Mayor, Top Cop Clash in Rowdy Meeting

Nazareth’s Police Committee, mayor and police chief yelled, cursed and slammed fists for an hour in a raucous Monday night session filled with lots of questions and very few answers.

Jobs, safety and taxpayer dollars are all at stake as officials consider dissolving the borough’s police department. Mayor Fred Daugherty Jr. has that the borough contract services from .

With the borough’s force in limbo, Police Chief Thomas Trachta said officers are “jumping ship,” making it difficult to maintain adequate coverage. As tempers flared, Daugherty accused Trachta of mismanaging the department.

Beyond bickering, a few key points came to light in the meeting:

• Nazareth's newly created committee, which will handle negotiations with Colonial Regional, has yet to negotiate -- or meet -- with the department's Police Commission.
• There is no guarantee that the borough will buy police coverage from Colonial Regional until both entities sign a contract.
• Five officers, including one of the borough's three full-time officers, have been hired by other police departments to work part time.
• Daugherty gave Trachta permission to request the hiring of three part-time officers at the June 30 council workshop.

The discussion began politely but quickly turned adversarial when Trachta started asking questions of concern to himself, his officers and residents.

Trachta began by questionning why the borough would contract basic police services from Colonial Regional for $840,000 per year, when his budget is $793,000.

“Why pay more money for less coverage?” he asked.

Council president Dan Chiavaroli told Trachta that the $840,000 figure was only “conjecture,” and that negotiations have yet to take place.

“We haven’t had a single meeting between [Colonial Regional] and us yet,” Councilman Larry Stoudt said. “They have yet to put their commission and our committee together and lock them in a room." 

Stoudt, who is also the chairman of the Police Committee, added that the budget sheet Trachta was looking at did not include several items, like insurance and contractual benefits. 

Trachta argued that it has been said that the police budget has gone up 52 percent, “but that’s not true,” he said.

“That’s absolutely fact,” Daugherty countered. “It’s from workers' [compensation claims], and the large ones we have seen are from the police department alone.”

According to Daugherty, the borough’s insurance premiums skyrocketed $36,000 due to the claims.

When Trachta hinted that he did not spend about $33,000 of last year’s budget, which would almost cover the extra $36,000, Daugherty was offended.

“There is no such thing as savings, so don’t even use the word,” Daugherty said. “I take offense to that. It all costs. The only thing we can do is try to control costs, and quite honestly, that’s what we are trying to do here -- what I’m trying to do.”

According to Trachta, he became embroiled in these issues when he stepped in as chief.

“Neither one of [the officers receiving workers' compensation] worked under me, but I’m getting credit for it,” he said. “I’ve inherited a lot of this.”

But according to the mayor, the issues the department is currently facing have been 10 years in the making.

“It’s not something that just happened,” Daugherty said. “No one can point to you and say it’s your fault -- you’ve been pedaling as hard as you can. I don’t think you’re capable of fixing the problems we have.”

Trachta continued looking for answers.

“Every day I have people coming up to me asking ‘What’s going to happen to this person,’ ‘What’s happening with this,' and at some point, I need to give them an answer,” Trachta explained, despite only two people sitting in the audience -- both reporters.

Stoudt told the chief to advise those people to speak to members of council “who are making the decisions. That’s what we get our big paychecks for,” Stoudt joked.

According to Trachta, other police departments have hired five borough officers, including one of the three full-time officers. Officers are seeking other employment because of uncertainty surrounding the department.

“They are jumping ship, so to speak,” he said.

Since council's unanimous vote on June 6 to begin negotiations with Colonial Regional, one full-time officer has been hired to work part time at another department, according to Trachta, and four part-time officers are beginning to ask for additional time off due to part-time work they picked up at other departments.

Stoudt took issue with the full-time officer, who was not named, not being readily available if needed.

“This is his full-time job and if we need him, he is responsible to work for us,” Stoudt said angrily. “That is just my opinion. I don’t care if he works somewhere else, but he works for us. If we need him, he’s got to be here.”

As Trachta continued discussing the lack of personnel, Daugherty stopped him mid-sentence and bluntly told the chief what he feels the problem is.

“You deal with who you have,” Daugherty said. “It’s called management. You have no control over your department because you refuse to manage your people. Now that’s out in the open. There you have it. That’s how I see it. That’s how it is.”

Daugherty added that Trachta plays “the part of the officers against the bosses well.”

When the Nazareth police union, which has tossed around the idea of filing a lawsuit, was brought up in discussion, Stoudt became increasingly angry.

“I’m sick and tired,” Stoudt yelled. “I’ve been here for 30 God-damn years, and I was the staunchest supporter of the police department, but I’m tired of these guys holding us to the state and to the fire. Either [the part-time officers] work their 32 hours, or they go. If they don’t [work], we’ll go to state police and that’s just the way it’s going to be. I’m fed up with the attitude of these cops. I sit at home and listen to the police scanner and I’m embarrassed by the attitude and comments that come across that scanner.”

As Trachta began to bring up articles in The Morning Call and the The Express-Times about last week’s meeting of the Colonial Regional Police Commission, the members of which reportedly said they do not want to be obligated to hire Nazareth’s full-time officers, Stoudt quickly shot him down.

“I don’t give a damn what they have in the paper,” Stoudt yelled. “There has been no negotiating. That commission and our committee have not held a meeting yet.”

And Stoudt plans to ask the borough’s solicitor if a gag order can be put in place.

“My suggestion is that once you sit down, they put a gag order on everybody,” Stoudt said. “Nobody talks to the press. Whether we can do that or not, we’ll have to ask the solicitor. It’s the only way the truth will come out… eventually.”

Trachta again noted that because he is only allowed to take part in the Police Committee meeting, he is truly unsure of what the future holds.

“I hear rumors, so I have to bring them up,” he said.

Rumors and idle gossip don’t hold with Stoudt and Chiavaroli.

“You’ve been an officer long enough to know that rumors fly around,” Chiavaroli said.

“Rumors are rumors in this town, and there are a lot of them,” Stoudt added. “There always has been in this town.”

As the hourlong meeting of bickering and yelling started to come to an end, Chiavaroli quietly yet sternly reminded Trachta that nothing is set in stone.

“Until there are two signatures on a piece of paper, you continue to run the police department as you are,” he said, adding that if negotiations are successful with any department, a program will be put in place to ensure a smooth transition.

In addition, if there are areas that Colonial Regional or another department will not deal with, like parking meters, the borough’s Police Committee will make sure those areas remain covered.

Chiavaroli accepts the possibility that negotiations could potentially fall through, or that another department could decide it is interested in a possible merger.

“Just because you heard from us that a merge with Upper Nazareth is no longer an option is not necessarily true,” Chiavaroli said. “We could get halfway through this process and Bushkill Township could approach us and say they are now interested. Any of the surrounding departments could do that.” 

Daugherty told Trachta that he could request to hire three part-time officers, but he must make the request at the June 30 workshop.

“Bring up your concerns at the workshop meeting and we’ll hash it out in an executive session,” Daugherty said. “Council may come out with a magic wand and touch your head and give you everything you want.”