TEDESCO

MAGNETTO

UPDATE: I'm told that Tedesco was called into City Hall today and told there would be no police commissioner. Though, I'm sure that was the plan yesterday, I'm told City Hall will be putting out a statement today saying it's not going to happen.

According to my sources, there is talk of adding $30,000 to the Police Department budget to hire a part time police commissioner. It’s unclear if it will be a line item transfer in this year’s spending plan or will be included in the one being formulated right now for next year’s.

Those same sources tell me it will be Tony Magnetto, the longtime, well-respected Troy cop who retired shortly after then-Mayor Harry Tutunjian picked Police Chief John Tedesco to head up the department in 2010 instead of Magnetto or Deputy Chief Buddy McAvoy. At the time it came down to the three men and Tutunjian went with Tedesco, McAvoy became the number two guy and Magnetto number three.

Safe to say, it really hasn’t been smooth sailing. The powerful Police Benevolent Association, headed up by Bob Fitzgerald, was not behind Tedesco from the get go and Tedesco did little to foster that relationship by trying to shake up the department. He took officers out of the schools fulltime, who were there even in the summer, broke up the Special Operations Section, long considered to be a place where officers can go into semi-retirement and pad their pensions, and shook up the Emergency Response Team, who he thought could be more efficient. He also cut overtime across the board, something near and dear to the PBA heart, and brought a no nonsense management style to the TPD where the union has ruled the roost for years.

NICHOLS

 The anti-Tedesco forces – including many on the Council loyal to the PBA, in particular Councilwoman Nina Nichols, who heads up the Public Safety Committee – get practically a boost a day given the number of shootings this year and, of course, most recently, some nut-job running around the city burning up buildings.

 Thing is, I don’t know if that’s Tedesco’s fault or not. Of course, there was crime under Tutunjian, but Tutunjian let the chief run the department and it wasn’t like it is today. A shooting is one thing and they happen in every city in the country, setting blocks of the city on fire is just crazy. A fight once in a while is one thing, the massive brawl that occurred on Sixth Avenue Monday night is another. It’s getting out of control and that’s the bottom line.

However, bringing in a police commissioner on a part time basis just to undermine the chief because he ruffled some feathers in the union certainly won’t go very far to solve the problem. When you have the Indians trying to be chief, and you have politicians catering to those Indians, the city burns. And in this case … literally.

FITZGERALD

RYAN

It comes down the contract too. I’m hearing the PBA is close to an agreement which includes a 2 percent raise last year – the PBA has been without one since the end of 2010 – no raise this year and some other perks including more vacation time and other time off. Tedesco, who has been negotiating contracts for decades, wasn’t invited to the table. This is where policy things could be negotiated, like the inane seniority clause, so you would think the chief would be invited. Instead it was just Deputy Mayor Peter Ryan and Fitzgerald playing cards. I like both guys, but if I had to bet on which one would win a poker game, my money is on Fitzgerald every day.