Police officers out on leave means minimal coverage on streets of South Lake Tahoe
By Kathryn Reed
Going to 12-hour shifts was supposed to put more officers on the streets of South Lake Tahoe on weekend nights during times when crime more often occurs.
That hasn’t happened despite the change from 10-hour to 12-hour shifts about 100 days ago.
Police Chief Brian Uhler blames it on staffing issues. Three officers are out on medical leave, though he would not say if it’s work related or when they may return. Two officers were just hired last month to replace two who had left the department. They are in training. And then there’s Officer Johnny Poland’s spot that cannot be filled until the FBI figures out what it is going to do.
Johnny Poland gets paid to be a South Lake Tahoe police officer even though he hasn’t worked in more than a year. Photo/LTN file
It’s been more than a year since Poland was put on paid administrative because of the federal investigation. But no one to this day is saying what Poland may have done.
FBI spokeswoman Gina Swankie, as in the past, would not speak about the investigation.
Uhler told Lake Tahoe News, “It is still a joint investigation involving our agency and the FBI. There have been some developments in the recent past. We are trying to bring this situation to some form of closure in the not so distant future.”
What the developments are, what closure means and what the time line is are not being made public.
Poland is training with the National Guard and therefore was unavailable for comment. While he is working for the Guard he is not being paid by the city. When he’s not training, he’s collecting a check, health benefits and retirement benefits from the city. That total cost for taxpayers is not known. The city is not legally able to fill the void created by his forced departure.
12-hour shifts
Lt. Brian Williams will give the City Council an update Dec. 11 about how the 12-hour shift is working. The council had asked to be briefed at about the 90-day mark.
The council was concerned fatigue could be an issue. Uhler says that has not been an issue to date. Data was collected to see if accidents might go up during the last two hours of the shift. There has not been a single accident.
“We looked at overtime savings in terms of payback time with the shift schedule and there has been a $15,000 savings in the first 90-plus days,” Uhler said. “There have been no negatives that are tangible.”
When Uhler went before the council in the summer to tell them about how the shifts would be lengthened one of the benefits was supposed to be more manpower at critical times. That has not materialized with officers out. And while they are off duty their positions are vacant.
With the loss of two sergeants and a captain because of budget constraints, there is no room to move someone down into a patrol car even on a temporary basis.
“We have absorbed some loses through attrition, but we’ve reached the point where we no longer can lose officers and maintain the minimum service levels,” Uhler said.
Again…the fleecing of City residents, the police department is understaffed, the fire department understaffed, we layed off the bulk of our snowplow operators last year. Isn’t this why the City incorporated? Now we have inexperience in the “core” of our City services? The City is a 3 ring circus that is always in town.
For goodness sakes, Officer Poland has been in limbo for over five years. At some point you city officials have to fish or cut bait. This is governmental and legal insanity to the max.
Maybe this town is terminal and should be disbanded. The smells are becoming more and more noxious from the airport and I don’t mean the smell of jet fuel.
Concerned citizen,
I agree with your comment in regards to the city being understaffed. As much as I want a good winter with lots of snow fall, now I’m hoping we have a mild winter like last year. I doubt we have enough plow operators to cover all of so. shore if we get a big storm.
Chief Uhler, the Police / Fire chief seems like he’s up to the task of running both departments but he also is shorthanded, not enough Police officers and not enough Firemen. Keep your fingers crossed that we have a safe and trouble free year and don’t need to call the police, (12 hour shifts?) and a fire free year as well.
If too many more people leave the ciy of SLT workforce we won’t have to stress about having a budget deficit. There won’t be any employees left to pay!
Merry Christmas, Old Long Skiis
“Minimal levels of service” kind of has a nice ring to it. Please Chief can you please give the citizens a little more info on what is going on. They do pay for the SLTPD.
Attrition- The workforce is not compensated with pay nor benefits equal to a local, county or even state average. People come and go and take all the training we tax payers foot the bill for with them. Both Police and Fire have an absurd turnover rate in their employees.
When you pay a mail clerk in the city offices close to what your public safety workers make you will see your trained an qualified go elsewhere.
It is basic math at this point. Fire has hired 3-4 people this last year and police are working on doing the same, yet in 2-4 years we will see these same people that now have a bolstered resume go where there is money, benefits and security.
Best advice to council:
-If your looking to have a city, pay for it and make the tough decisions that you claim you ran for office to make.
-Stop serving your own business interests and do your job.
I have to tell it like it is. Sigh.
When I have had to make contact with the Police, I was treated rather poorly. My needs as a tax payer were ignored and I was talked down to on several occasions.
I was a bother to them.
I’ve seen things I probably shouldn’t have and I know officers who have acted with, well…let’s say..with little character. Though some of those new to the force seem to be honored in other medias. When they actually don’t deserve such honor.
I refuse to contact them for anything. That said, if they are short staffed, this is not really a burden on the community since they didn’t really protect and serve as hired to do.
I do have to say that one of the few officers that did treat me with respect was Poland.
I’ve dealt with Officer Travis Cabral a couple of times. Never talks down to people. A really good policeman.
agree. straight up guy.
Travis Cabral is a fantastic officer and a handsome young man. He’s a pleasure to have in our city.
I don’t know Cabral. Morrison on the other hand……
Does anybody know if the private sector has paid admin. leave?
The 3 fortune 500 companies I worked for did not have a paid admin. leave.
Paid admin leave is usually unique to situations where an employee is covered by a collective bargaining agreement (Police, Firemen, baseball players, etc.) or a contract (talk show host, sport analyst, possibly some law firms, etc.). There is a clear process when someone is being investigated as to whether they are on paid or unpaid leave. Most of us that work in the private sector either own businesses or are at will employees and so are not usually covered by issues with paid leave while being investigated for potential wrong doing. In the private sector you are likely being paid (and working) while your employer determines if you acted in a fashion that deserves termination. If and when they decide your behavior requires termination, then you are fired and no longer are paid.
In any case, while I do not begrudge public employees the paid leave part of their contract, I do believe these cases should be expedited and decided quickly.
Enjoy, Rick
Rick, could you name just one private sector union that has paid admin. leave?
Well, there is considerable case law dealing with private sector unions and standard contracts. From what I can tell from some pretty easy internet searches (I own a business that employees professional staff of non-union scientists and so lack personal experience with unions), is that most private sector union contracts have a very well-defined grievance process. During these processes the employee is represented by a shop steward and the employee is paid during the process their standard pay. Whether or not the employee actually works is dependent largely on the nature of the job, the potential infraction (what caused the disciplinary action) and other circumstances surrounding the grievance process.
Public safety workers such as fire and police have some unique job duties that are simply not found in the private sector and therefore, not easily compared. Such as most police forces require an officer to go on paid leave when an officer discharges a firearm during the job, until such time management is ensured such action was justified by the officer. A very understandable circumstance. If a policemen discharges a firearm with due cause, why should they be penalized while the action is being properly investigated? I am not familiar with the details mentioned in this article regarding these cases, so I have no opinion if these circumstances justify paid leave. Simply the concept for public safety officers seems particular reasonable to me – as long as it is being administrated appropriately. Enjoy Rick
I don’t know how the publisher turned staffing and work hours in to an article about Poland. One has nothing to do with the other. Tough decisions have to be made during tough times. If the City Council and the top administrators(Kerry & Uhler) choose not to fund public safety then everyone suffers. Every day that there is a position that is open and not filled it is money saved for the City general fund to use for their special interests or hide from the citizens and city employees. Better save that money for the lawsuit when a citizen or public safety employee is seriously injured or killed because of poor decisions made by the City leaders (?). Credit is due the city council for temporarily funding public safety with closer to adequate staffing for the stateline and snow globe fiascos to come.
Rick I’ll try asking the question again. Can YOU name ONE private sector company that gives paid adiministrative leave, union or not, if you don’t know the answer fine, your other coments are whitewash.
Lou, I think it’s only government jobs that have paid administrative leave. I personally can’t think of any private sector jobs, oh maybe professional athletes? when they get in trouble? not sure though…