OCEAN CITY — At least one Ocean City councilman this week questioned if the unanimous vote to hire 10 new officers was a knee-jerk reaction immediately following the troublesome pop-up car rally event.
Last week Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) Chief Ross Buzzuro and Captain Mike Colbert came before the Mayor and Council seeking approval to hire 10 new full-time sworn officers. Among other things, the chief said the department’s number of full-time officers has been stagnant for a long time, while the town has grown and the off-season special events have multiplied.
In addition, with police departments all over the country under increased scrutiny, the need for highly-trained full-time officers has increased. Buzzuro’s recommendation was to beef up the full-time, year-round police force and scale back somewhat on the seasonal officer program. He cited the difficulty in finding and hiring qualified seasonal officers as another reason for seeking the additional full-time officers.
After considerable debate, the council voted unanimously to approve the hiring of 10 new full-time officers. A week later, Councilman John Gehrig, who last week voted to approve the request, questioned if the decision was made hastily without truly vetting the details.
“I have an uneasy feeling about hiring 10 new full-time police officers without more detail,” he said. “I certainly support the request, but I am definitely concerned. Was it a coincidence or just good timing to have it on the agenda immediately after a law enforcement nightmare?”
Gehrig was referring to the pop-up car rally that ended just a day earlier. During that special event, hundreds of allied law enforcement officers from all over the region were brought in to support the OCPD and hundreds of arrests were made. Gehrig questioned if the decision to hire 10 additional officers was n emotional one because of the timing.
“We didn’t vote to review it, we voted to hire them,” he said. “The motion was made 10 minutes into the conversation. I think we need to slow it down and have the discussion in a work session. Isn’t that the purpose of a work session? Why do we need to ram it in?”
There is an obvious cost associated with adding 10 new full-time police officers. The estimated primary cost for each new officer is around $86,000 in salary and benefits and training, for an estimated base total of $866,000. That does not include the cost of outfitting the new officers with uniforms and equipment, and potentially vehicles, for example.
Because of the current economic uncertainty and the considerable cost associated with hiring 10 new officers, Gehrig said the decision should be revisited. He did not say he regretted the decision. Instead, he wanted to review it in its totality.
“I’m just asking to slow it down,” he said. “Let’s slow it down and go through the workshop process. I think we made an emotional decision, but now we have to use logic. We’re talking about $1.5 million. This is a big decision.”
Mayor Rick Meehan agreed decisions such as hiring additional police officers should be made after careful vetting in a work session.
“I think it’s a good conversation,” he said. “Whether it’s hiring police officers or hiring an economic development director, we need to get together collectively and make a list of what we need to discuss. Maybe that would eliminate some of the frustration. Let’s get these kinds of things on the agenda in a timely fashion.”
Later in the week, City Manager Doug Miller said a discussion on how to pay for the new hires is already on next week’s work session agenda.
“We’re bringing the discussion of how all of this will be paid for at the work session on Oct. 13,” he said. “While this discussion is primarily financial, there may be other directives that come from it.”
