Greg Blass on Riverhead PD governance: It’s time for a fresh approach

The column about the Suffolk County PBA’s ill-fated role in our town’s recent elections generated much comment. True, they earnestly seek to alleviate the cost of their own expensive contract with Suffolk County. In fact, Suffolk government has no idea how they will pay for it in the next few years, and an expansion of their police district surely would help.

But another, more compelling question arises: Why would our local police forge an alliance with their Suffolk brethren? Is it really so simple as a little more in salaries and benefits than Riverhead’s police now receive?

To quote the late, great Yogi Berra, “You can observe a lot by watching.”

We are actually blessed with a police department made of truly fine people. We know them all. They are pillars in our community. They coach our kids, they volunteer in the fire departments and elsewhere, they raise fine families, and they are exemplary citizens.

Yet as a department tasked with enforcing the law in some tough areas, there is among the rank and file of Riverhead’s PD a worsening morale problem. The distance between them and their chief has much to do with this. Further, their vehicles, computers, and other equipment are badly dated and too often in need of repair. The police department budget, more than one-third of the town’s general fund expenditures, is the largest of any of Riverhead’s departments. Police overtime averaged more than $675,000 per year over the past decade — totaling $6.8 million 2005-2014. That in itself is a red flag.

It is set against this background that our Riverhead police officers seek help wherever they can, because they feel like they cannot get it from within. And the retired police officers serving on our town board have not, so far, had much of a role in police governance.

Our system, on all levels, provides for a civilian balance to the command of any uniformed organization, military or “paramilitary,” such as a police department. That’s why we have a civilian secretary of the Navy or Army, or a civilian commissioner of police. For many years now, Riverhead’s supervisors have served as police commissioner.

Given that personalities have so much to do with what happens in government, we have to consider the effect of the current, very close relationship between the Riverhead supervisor/commissioner and the police chief, and their unfortunate relationship with the rank and file of the rest of the PD. No matter who is at fault, it simply is not working.

Time for a new approach
Maybe the time has come for a new structure in Riverhead. The supervisor is not required to be the town’s police commissioner. In fact, according to state law, he serves in that role at the pleasure of the town board. The town board can revoke his appointment as police commissioner and appoint a new commissioner. It can also appoint a board of three police commissioners. If it chooses to appoint a sole commissioner, two members of the town board must be appointed to serve as members of the police commission.

Whether the board decides to have one police commissioner (other than the supervisor) who serves with two town board members on a commission or three police commissioners, state law requires the commissioners appointed by the board to be electors of the town and serve without compensation.

If the new governance structure selected by the board doesn’t work, it can always be changed. All it takes is three-person town board majority.

From a further historical perspective, there’s a real surprise. Inexplicably, since 1985, the Riverhead Town Board, according to the minutes of its meetings, has adopted absolutely no resolutions or otherwise taken any action to appoint either a police commissioner or a police commission. In 1985, the board abolished a three-person police commission — which had been created in 1968 but seems to have fallen out of use long before 1985, according to the minutes of a May 21, 1985 public hearing — and appointed then-supervisor Joe Janoski as police commissioner. Since then, the record is strangely silent. And a succession of supervisors seems to have assumed that role de facto.

A new commissioner, appointed by the town board, could provide a fresh perspective and a much-needed additional voice beyond the very real and unfortunate lines that appear to have been drawn in Riverhead. Maybe they could select a Teddy Roosevelt kind of commissioner (whose work as NYC police commish is legendary). And maybe, just maybe, an additional perspective on the PD budget, morale and future will change things for the better for our Riverhead police, and for our Riverhead community.

There is, of course, a certain element of prestige for a town supervisor to hold the additional title of police commissioner. And it’s so rare for a politician to give up power. All the more noble such a step would be. An ancient proverb from Tibet comes to mind: “Whatever joy there is in this world, all comes from desiring others to be happy. Whatever suffering there is in this world, all comes from desiring myself to be happy.”
Greg Blass has spent his life in public service since he enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a teenager. He has worked in the private sector as an attorney and served six terms representing the East End in the Suffolk County Legislature, where he was also presiding officer. Greg has worked as an adjunct professor at Suffolk County Community College, as Greenport village attorney, as N.Y. State family court judge and as Suffolk County social services commissioner. Now retired, Greg is active in volunteer work and is a member of the board of directors of several charities. A resident of Jamesport, he and his wife Barbara have two grown children.

Send Greg an email.