Insiders at the Schenectady Police Department say Lt. Bob Hamilton has told some fellow officers he will step down soon as president of the Police Benevolent Association.
Originally he planned to resign after approval of a new contract between the union and city, which is expected in a matter of weeks. Now, friends say he has decided to hang in until early summer.
Cops I spoke with said Officer Jeremy Pace, currently a PBA vice president, will replace Hamilton. Pace is expected to run for a full two-year term in a November election.
Of course, Hamilton is best known for drawing city salaries in excess of $70,000 despite doing on-duty police work only a few days a year. The remainder of his supposed workweek is allegedly spent handling union business.
After being the president of the PBA for all this time do you think that he'd want to go back to work everyday. I'll bet that he'll retire after he steps down as president if he has enough years worked.
there ain't no way this guy's gonna give up a good thing. You'll never see him out on the street again. It's either keep the position or retire! That's a no brainer.
And further more......union business should be paid for BY THE UNIONS.....not the taxpayer!
I know but they just keep rubbing our noses in it year after year. Make six figures and work three days. And they want to string up executives who make bonus money. How come the SEIU doesn't picket his house.
SCHENECTADY Union official to go back to his police duties BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Kathleen Moore at 395-3120 or moore@dailygazette.com.
By the end of the month, police Lt. Robert Hamilton should be back at work. For 5 1 /2 years, Hamilton has taken nearly every day off to work as the police union’s president. His absence forced the department to create another lieutenant position — essentially paying two men for one job. By contract, the city had to keep paying Hamilton’s full $70,410 salary no matter how many days he took off for union business. But all of that will soon be over. The new contract restricts the number of union days that the entire department can take each year. The department now gets just 360 union days to use each year. The nine union leaders meet once monthly, using up 108 of those days; the rest must be saved for grievances, negotiations and other contract matters. If the union president were to continue with tradition and take the year off, using 220 or more days, there would be no time left for the rank-and-file to report grievances. Technically, it would still be possible for the union president to take the entire year off, but Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett said he is certain it will never happen again. “I am not pretty sure — I know so,” he said. As recently as this week, he believed Hamilton might stay out of work until September, when the union holds its next election. Hamilton has said he will not run; his second vice president, Jeremy Pace, is considered the likely replacement. Hamilton’s first vice president, Mark LaViolette, is retiring at the end of June. ..............>>>>................>>>>...........................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00902&AppName=1
SCHENECTADY Police union head to work part-time under contract shift BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Kathleen Moore at 395-3120 or moore@dailygazette.com
The Schenectady Police Department’s long absent lieutenant has returned to duty. Police union President Robert Hamilton, who has taken all but a handful of days off for union business every year since he became president, is about to go back to duty part-time, Public Safety Commissioner Wayne Bennett said. Already in the last three weeks he has worked in uniform more than he normally works in a year. “He’s been working on and off, a few days at a time,” Bennett said. Next month Hamilton will be on the police schedule part-time, Bennett added. That’s a departure from the past six years. Hamilton has been paid his full $70,410 salary to be on duty an average of three weeks a year. The rest of the time he takes off for union business — a designation he never has to explain or prove. He was gone so often that police had to create another lieutenant position to fill his shifts, essentially paying two people for one person’s job. Hamilton did not return a call seeking comment, but has in the past defended his time off as a necessary part of union work. He said union business keeps him so busy that he has to work weekends and vacations just to keep up with the grievances, contract disputes and disciplinary hearings. City officials, including Bennett and Mayor Brian U. Stratton, have long criticized the union’s practice of allowing its president to take every day off. Both have questioned whether the small department could actually generate a full year’s worth of work for its president. .................>>>>...............>>>>...............http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01403&AppName=1
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