Friday, April 6, 2012
Both Mayor Rob Dolan and Melrose Police Chief Mike Lyle have announced plans to tackle some of the issues raised in the recent studies of the Melrose Police Department.
Editor's note: This article was corrected on Sunday, April 8 at 2:35 p.m. With a breakdown of Melrose Police Department overtime costs in hand that Mayor Rob Dolan and city officials said didn't reveal any surprises, the city now has tentative plans based on that report and a separate management study as the city and police unions negotiate their next contract. In December, Dolan requested the two reports citing in part increased overtime costs, and made some comments that drew a stern rebuke from the police unions. The $7,500 overtime report conducted by public accounting firm Sullivan, Rogers and Company examined the percentage of each police shift paid at an overtime rate from Nov. 1, 2010 through Oct. 31, 2011; the reason for the …
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Melrose Police Department
56 W Foster St, Melrose, MA
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Thursday, March 15, 2012
Mayor Rob Dolan took a variety of questions from Melrose residents in Wednesday's monthly live chat.
Yesterday on Melrose Patch, Mayor Rob Dolan joined us for our monthly live chat, taking questions about trash and recycling, charter schools, athletic fields and more. You can read a full transcript of the chat; below are highlights from the Q&A session sorted by subject. Lynn Reznick Parisi: Dear Mayor Dolan, As you transition to a private contractor for trash removal, are you going to use this opportunity to enforce the state recycling regulations (that residents were reminded about in the transition letter)? Will the contractors really check the trash to see if it has recycled items and reject picking up the trash or will this be a lost opportunity increase the amount of recycling by Melrose residents? Mayor Dolan: If it is visible, …
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Melrose Mayor's Office
562 Main St, Melrose, MA
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Friday, February 10, 2012
The study contains over 80 recommendations, along with results of a survey of Melrose Police Department officers, as the police unions and City Hall enter contract negotiations.
Editor's note: This article was updated on Monday, Feb. 13 at noon with a joint statement released by the mayor's office and both police unions. Melrose City Hall released this week the now completed police management study that stoked a war of words between Mayor Rob Dolan and the city's police unions when first proposed in December. While the two sides still have months of negotations ahead regarding the contracts for the Melrose Police Superior Officers Union and Melrose Police Patrol Officers Union—both contracts will expire on June 30—both sides struck a conciliatory tone after a meeting on Thursday afternoon. Melrose Police Lt. Timothy Maher, president of the Superior Officers Union, said late Thursday afternoon that "it was a …
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Melrose Police Department
56 W Foster St, Melrose, MA
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Wednesday, December 7, 2011
The Melrose Board of Aldermen approved $16,000 on two audits requested by Mayor Rob Dolan—one on police overtime, one on department policy and procedures—that the police union presidents argued are flawed.
Editor's note: This article is separated into three sections. Read about the police overtime audit here and read about the police management study here. Also, the word "affect" was corrected on Wednesday at 9:10 p.m. If Monday night is any indication, Mayor Rob Dolan and the Melrose Police unions are headed toward combative collective bargaining negotiations this coming year. Melrose Police officers and some of their family members filled the Aldermanic Chambers on Monday in a show of union solidarity as the Melrose Board of Aldermen approved spending $16,000 on two audits of the police department requested by Dolan. Dolan pitched the audits last week to the aldermen's Appropriations Committee, which is comprised of the full board. In …
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Melrose Police Department
56 W Foster St, Melrose, MA
/articles/mayor-going-after-police-overtime-department-structure
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Melrose Mayor's Office
562 Main St, Melrose, MA
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Melrose City Hall
562 Main St, Melrose, MA
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The Melrose Board of Aldermen approved $7,500 to hire public accounting firm Sullivan, Rogers and Company, which would examine time and payroll records for worked police details.
RETURN TO MAIN STORY In fiscal 2010, the city budgeted $150,000 for Melrose Police overtime and spent approximately $219,000, and the year before that, spent $240,000, which generally reflects how much the city has spent on police overtime in previous years. In his remarks before the Melrose Board of Aldermen's Appropriations Committee last week, Mayor Rob Dolan said that the police department is on track to spend approximately $325,000 this year on overtime, having spent $130,000 in overtime on the 43-member department in four and a half months so far this fiscal year. "That is a 52 percent increase in overtime from last year," Dolan said last week. "I have looked for the last four months and I have found only one day, July 13, in which …
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Melrose Mayor's Office
562 Main St, Melrose, MA
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Melrose City Hall
562 Main St, Melrose, MA
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Melrose Police Department
56 W Foster St, Melrose, MA
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Mayor Rob Dolan says the police department has an antiquated model and has enough staff; while the police union presidents question the goals and impartiality of study.
RETURN TO MAIN STORY Editor's note: This article was updated at 11:50 a.m. to correct the percentage of time the study spends meeting with members of the Melrose Police Department. The second audit approved by the Board of Aldermen on Monday night spends $8,500 on a management study of the Melrose Police Department, conducted by Robert J. Pomeroy, founder and president of Pomeroy Resources, Inc., a former police chief in Plymouth from 1992-2008. Pomeroy has also in recent years served as interim chief in Hamilton after conducting a review of that town's police department and as interim police chief in Sandwich. That review would be a comprehensive overview of the department, examining the department's organizational chart, staffing, …
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Melrose Mayor's Office
562 Main St, Melrose, MA
/articles/police-to-undergo-management-policies-and-procedures-study
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Melrose City Hall
562 Main St, Melrose, MA
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Melrose Police Department
56 W Foster St, Melrose, MA
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Daniel DeMaina
6:49 pm on Sunday, April 8, 2012
Ah, OK—my error is what led to the question about the significance. I understand now. And I thank you for saying it goes without saying I'm not taking sides; unfortunately, sometimes when I present arguments made by one side in an issue, those arguments are then cast as my own personal opinions, even though they're not. That's the only reason I added in that N.B. Thanks, as always, for your … more ›