An earlier version of this article mistakenly identified Joseph Gardella as the Lake Success Chief of Police. It has been changed to reflect that William Lang is the chief.
Protecting and serving is a well compensated responsibility for village police officers in Great Neck.
Eight of the top 20 highest paid village employees in the state of New York work for Great Neck police departments, according to the Empire Center for New York State Policy.
And high ranking police officials in Kings Point, Great Neck Estates, Kensington and Lake Success out-earn some of their counterparts in much larger jurisdictions – including NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
The reasons for the current compensation lie in contract negotiations and arbitration that leave villages with little flexibility, according to village officials who praised the services provided by municipal police but distanced themselves from their salary levels.
In Kings Point, Police Commissioner John Miller earns a base salary of $207,707 per year and Lt. George Banville is paid $196,334. According to a village spokesperson, their pay spiked last year when they took home back pay awarded during a 2009 bout of arbitration.
Miller earned $242,000 in 2012, and Banville took home $231,371, according to the Empire Center.
By comparison, Kelly, who oversees all policing in New York City, was paid $205,180 last year. And Nassau County Police Department 3rd Precinct Commander Sean McCarthy, whose jurisdiction includes the parts of Great Neck not served by village police as well as East Garden City, Salisbury and much of North Hempstead, earned $192,861 last year.
The crime rates in Great Neck’s nine villages – which includes five villages that don’t have their own police departments – are lower than those faced by Nassau County Police. Kings Point reported eight burglaries and one robbery from January through December 2012, according to a village spokesperson, while McCarthy’s third precinct reported 435 burglaries and 135 robberies through mid December.
“The Kings Point Village board of trustees does not always agree with the decisions of the arbitrators who establish police salaries, but we are legally bound by their determinations,” said Kings Point Mayor Michael Kalnick in a statement. “At the same time, the village enjoys a low crime rate and we are pleased with the police department’s fast response time, performance and dedication to the residents of Kings Point.”
Kings Point, which has a population of 5,178, spent $3.9 million of its $5.15 million payroll on police compensation in 2012, according to the Empire Center. Kensington spent $1.06 million of its $1.18 million payroll on police pay. Great Neck Estates had a 2012 payroll of $2.93 million, of which $1.89 million went to police, and 58 percent of Lake Success’ $5.3 million in compensation spending went to police officers.
All residents in Nassau pay a “headquarters tax,” which covers specialty police services, including homicide, robbery and canine squads, that are outside the capacity of village police departments. Residents of villages with their own police forces do not have to pay an additional “district tax,” which covers standard services for villages who rely on county police.
The other three Great Neck villages that have their own police departments, rather than relying on Nassau County, also compensated their top officials more highly than New York compensated Kelly.
Great Neck Estates Police Chief John Garbedian earned $218,908 last year, Kensington Chief Michael Conlon was paid $230,957 and Lake Success Police Chief William Lang earned $196,812. Great Neck Estates has a population of 2,717, Kensington 1,185 and Lake Success 2,829. The two most populous villages on the peninsula, the villages of Great Neck and Great Neck Plaza, have populations of 9,719 and 6,867, according to 2010 census figures.
Kensington Mayor Susan Lopatkin said village police departments provide more personal interaction with residents and pointed to the double shifts worked by village police during weeks-long outages that followed Hurricane Sandy as advantages in having a village police force.
“It’s an incalculable benefit,” Lopatkin said. ““You can’t put a price on that. Historically our village has felt very privileged to have our own police department.”
Conlon, Kensington’s chief of police, was the eighth highest paid village employee in the state last year, according to the Empire Center.
Lopatkin said the comparatively high police salaries predated her administration and that current compensation is the result of negotiations that concluded about a year ago.
““The process was very civilized,” she said. “We each negotiated and we each got something of what we wanted.”
Lake Success, whose chief Joseph Gardella earned $221,392 last year, is currently wrapping up contract negotiations with its Police Benevolent Association, according to Village of Lake Success Mayor Ronald Cooper.
“I think that this contract, when concluded, will present a fair result to the village and to the PBA,” Cooper said.
The village negotiated the deal without arbitration, which Cooper said was a preferred outcome.
“We basically felt in this round, if we went to arbitration… it would be prolonged arbitration that would be costly to the village, and we didn’t think we’d get a result that would be better than if we’d negotiated,” Cooper said.
Cooper attributed the pay levels in village police departments to arbitrators who use Nassau County police contracts as their benchmark when making decisions.
In Kings Point, police are still working without a contract since the expiration of the last deal in 2009. According to a village spokesperson, negotiation and mediation efforts fell through and the village is now entering a second round of legally binding arbitration with the department.
The delay in reaching a new agreement could put the village on the hook for years of raises once a contract is reached. The spokesperson said the arbitration would be applied retroactively to 2009, making Kings Point potentially liable for four years of raises.
As per state law, Kings Point police have been working under the terms of their old contract in the absence of a new deal. A village spokesperson said Miller and Banville were entitled to back pay according to a 2009 round of arbitration, and chose to take that pay last year, causing a jump in compensation.
The spokesperson said Miller could not comment due to ongoing contract negotiations.
Having a village police force is valuable for residents, Kalnick said.
“The residents of Kings Point benefit from around-the-clock police patrols and protection, resulting in an extremely effective deterrent against crime and an average response time of less than two minutes,” Kalnick said. “Residents also benefit from more personal interaction with members of the department, such as the ability to notify the police if they are going out of town for an extended period.”
Reach reporter Dan Glaun by e-mail at dglaun@theislandnow.com or by phone at 516.307.1045 x203. Also follow us on Twitter @theislandnow1 and Facebook at facebook.com/theislandnow.
