Police Referral and Signing Bonus Passes - $10,000 Per Hire Who Stays Longer Than 6 Months

The slightly revolving door of the Beacon Police Department just got a golden appliqué. At the December 16, 2024 City Council meeting, the Council unanimously passed a resolution presented by City Administrator Chris White for the payment of $5,000 to a member of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association (PBA) who refers a Police Officer of New York State to the City of Beacon’s Police Department, and $5,000 to that Officer if they stay in the job longer than six months.

Salaries of Beacon Police Officers have also increased 5% since September 2024, when the Council voted unanimously to move the salaries to more closely match municipalities around the region.

Staffing Challenges

For over a decade, the Beacon Police Department has been understaffed. With 36 positions available, the department currently has 8 openings, with 2 out on injury, and 1 in the academy who is not yet able to serve on their shift. The constant demand for more officers to regularly patrol Main Street for traffic violations - either on foot or on bike or from sitting in the car - is difficult.

On August 19, 2024, Police Chief Thomas Figlia presented to the Council that the department was in what he called a “crisis,” with officers leaving Beacon for other municipalities with higher salaries. As reported by the Highlands Current, “Of the 31 police officers hired in Beacon since 2014, 12 have left for better-paying jobs elsewhere, Figlia said.”

Salary Differences

At the August 19, 2024 City Council Meeting, the Council unanimously agreed to pass a 5% raise for police salaries. The Starting Salary in 2025 would have been just over $61,000, according to the 2022-2025 PBA’s contract. According reporting by the Highland Current, salaries of the Town of Poughkeepsie were presented to Council, which showed that “a patrol officer in Poughkeepsie reaches his or her top pay of $106,414 after four years of service. In the Town of Poughkeepsie, it’s $113,300 after five years. In Beacon, a patrol officer hits the ceiling of $98,553 after six years. The 5 percent raise, which the council approved unanimously, brings the number to $103,481. The ceiling rises to $106,068 next year.” City Administrator Chris declared at the August 19th meeting before the vote that Beacon is no longer competitive with other nearby municipalities.

On August 19th, the 5% raises were passed, bringing the Starting Salary from $61,683 to $64,767 starting September 1, 2024. Then starting January 1, 2025, that would increase to $66,062, according to the Memorandum of Agreement between the PBA and the City of Beacon.

NYPD Recruitment

The hiring pool grew larger with recent changes in Civil Service law in New York State that allows Beacon to hire officers from the New York State Police Department (NYPD), City Administrator Cris stated during the meeting. “We've been interviewing a few.” He went on to voice his preference for recruiting NYPD officers: “The officers are kind of a close-knit community, and if we get one person from NYPD, that person has all of the contacts they worked with in the city and then can say they have a personal incentive to try to recruit them for us.”

Does The Referral/Hiring Bonus Combo Impact Retention?

This referral/hiring bonus combo is the latest attempt to fill the force with officers. However, it is not clear why this referral bonus would help retain an officer once hired. The bonus is paid out to the two parties after the officer has reached 6 months of employment. It would be helpful to know Beacon’s retention rate.

The public is informed of when new officers are hired or promoted, as they require a vote from Council. Retirements are also announced, as they are congratulatory and require new pension payments. But when officers are fired, demoted, or leave for another position, this development is not announced, and is reserved for Executive Session, which is closed to the public.

Workplace culture may also need some nurturing, as vacation days are encouraged to be “bought back” by the City and not used by the officers, as explained by City Administrator Chris on December 16th. He promoted vacation-days-for-cash, which encourages officers to not use their time but to sell their unused days. Workplace culture currently encourages time off for life balance and mental health. City Administrator Chris focused on getting “bodies in the door” during the meeting, a phrase which is not indicative of showing value.

Improvement to the facilities may also help. One or two budget cycles ago, then Police Chief Sands Frost mentioned the locker room at the Police Station being in need of an upgrade. With the new Fire Station across the street with the new geothermal floor, perhaps it is time for a little more comfort down at the Police Station.

With overtime being paid to members of the Highway Department to renovate the men’s 3rd floor bathroom at City Hall, perhaps renovations can be made to the Police locker room if there is another $50,000 paid by Central Hudson to Beacon to do more paving after Central Hudson completes work under the street in the Spring.

Or, if the $10,000 per new hire is not used for recruits, or sunsets on December 31, 2025, perhaps the lump sum can go toward renovations at the Police Station.

$5,000 Police Referral Bonus and $5,000 Signing Bonus Proposed To Attract NYPD And Others To Beacon

Photo Credit: City of Beacon Police Department

At the 12/9/2024 City Council Workshop, City Administrator Chris White proposed a hiring incentive of $5,000 referral bonus and a $5,000 sign on bonus to be paid to a member of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association (PBA) who brings in a Police Officer of New York State. If approved at tonight’s City Council Meeting, this would be a pilot program and would run from January 1, 2025 to December 31, 2025, unless the City and PBA wanted to extend the program.

City Administrator Chris implied that he wanted to attract more officers from the New York Police Department (NYPD), and was interviewing one such officer now, who he hoped would spread the word to other NYPD officers if hired. “The officers are kind of a close-knit community,” City Administrator Chris told the Council, “and if we get one person from NYPD, that person has all of the contacts they worked with in the city and then can say they have a personal incentive to try to recruit them for us.”

There would be no limit to how many referral bonuses could be received if an officer was hired and stayed for 6 months. City Administrator Chris proposed: “If everything meets the requirements, they can do this numerous times, like more than one. It's not just you can only do it once if they have, like, four people and it all works out.”

People referring the officers would need to be a current member of the PBA in good standing, and would be paid after the officer stayed for 6 months. Both the referrer and the hire would be paid after the officer stayed for 6 months.

The City of Beacon’s Police Department has been short staffed for a number of years, since at least Randy Casale’s administration. The department is slated to have 36 officers, but there are currently 8 openings. Two officers are out on long-term injury; one in the academy is not available to shift yet; and another officer recently announced they are leaving for a state police job in February or March.

Per the contract with the PBA, there are minimum shift standards. If those are not met, then officers can work overtime to meet the standards. Beacon has budgeted $1 million dollars for Police overtime in the 2025 budget, City Administrator Chris explained.

Other incentives have been tried, he said, including raising wages for PBA by 5% in September, and an incentive bonus last year of $11,000. He also said they “tried to mitigate our use of overtime through allowing them to sell back vacation days.” City Administrator Chris said “if we could hire 8 people, that would cost us $880,000 and that would help to stem the the heavy use of overtime that we're forced to do just to meet the minimum shift standards.”

Going into vacation days, City Administrator Chris highlighted what they did in an old contract last year: “We had made it so that if you were here less than 7 years, you had to. If you use more than X amount of days, you had to bundle them into 5 days, and what it ended up doing was having people burn time. And for us, when somebody takes time off that they didn't need to take, it generates overtime. And instead, what we did is, we allowed them to break that up and then sell some of those days back. And that did help a little bit, but it's…unless we get more bodies in the door it's going to be hard.”

It was not clear what City Administrator Chris meant when he quantified the time as “time off that they didn’t need to take.” Since taking time off work is considered a benefit to one’s mental and physical health. Which does impact moral.

These bonuses would not be available to officers who the City hires through canvassing the Dutchess County Civil Service Police Officer list.

The full resolution can be accessed here.

Beacon Listens To Verdict Of Derek Chauvin; Justice and Accountability For George Floyd And World

On a summery Spring Tuesday afternoon, the verdict on Derek Chauvin arrived. This was after national morning news reports of speculation on how this decision could take weeks to deliberate.

Social media started lighting up at 4:30pm when news surfaced that the verdict would be read in court in moments. It had only been 2 days since the trial ended. Personal texts started arriving with predictions. Prep-time for after-school activities for parents and kids began as some people had the TV on live cable news channels or SiriusXM radio to hear live coverage.

Laces for cleats for soccer and flag football, as well as ballet slippers were pulled tight as the verdict was read for ex-police officer Derek Chauvin: Second-Degree Unintentional Murder (Guilty), Third-Degree Murder (Guilty) and Second-Degree Manslaughter (Guilty). The jury took 10-hours to deliberate over 2 days, according to CNN.

Quietly, the Black community has been watching this trial in revived trauma, afraid of no justice, while listening to reports of what the jurists were shown and told. Yet surprising testimonies were given by police training experts condemning the use of force, including the Police Chief Medaria Arradondo of the Minneapolis Police Department, who testified against former police officer Derek Chauvin during the trial: “To continue to apply that level of force to a person proned out, handcuffed behind their back — that in no way, shape or form is anything that is by policy,” said the chief as reported by the New York Times. “It is not part of our training. And it is certainly not part of our ethics or our values.”

Moraya Seeger DeGeare, MA, LMFT, a therapist based in emotional therapy in Beacon who until the last few years also lived in Minneapolis (she was born and raised in Beacon), tagged A Little Beacon Blog with the thought: “As we sit in anxious limbo…waiting. It’s come up a lot in therapy how although only kids at the time - remembering the Rodney King verdict, how this feels the same 30 years ago. Remember that fact, no matter the outcome of this trial. We MUST have the conversations with our kids.”

And each other. Thanks to local people and groups who organically organized over last Summer 2020, Beacon showed up and pulled up for the injustice and mistreatment that has been happening to Black people for ever. Groups like Beacon4BlackLives, which organically started with a few people including Justice McCray, Ciarda Hall, Stefon Seward, Xavier Mayo, and Cedric Parksdale, gave Beacon the opportunity to speak out, and tell stories that have otherwise gone untold or not believed.

Statements From Local Officials

A Little Beacon Blog has reached out for statements from Beacon’s Police Chief Sans Frost, the Vice President of the Beacon Police Union Michael Confield, and Mayor Lee Kayriacou. Should any of them respond, this article will be updated.

UPDATE: The City of Beacon’s Mayor Lee Kyriacou has responded with a statement.

Dutchess County Executive Marcus Molinaro has issued a statement via Instagram: “With faith in our justice system, and sincerest prayers to the Floyd family, I’m hopeful out of atrocity today’s verdict will help heal our nation. It won’t bring George Floyd, Gianna’s father back - may we always seek accountability, justice and peace.”

The work has just begun and as George Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, said in a speech after the verdict, “We have to do this for life. We have to protest,” as he spoke of the work ahead as the family celebrated the moment, but vowed to continue for police reform, beginning with the the George Floyd Justice In Policing Act of 2020, co-written by Vice President of the United Sates Kamala Harris.

Locals responded, including Fareground, Poughkeepsie Observer, Beacon Hood Chicken, Zhanes Pallette, Twinkle, Beacon4Black Lives, Yvonne de Salle, and others.

Opportunities To Gather

Those who are wishing for togetherness have an opportunity to gather in Newburgh for an evening organized by former Beacon Councilmember Ali T. Muhammad, who is a Beaconite currently living in Newburgh and running for Orange County Executive. Details are here, and the trip to Newburgh for the event would be worth it. The event will be co-hosted by Melanin Unchained and Ali at Sunset, with a potluck available for those breaking fast for Ramadan. Address is 29 Prospect Street, Newburgh, NY.

Updated Article: At Reader's Request From Support The Beacon PD Rally, Interviews Included From Black Lives Matter Participants

After we shared our article on the “Support The Beacon PD” rally, a reader, Joe Gallo, commented in a series of comments on our Facebook page, that he thought it unusual that the description of the participants of the police rally were described - and described by occupation - and no one from the counter protesters representing Black Lives Matter were mentioned.

In his comments, Joe alluded to individuals who showed up for Black lives. Being that this was an article about the “Support the Beacon PD,” and focused on that (we tried to get comment from Beacon PBA and former Mayor Randy Casale to highlight what attending meant to them, but we haven’t heard back yet ... they are busy people), the article only focused on that group.

Hearing Joe’s feedback, while disagreeing with his implied position that people’s occupations did not need to be mentioned, we followed up with each person he named, to confirm they were there, and highlight their inspiration for attending.

Read the updated article with all of the interviews here.