28 Pgh police officers and OT (edit: Mayor Luke gone?)

[Letang Is The Truth]

My brother is a cop outside of PA, and he works a ton of extra events as OT. He may end up working all day. If you put the work in, you should be paid.

The media always makes the cops look bad where he's from. A crackhead could be opening fire in a public area, forcing them to shoot him, and the media always focuses on shooters family to make it look tragic. That example has actually happened.

He says the media never tells the full story.

While I understand it's an extreme example, if the cop's salary is $66k and he makes an additional $105k, that means he's working, on average, 80 to 90 hours a week for an entire year.

I don't blame him for doing so if he's putting in the time, but that's incredibly wasteful.

YEah, and if a cop is logging 90 hours a week, it would be cheaper to pay the "overhead" to hire more workers.

would it? in the example listed above the officer is making 39k greater than his normal wage. if he is issued that by working an extra 30 hours per week, this is about 1700 hours yearly. with pensions, bennys, etc you arent going to find someone to work 1700 hours and pay them 39k

No, you misunderstand. His salary is $66k. His premium time paid is $105k. Total compensation: $171k.

Oooooo

[mac5155]

[Idoit40fans]

I still don't understand this renting out of employees. Why an organization would do this makes no sense to me.

[pfim]

I still don't understand this renting out of employees. Why an organization would do this makes no sense to me.

I think it's a decent way to have these guys supplement their income. Meaning it's more likely they'll stay cops if they have this than go work privately. And it should be a revenue generator for the department, though in reality it doesn't seem like it is.

And it seems completely out of hand.

[Idoit40fans]

Yeah, I guess i'm just not seeing the benefit for the department, but I guess thats probably because of the way that they're implementing it.

[thepittman]

If I work two network admin jobs I'm not getting payed OT for the second one. I don't like this "renting" of law enforcement officers unless the business that is renting them is paying all of their extra pay.

[roland]

If I work two network admin jobs I'm not getting payed OT for the second one. I don't like this "renting" of law enforcement officers unless the business that is renting them is paying all of their extra pay.

The businesses are paying all of the extra pay. That is not the issue at hand. The problem is that when the businesses repaid the Pgh Police, the money wasn't deposited back into the fund that it was taken from. the money went to a 3rd account under the supervision of Nate Harper rather than the finance dept. This special account had debit cards that higher ups used and allegedly Ravenstahls body guards had cards as well which were used for travel expenses.

why WTAE put this list out is beyond me since the amount of OT worked isn't the issue at hand. It's all about shady accounting practices with the money that was reimbursed back into the police department.

[Idoit40fans]

If I work two network admin jobs I'm not getting payed OT for the second one. I don't like this "renting" of law enforcement officers unless the business that is renting them is paying all of their extra pay.

The businesses are paying all of the extra pay. That is not the issue at hand. The problem is that when the businesses repaid the Pgh Police, the money wasn't deposited back into the fund that it was taken from. the money went to a 3rd account under the supervision of Nate Harper rather than the finance dept. This special account had debit cards that higher ups used and allegedly Ravenstahls body guards had cards as well which were used for travel expenses.

why WTAE put this list out is beyond me since the amount of OT worked isn't the issue at hand. It's all about shady accounting practices with the money that was reimbursed back into the police department.

That may not be your issue, but its certainly an understandable concern. I have the same one.

[pfim]

It may be a separate issue, but if a patrolman is overworked or if pension calculations are affected by the overtime, then of course it is an issue the public should care about.

[slappybrown]

If I work two network admin jobs I'm not getting payed OT for the second one. I don't like this "renting" of law enforcement officers unless the business that is renting them is paying all of their extra pay.

The businesses are paying all of the extra pay. That is not the issue at hand. The problem is that when the businesses repaid the Pgh Police, the money wasn't deposited back into the fund that it was taken from. the money went to a 3rd account under the supervision of Nate Harper rather than the finance dept. This special account had debit cards that higher ups used and allegedly Ravenstahls body guards had cards as well which were used for travel expenses.

why WTAE put this list out is beyond me since the amount of OT worked isn't the issue at hand. It's all about shady accounting practices with the money that was reimbursed back into the police department.

I think the pitfalls associated with working 80-100 hours a week for a job such as policeman are obvious, particularly where the pay for the security detail is a helluva a lot more than the actual job. That doesn't mean it was illegal for them to do so, but its not a system that should be the one in place moving forward.

[slappybrown]

Mac, is that pic Ravenstahl or something?

[mac5155]

Mac, is that pic Ravenstahl or something?

Yeah I guess it was taken at McFaddens.

[AlexPKeaton]

I don't understand the problem unless the cops were charging hours that they were not working. Businesses are paying the city for the hours that the cops are working, it isn't even wasting tax money. Unless there is some shady crap where this is getting funneled into some fund that isn't known.

[shmenguin]

I don't understand the problem unless the cops were charging hours that they were not working. Businesses are paying the city for the hours that the cops are working, it isn't even wasting tax money. Unless there is some shady crap where this is getting funneled into some fund that isn't known.

the pension thing isn't great, but yeah, i haven't found any of this to be that out of bounds.

[pittsoccer33]

the money isn't going in the city/police accounts that its supposed to go to. its going into a slush fund that the mayor and his pals used for off the books purchases and travel.

[DropEmJayBird]

technically the businesses are paying for police coverage via taxes. Having to pay extra just means they want something a bit more - which is fine.

I'm okay with cops working overtime if businesses want them specifically.

I'm not okay with pensions being based on the total amount of this overtime, nor if the money being paid for this purpose is ending in someone's slush account.

[slappybrown]

Personally, I don't want my cops working 100 hours a week. Lots of jobs have restrictions on additional part-time work. You can call this OT, but this is a second job. They should probably max out at 60 hours a week or something.

[pfim]

Cops shouldn't be working 80 hours a week.

It also makes very little sense to pay someone so much overtime when hiring another patrolman to work at regular wage would save on cost.

[mac5155]

Let's be honest is hanging out with mayor Luke at McFaddens on a Friday night "work"

[JS©]

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2013/02/ ... ut-future/

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl is expected to make a major announcement today concerning his family and his future, KDKA-TV has learned.
Sources tell KDKA Investigator Andy Sheehan that the mayor may hold a news conference sometime this afternoon.
At that time he could announce that he will finish out his term, but not run for re-election and retire from politics. Currently he’s locked in a primary election battle with controller Michael Lamb, and Councilman Bill Peduto.
Sources say the mayor could also announce that he is stepping down under the strain of the current federal grand jury investigation of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police.

[mac5155]

take the easy way out luke, you've done it all your career

[viva la ben]

Steelerstahl should announce his resignation then break into "My Way" as he exits stage left.

[Rylan]

How long has he been in office?

[Letang Is The Truth]

Mayor Resignationstahl

[JS©]

How long has he been in office?

2006