Malloy Wants To End 1,248 Trooper Minimum

HARTFORD — In an attempt to overturn a 13-year-old law, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is calling upon the legislature to eliminate the statute requiring a minimum of 1,248 state troopers.

The move comes after a judge’s recent ruling that the 1,248 trooper law is “mandatory” and should be enforced.

The judge also refused Malloy’s request to dismiss a lawsuit by the state police union regarding Malloy’s layoff last year of 56 troopers. The union said that Malloy was wrong to lay off the troopers because the state was already below the mandated 1,248 minimum level, and the layoffs lowered that number by an additional 56 troopers.

The law was established in 1998 under then-Gov. John G. Rowland, and the last time that the state complied with the law was in 2009 under Gov. M. Jodi Rell as the state had more than the required minimum.

Superior Court Judge James Graham said last month that the union “has standing to bring this claim” and rejected the Malloy administration’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit. As a result, the case will move forward.

But Andrew McDonald, Malloy’s chief legal counsel, said the administration is appealing the ruling to the state Appellate Court with the intention of eventually getting a ruling from the Connecticut Supreme Court, the state’s highest court.

“We believe that there are substantial errors of law in the court’s decision, and we intend to file an appeal in the near future,” McDonald said after last month’s ruling. ”The judge acknowledged that this statute is susceptible to multiple interpretations, and I have no doubt he did the best he could with no controlling precedent on the subject. The statute itself was the source of confusion when passed.”

In a detailed recounting of the history of the law, the judge cited comments made by legislators on the floor of the state House of Representatives in 1998. Rep. Stephen Dargan, the longtime co-chairman of the public safety committee, is the only lawmaker quoted by the judge who is still serving in the legislature. McDonald cited Dargan’s quotation on Page 15 of the judge’s 32-page ruling regarding the minimum level.

“I’m sure if he or she, whoever the commissioner is at that time, is a little underneath that staffing level, we ask them to try to keep that at that level because this was the staffing level that the commissioner would like to see,” Dargan said in 1998, as quoted in the ruling. As a co-sponsor, Dargan voted in favor of the increase to 1,248 troopers.

Reached Friday by telephone, Dargan told Capitol Watch: ”It’s the governor’s bill. We just got it yesterday. We’ll listen to testimony from OPM and the state police union, too. … At one time, we were at that number. Now, we’re well over 100 down.”

With the short session, the public safety committee will likely make an initial decision by Thursday, March 15.

Over the last 50 years, the state police have had various minimum staffing levels. Based on detailed history that was investigated by the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Research, Dargan said the minimum trooper level in 1961 went from 450 to 500. In 1965, the level was boosted from 500 to 590. In 1967, it went from 590 to 665 before increasing from 665 to 765 in 1969. In 1972, it went from 765 to 810. In 1973, the number was removed from the statute and replaced with “the amount that was needed to sustain the department,” Dargan said.

The 1,248 minimum in 1998 was related to the death of Heather Messenger and the lengthy response time to an emergency call in Chaplin. When police finally arrived, Messenger had been killed.

Regarding why the legislature chose the precise number of 1,248 troopers and not 1,249, Dargan said, “That’s a good question.”

In the 13 years since the 1,248 minimum was established, the legislature has provided funding to meet the level in only three of those years, McDonald said.

In his ruling, Graham said that “the most reasonable reading of the statute and its history indicates that the statute is mandatory.”

Malloy’s spokesman, Andrew Doba, said that FBI statistics show that “crime is at a 44-year-low in Connecticut.”

He added,  “There are many factors that contribute to the safety of our citizens, but an arbitrary statute mandating the minimum number of state troopers is not one of them.  We know that crime is down across the country, and yet Connecticut appears to be  the only state that has a staffing requirement like this on the books.”

“The Governor’s legislation calls for an bi-annual needs assessment to determine the correct number of troopers, rather than an arbitrary stature.  That assessment, which must be approved by the legislature, will allow troopers to continue to do what they do best – protect public safety – while at the same time lower costs for Connecticut taxpayers. No other law enforcement agency – corrections, probation, etc. – has a minimum staffing requirement.”

Since the law is subject to interpretation, some insiders believe that the legislature will likely take action this year to clarify the law and make it crystal-clear. That could include taking the number completely out of state law because the state, for example, does not currently require a minimum number of prison guards, probation officers or social workers at the Department of Children and Families.

The attorney general’s office, which is defending the Malloy administration, said after the ruling that: ”We respectfully disagree with the court’s conclusion that the statute creates a mandatory, judicially enforceable staffing threshold. We intend to appeal in order to obtain a definitive ruling on that question.”

The order to rehire the 56 laid-off troopers was made in October, and they are back on the job. Forty veteran state troopers had retired since the layoffs, providing enough money to allow the 56 rookie troopers to be rehired, state officials said. The 40 higher-paid veterans earned more than the aggregate amount of the 56 newcomers.

With Malloy’s motion to dismiss rejected by the judge, the case now moves forward in an appeal that could last eight to 12 months. The state has ignored the 1,248-minimum law at times over the past decade, but Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell was in compliance as recently as February 2009 when there were 1,283 troopers. Since then, the number has been dropping.

Even with the rehirings, the state police had 1,086 troopers, still below the state-mandated minimum.

The troopers were laid off Aug. 24 last year to help balance the two-year state budget after a lengthy debate over a savings-and-concessions deal with the Malloy administration. Only the troopers and a union representing supervisors for prison guards rejected Malloy’s two-year wage freeze.

Now, the rookie troopers have not only gotten their jobs back, but all troopers received a 2.5 percent pay increase on July 1 last year.

The turnover within the state police this year has been relatively high. Many veterans have left because their pensions and benefits would not have been as lucrative because of changes in the pension system. When the 40 latest retirements were included, 135 troopers retired in 2011, according to the union.

The salaries of the highly paid, newly retired troopers were a key factor in bringing their colleagues back on the force. Upon graduating from the six-month police academy, rookie troopers at the bottom of the pay scale are paid slightly more than $51,000 a year. But many veteran troopers accumulate large amounts of overtime and make more than $100,000 a year. Some sergeants earn more than $200,000 a year.

By twice rejecting the wage freeze by wide margins over several months, troopers also rejected the chance for four years of layoff protection that other state employees received.

For more than a decade, the number of troopers has been hotly contested. The state legislature placed the minimum number at 1,248, but lawmakers voted to postpone that number for three years when the state was facing tough fiscal times under Rowland in 2003.  The union’s lawsuit is continuing, and Bradford said he has called for a study to determine the number of troopers needed.

According to the state, the 40 veteran troopers were earning salaries totaling $2.25 million, compared with a total of $1.88 million for the 56 rookies who returned to the force.