NAUGATUCK — The borough is increasing the administrative fee charged for private duty police work to help pay for new vehicles, among other expenses.
Police officers work private duty out of their normal hours for assignments like traffic control at construction sites or crowd control at large events. The hourly rate for regular private duty is $78.21 this fiscal year, according the police union’s contract. The rate is higher on Sundays and holidays, and less for civic organizations.
The borough also charges $7.35 an hour for an administrative fee, which was last increased in 1991.
The Board of Mayor and Burgesses this month approved charging 25% of the private duty rate for an administrative fee. The borough doesn’t charge the fee for public works jobs or to the Board of Education.
Controller Allyson Bruce recommended charging a percentage of the rate rather than just increasing the fee so the fee can remain consistent with the hourly rate as it increases over the years.
Officials will use the higher rate to help start a new fund to purchase vehicles. The fee will also be help pay for pension, retirement, Medicare and administrative costs, according to Bruce.
Bruce said the borough will also put the proceeds from the sale of vehicles or vehicle equipment and insurance payments from an accident into the new fleet fund.
“We’re going to be developing an annual budget within this fleet program and determining how many vehicles in each department should be established and maintained, so we have a set number for every department that we’re working on within this program,” Bruce said.
Officials also want to ensure more money from the fee stays in the borough by using retired Naugatuck police officers for private duty work.
Active Naugatuck police officers get the first chance at private duty jobs, but the police department can’t always fill jobs from within its ranks. In these cases, the jobs go to officers from other departments and those departments collect the fee.
The borough will now ask retired officers if they want the work, if no active officers pick them up.
“There’s a lot of retired officers who left in good standing, who are very committed to our community who’ve been asking to come back and work here,” Police Chief Steven Hunt said. “The majority of them work for other towns right now who are coming in here every day and working anyways under the different town patch. So it would be just that they would be working for Naugatuck again and the money would be going to our fund.”
Bruce said officials are still working out the details as to how much of the new administrative fee will be divided up. She said officials are looking to implement the higher fee this fiscal year.
