
“Getting that recruit through the process faster gives us a better chance of hiring that recruit,” Rushton said.
“Hiring went much faster under the Police Department. We know that. Things have slowed down so much that people are taking jobs at other places,” Moore said.
The jobs are not posted anywhere around the city, according to Moore. The city does not have an online process to apply for jobs. According to the mayor, the software is being developed and is in the early stages.
There have been 16 police officers hired through human resources during the 10 months the mayor has been in office and police recruitment cycles are continually being implemented, Stone said.
The mayor also said there were some problems when the Human Resources Department was not doing the hiring but would not elaborate on what the problems were.
Councilman Henry Newnan expressed concern if police hiring returns to the Police Department about the safeguards in place to ensure officers will not “misbehave” and the city will not have to pay out settlements.
Rushton said EMPulse is a state licensing board for police officers. By law, they are now required to give all the background information on a candidate instead of just picking and choosing the information that is shared.
Regarding her veto, Stone said Warren residents are safe today and every day because of the Warren Police Department, which is capable of responding to calls for assistance and emergencies. She said violent crimes are down.