Temperature Rises in City Council Discussion of MPD Admin Bonuses

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

Questions were raised last week by City Councilman Brian Wursten about retention bonuses paid last year to top level administrative staff at the Mesquite Police Department. Wursten asked that the questions be discussed on the agenda of a City Council meeeting held on Wednesday, Feb. 15.

The item sparked a lively and sometimes heated discussion involving the council, city staff, police personnel and the general public. The topic spanned for more than an hour at the end of the meeting.
Wursten opened the segment by acknowledging that the council had voted unanimously to give a $5,000 retention bonus to each of the rank and file staff and officers. “I think we were all on board for that,” he said. “We all liked the idea because we want to keep our good officers motiovated to work here.”

But this action was not intended to include the admin of city departments, Wursten said.
“At the time, I remember sitting down with (City Manager) Peter (Jankowski) and one of the things he told me was that he was not on board for giving these bonuses to admin,” Wursten said. “He felt like there was no reason to give the admin these bonuses. I understood why that was, and I was on board with him as well.”

Wursten said that he was disappointed to find out later that the retention bonuses had been given to admin in the police department.
“When I asked (Jankowski) why, his comment to me was basically that he told the police that if they could find it in their budget, the admin could have the retention bonuses as well,” Wursten said. “I didn’t understand that at all.”

Wursten pointed out that the fire department administration was also given the same opportunity, but they had opted out of it. “Fire didn’t have that money in their budget and so they didn’t receive the retention bonuses,” Wursten said. “And I found out that none of the other city departments received any bonuses either. Just the police.”

Wursten said that the practice of allowing heads of city departments a bonus “if they find it in their budget” seemed like it could lead to problems.
“I feel like that is a mistake,” he said. “To tell a department that you can have a raise if you can find it in your budget, in my mind, creates budget padding and creative financing. If they can find ways to leave money in their budgets they might be able to give themselves a raise. I have a hard time with that line of thinking.”

Wursten said that he had asked for a detailed accounting of where the funds for the police bonuses had come from, but he had found some difficulty in understanding the accounting.

During a comment before the board, Mesquite Police Chief MaQuade Chesley insisted that everything about the bonuses had been above board. Chesley claimed that the bonuses had been approved by the council in an October meeting. Wursten responded that he had no memory of the admin piece being specifically approved by the council.

City records indicate that the Council did approve the retention bonuses to the rank and file officers as part of the collective bargaining agreements approved last summer. But there were no records of a specific vote extending those bonuses to admin.

But Councilman Wes Boger pointed out that bonuses or raises to rank and file had always been extended to their supervisors as well. “It was all part of the collective bargaining negotiations,” Boger said to Wursten in the meeting. “And you were part of those discussions. Customarily what happens when the union gets a riase through their agreement, their supervisors do as well. It is a common expectation.”

Boger said that the only problem he had with the bonuses was that the MPD was required to take the money out of its budget rather than using American ARecovery Plan funds as was used for the rank-and-file bonuses.

Chief Chesley asked Wursten if his problem with the bonuses was that he didn’t feel that police admin deserved the bonus, or that he didn’t like the way the bonuses were funded.

Wursten responded that he was concerned about both of these things. So Chesley set about to address both of the concerns.

He first addressed where the money had come from. “We selected to take the $25,000 for the bonuses from account 10-64-610 which is labelled miscellaneous supplies/task force equipment,” Chesley said. “That account is used to purchase narcotics-related equipment, supplies and officer training in regards to narcotics.”

Chesley explained that the department had intended on purchasing fentanyl detection laser equipment from those funds. But the MPD grantwriter, Kim Otero, had secured grant funding for that equipment outside of the MPD budget.
“That grant paid for the equipment that we planned for this year,” Chesley said. “So we got both the equipment and we got the retention bonuses because of Kim Otero’s great work.”

Chesley then talked about the MPD administrative staff, assuring the council that these five employees were deserving of a retention bonus.
“None of these guys have had the pleasure of working standard 40 hour weeks in the past four years that I know of,” Chesley said. “They are putting in 100-120 hours per pay period. They do a lot of work and they are highly skilled, the best of our department.”

As an example, Chesley talked about MPD former Captain Jordan Bundy, who has recently asked to be voluntarily demoted to Sergeant. Bundy had been serving as an MPD Captain for the past four years, taking him out of eligibility for overtime pay which the rank and file officers receive. Chesley asked Bundy, who was in attendance, to come up and explain his unusual decision.

“Over the past four years, it has been a difficult transition moving from an MPOA member to an at-will salaried employee,” Bundy said. “There has been a lot of pressure over the last four years with relentless attacks on our police chief and on our administration and officers. This last round of attacks on our retention bonus pretty much broke the camel’s back for me.”

Chesley emphasized that, because of the workload, MPD admin need to also have reasons to stay.
“Compression is a severe issue in our department,” Chesley said. “Former-Captain Bundy is a prime example of that. He isn’t getting paid for those 40 extra hours he is putting in week after week. At one point he had to put his family first. And the money is no different because he will probably make more money as a sergeant.”

When the matter was opened for public comment, a long string of residents stood to speak in support of the police. Most of these emphasized that the police and their admin deserved the retention bonuses.

After public comment, City Manager Peter Jankowski was given a moment to respond. He admitted that he did in fact have the meeting with Wursten where they had talked about the retention bonuses.

He also acknowledged that he had not thought, at the time, that management should be given the bonuses.
“But I changed my mind, I did,” Jankowski said. “I’m human. Sometimes you take the long view of things. And I saw it as a fairness and equity issue.”

Jankowski said that the council had approved the bonuses for rank-and-file police officers and firefighters. “I just thought it was fair enough to offer it to their management,” he said. “I did ask them to take it out of their budget if they could find it. That was both to the fire chief and police chief. The fire chief passed on it, which I respect him for that. The police chief found the money in his budget and I respect him for that. He was taking care of his people. I thought it was fair and equitable and it just made sense to me.”

Wursten concluded the discussion by clarifying that it was not his goal in bringing this item up to “go after” the police department.
“I just went off of the discussion that we had had and then all of a sudden it changed,” Wursten said. “I wouldn’t be doing my job as a councilman if I didn’t ask the questions.”

Wursten also said that, in bringing the item up, he had been thinking of other city admin positions who didn’t get a retention bonus including fire, planning, city engineer, athletics and leisure services and more.

“These guys deserve something, too,” Wursten said. “This shouldn’t just be a one-way street for police. It sends a bad message to everyone else. So I wanted to know why the rest of them don’t deserve these as well.”