Against the advice of retiring City Manager Mark Whitfield and comments from two other department heads discouraging council from doing so, Milford City Council passed a $75.4 million budget which included a significant increase in salary for non-union police officers. The budget includes a one cent tax increase, the last of a five-year plan to reduce reliance on Realty Transfer Tax (RTT) funds which are not reliable. Council was presented with two options, one that would include a smaller increase for the officers and the second including a request from Chief Cecilia Ashe with a significant increase.
“My recommendation is for council to use budget number one,” Whitfield said, referring to the budget option that used a recommendation from Evergreen, an independent consultant hired to conduct a salary study for the city. “The steps for lieutenants and the captain, supported by the consultant, places the lowest paid lieutenant at a higher pay than all but two department heads, places the lieutenants at the same grade as four of our department heads and places the captain at a higher pay than all department heads.”
Whitfield stated that he felt the city should set salaries at a level that were fair and equitable. He pointed out that both options for the budget left just three additional steps for the lieutenant which has 18 steps. Option two did achieve the desire of Ashe to keep a $10,000 gap between sergeants and lieutenants.
“One of the things I am recommending is that we do an updated staffing study, regardless of which budget is chosen,” Whitfield said. “I don’t think there’s a lot of confidence in what was done for the police department and that needs to be redone. I believe we may create a disparity between the police department and other departments within the city. We’ve always tried to be fair and equitable in terms of our pay.”
In the initial budget, which was presented as option one, gave lieutenant’s a pay increase that averaged about four percent and captains just under three percent. This was in addition to a 27 percent increase they received in the 2025 budget. Currently, lieutenants in Milford have salaries that range from $125,092 to $135,759. Ashe’s request would increase that range to $143,823.54 to $152,582.39, giving them just over a 15 percent overall increase. Captain salaries would go from $141,729 to $162,952.07, an increase of just under 15 percent.
“When I look at this, I surveyed 13 agencies and, when you look at the face value of it, it gives an impression they are within the market value,” Ashe stated. “However, it does not take into consideration overtime. It does not take into consideration these captains and lieutenants are on call. It does not take into account that they do not receive any form of comp time. When you start to see that, we are drastically behind when you assess those other factors.”
Ashe admitted that the officers had received a fairly large salary increase the year before because she did not dig deeper into what other departments were paying officers. Ashe stated that Evergreen had not truly looked into the police department when they completed their evaluation. She felt the study was geared toward the civilian sector, which had value, but should not be used in determining salaries for police officers.
“It has been a long road, and today we come to a fork after many weeks of meetings and workshops, the time has come to make a carefully considered decision. I’ve heard it stated here by some of my constituents and colleagues that they want to see the city run more like a business. With that in mind, let’s take a careful look at what that looks like,” Councilwoman Nadia Zychal said. “One, a well-managed business has a hierarchy of operations. We have a CEO or a city manager, board of directors, council and mayor management, our department heads.”
Zychal continued, pointing out that a business provided goods and services while the city provided infrastructure, amenities and safety. Taxpayer were the investors in the city, and they should expect a return on their investment.
“A well-run company values its employees and is accountable to its customers. In this city, departments managed by our professional department heads make sure that they attract and retain the best people, be it the line workers with the repairs that keep the lights on after a storm, or the police officers that show up to a potentially dangerous situation, or the person at the counter that helps someone resolve a billing issue or needs to help, help to understand something that isn’t in their first language, or the men that mow the grass and trim around the headstones in our historic cemetery on the hottest of days, all the people that show up every day are assisted in doing their best to make the city function,” Zychal said. “They are inspired by the people who lead by example and value each individual’s contribution. This city works best when it works together for a shared purpose and dedication to the responsibility to our taxpayers brings value to our community.”
Zychal also felt that the city had a fiduciary responsibility to protect its shareholders and an obligation to craft a responsible budget that makes the best and most responsible use of the taxpayers’ contributions.
An independent study was conducted to make sure wages are commensurate with work and in line with surrounding communities. This city invests in such studies to ensure that there is no favor or prejudice in this process. If that process was somehow flawed, it’s incumbent on us to do another study and get that right,” Zychal said. “It is incumbent upon a well-run company’s board of directors to manage resources well. It is the same with the city, when the department head asks for a large portion of the budget to be allocated to their own department, it’s their right to stand up for their people. It is also incumbent upon this council to remember, and to take into account, the effect this has on the whole of the city and on the taxpayers. Additional hires are considered to help alleviate the concerns about overtime and burnout.”
Zychal felt putting forward a plan to increase salaries at the top end of one department at the expense of others, against the advice of independent experts, sets a precedent that could damage the morale of staff and result in future tax increases by creating an unfair imbalance throughout city departments.
Councilwoman Lori Connor disagreed with Zychal, stating that she had reviewed the raw data from Evergreen and was surprised at what she found. She applauded the chief for doing the work for council and finding “real data.” Connor did not feel there was a need to look at police salaries again as the chief had provided that information. Connor also felt that some of those working under department heads had salaries that were significantly lower than in other municipalities.
“I have the catalog to refer back, and I’m sitting here and I’m thinking, when was there ever a time our department heads requested more money that they did not get it. So, I’m thinking about that, and then I’m thinking about this pay study was done based on for our department heads, and it either put them where they are, where they should be, or it bumped them up,” Councilwoman Katrina Wilson aid. “And I don’t know if anyone has actually complained about where they are, as far as if they’re not satisfied of where they’re being paid. And if so, Mark has not brought that to us that I’m aware. As far as the work that the chief has done, it really satisfied the information that I needed as far as where the police officer should be, there should be no comparison in department heads and police officers. There really shouldn’t be a comparison. I don’t know how we ever got here. There should not be any comparison. It’s not apples to apples, orange to oranges.”
Wilson felt that the fact that union officers received overtime did matter and that retainment was important. She wanted to stay within the confinement of the budget, but if council could find room, they needed to support the lieutenant and captain salary upgrades.
“I would not be doing my job if I didn’t mention this. I don’t believe the department head salary information [in the study] is correct, because they look at local data,” Willis Shafer, Public Works Director, said. “I need to speak up for my supervisors and superintendent who does not get overtime. They work special events, and they are on call 24-hours a day. They do a duty rotation every month. So, I feel the supervisors and superintendent are equal to lieutenants and sergeants. I think it is important for council to know there will be an equity issue if this gets approved for the lieutenants to get the increase. I am just concerned about the motivation and morale of my staff.”
Tony Chipola, Electric Director, agreed with Shafer, stating he already heard grumblings within Public Works.
“I get calls a 2 AM, 3 AM, the linemen are on call 24 hours a day, but so am I, so is Willis,” Chipola said. “I’ve had problems keeping linemen and the only thing that has kept this department running were the supervisors. They step into the buckets, they do the work, they assist when they need to. They don’t necessarily have to do that, they do it for the city, but they are not compensated. And the challenge for this is we want to pull supervisors from the rank and file, we want to take somebody who spent the time on that line and promote them, but there is no financial incentive for them to come from the union into that supervisor role.”
Councilwoman Madula Kalesis asked if seniority had any impact on salary. Whitfield stated that it did. She pointed out that the police captain had been with the city for 28 years, the lieutenants for 23, 22 and 11. However, the longest serving department head, Brad Dennehy with Parks and Recreation, had been with the city for 15 years.
“I just want to correct a little bit on some things that were mentioned,” Human Resources Director Jamesha Williams said. “I heard a few comments that the lieutenants were not included in the study. They were included. Every employee got a job assessment tool to complete. It’s simply that the lieutenants and the captain did not complete it. Also, there is a part of our compensation that takes into account years of service, but there is also time and grade. So, you may see a lieutenant who has been here 21 years, but the earliest promoted lieutenant came into that position in 2022.”
After the discussion, Connor made the motion to approve option two, which included the higher salary for the non-union officers using cuts that were included at a previous meeting. These cuts would be from the council budget and line items in the police budget. The motion was seconded by Kalesis. The motion passed with a vote of five to one with one abstaining and one absent. The one no vote as Zychal with Councilman Dan Marabello abstaining. Councilman Danny Perez was not present for the vote.
