Village Board President Lou Sherman has vetoed a board resolution limiting the Steger Police Department to three sergeants.
Sherman, who announced his veto at this week’s board meeting, said about five sergeants are necessary to cover round-the-clock Police Department shifts.
The 14-member department was left with three sergeants after the September retirement of Terry LaMastus, a 20-year veteran. The Police and Fire Commission has conducted sergeant examinations for the vacant position.
But there is no need to have a fourth sergeant on staff, said Trustees John Cashman, Robert Joyce, Anthony Santori and Charles Tieri.
The four argue that the Police Department functioned with just three sergeants in the past year while LaMastus served on a state police unit investigating auto thefts in Cook and Will Counties. They contend the money for a sergeant’s salary could be better spent on other village needs.
The four, who represent a majority bloc on the Village Board, must wait until the next meeting, Nov. 6, to attempt to override Sherman’s veto.
The Police Department uses patrol officers to fill in the more than 2,000 hours a year when the three paid sergeants are off duty.
Sherman, blasting the board’s resolution as “arbitrary and capricious,” said it undermines the department’s morale and effectiveness.
“It continues a pattern of leaving too many shifts without a sergeant on duty,” he said.
Sherman’s veto is the latest salvo in a 17-month conflict with the four trustees that has frequently flared into open antagonism and heated remarks at board meetings.
Much of the conflict has focused on Police Department operations, pitting Clarence “Duke” Helsel, the board’s liaison with the Police and Fire Commission, against Tieri, who previously served as police chief. Tieri has openly criticized Police Chief Richard Stultz at village meetings.
In July, Cashman, Joyce, Santori and Tieri trimmed $300,000 from the police budget, leaving it $55,000 under the break-even point for police officers’ salaries, according to the village auditor.
The trustees also have refused to approve the creation of new positions within the department and have repeatedly attempted to fire Stultz.
In August, the four supported a budget resolution that, for the second year in a row, provided no raises for department heads, such as Stultz. Sherman vetoed the measure, but the four overrode his veto.
