Village police among highest paid

Salaries for Rockville Centre police officers were among the highest in the county in 2014, well over the average salary for police departments in Nassau County.

On average, RVCPD officers made more than $183,000 last year, while the average for a Nassau County police officer was $160,000. For the current 2015-16 fiscal year, salaries make up about 43 percent of the village’s budget.

For the current fiscal year, the village has budgeted slightly more than $9.25 million for its police department. Of that, $8.6 million is for salaries (about 20 percent of the village’s budget) for the 65 employees of the department. That includes the 55 officers.

But in 2014, the most recent year for which records are available, officers made some record salaries, with the top cop earning nearly $239,000. He was one of six who made more than Commissioner Charles Gennario, who took home nearly $218,000 in 2014.

Rockville Centre Police Benevolent Association President Jim Carty said RVCPD salaries are in line with the Nassau average, but that the numbers from last year, the most recent available, are skewed. Last year, police officers received retroactive payments for 2012 and 2013 from contract arbitration. Each officer earned an extra $25,000-$30,000 last year, Carty said.

“We’re not the highest paid,” he added. “It’s just because we’re going through all these contract fights and getting our money years later.”

Carty said that he believed $150,000 was a more likely average salary going forward.

“Historically, [police salaries] have been high here on Long Island,” said Village Comptroller Michael Schussheim. “What contributes toward that? In collective bargaining negotiations with the PBA, if we can’t come to a settlement with them, the PBA has the ability to go to binding arbitration, where an arbiter gets to decide salaries. And that’s why I think salaries have gone up so high.”