We are going to briefly get into the Step System that most employers, especially municipal and government employers have because of the Unions. I believe (90 percent) that the Town of Cheshire has a Step system, and my significant other had mentioned it at the Police Budget Workshop.

And no, you know who, my significant other is NOT advising you when union negotiations come up unless I GIVE HIM PERMISSION and right now and I not too happy!! So we will see.

Now my sig other has worked for the state for nearly 30 years and their step system is one of the best. My sig other told me the other night that he remembers all the town candidates, including me, (but I lied), who stated at the Candidates debate night that they all supported the Police Department. But, what have they really done to support them?

Sit there and not ask questions. No, that is not enough.

Now here is basically how the step system works with the State of Connecticut employees who have anywhere between a seven and a nine step system.

The Cheshire Police Department, I believe, has a five step system.

When a person gets hired to work at the Labor Department, the person can be at a different pay grade than another person who also just got hired, but there are seven to nine steps in the pay grade.

So this step system recognizes a persons experience and training.

For example, a supervisor in the Labor Department could make less money than one of its employees he or she is supervising only because that employee has been on the job longer than the supervisor.

So how is this fair? Only so many people can be promoted. Eventually, the supervisor will make more, because he or she can move up the ladder further, because his or her steps will eventually pay more money. The regular employee reaches a ceiling sooner than the supervisor.

With a five step system, employment and training ceases to be recognized after FIVE years unless you get promoted. So, technically, a patrol officer who is at the CPD for let’s say eight years, could be making the same money as a patrol officer working at CPD for five years. So, that is really not fair. There is a ceiling at five years for every officer unless you get promoted. If you don’t, that is the end of the line and that is where the disparity lies.

You would get better retention if even another step was added.

Now what about Longevity payments? The CPD has them, and they are given out twice a year as is the case with the Labor Department, but it doesn’t have enough recognition of experience and training, because it basically boils down to several hundred dollars a year.

So, we are advocating an additional pay step to be added to the Cheshire Police Department’s contract.

And we need to take action when action needs to be taken and not worry about whether or not it will get on the news, as I have stated before. That is part of the problem too. Police officers have to feel they can act like the police (within guidelines of the law of course), without 14 people having to be contacted before they can make a move. Police work involves split second decision making. Sometimes there is no time to contact certain people in Town Government for permission. I am not talking about immediate supervisors, you know who I mean.

If when we called the Montreal Police about my son several months back, when he was “pre-occupied” like a young man will be at times, and we had not heard from him in several weeks, and they acted like this town, he still would be sitting in his apartment.

Within 10 minutes after we contacted the MPD, it was over.

The MPD assumed the worst and went over to the apartment with a battering ram, mind you. They knocked on the door. When no one answered right away, the broke the door down, grabbed him, threw him out into the hallway of his apartment building, where several officers were waiting on the stairwell, searched the apartment and then had him contact us. Our son told us the MPD told him they assumed he was being held against his will or worse when he had not contacted us in several weeks, despite our attempts to contact him on a daily basis. I know Canada is not the U.S. but they have STRONG respect for human rights.

Oh, and btw, that did NOT get on the news. That was police work without interference from people who can’t make split second decisions because they are worried about their image.