Policy on police details appears safe

WESTPORT -- Governor Deval Patrick signaled yesterday that he has little appetite to take on a state policy, one fiercely protected by the state's police unions, that allows officers to collect tens of thousands of dollars extra each year for working construction details.

It's "not at the top of my list, to be perfectly candid," Patrick said, in response to a Globe report that nearly 10 percent of the State Police force earned more last year than his salary as governor because of detail work.

Patrick said he understands concerns about the high paychecks, but downplayed the idea that the state could save much money by changing the detail policy, which automatically assigns police to most public and private road and utility work sites. He said the cost of the details is more of a concern for private construction businesses, who must pay the officers a higher wage than civilian flaggers earn.

A Patrick spokesman said later that the governor was speaking mostly about local police details, which have less of an impact on state coffers than the State Police details.

The Globe report found that State Police officers make millions of dollars a year from state projects, $6.1 million on Big Dig details and $7.2 million on Massachusetts Port Authority details in 2006.

Utility companies pass the cost of the details along to ratepayers, said David Tuerck, executive director of the conservative Beacon Hill Institute, and the state is a large consumer of electricity and telecommunications services.

Tuerck said he found Patrick's reluctance to take on the issue of details to be disappointing.

"It would be a signal that the state is getting tough on public employee unions, which is what the state really needs to do to save money," he said.

Kyle Sullivan, Patrick's press secretary, said later that the governor has not ruled out reviewing the detail policy later in his term.

"The governor is focused on his top priorities of writing the state budget, reorganizing government, and putting together a comprehensive education plan for Massachusetts," Sullivan said. "This focus on these priorities does not foreclose the possibility of looking at the police detail issue in the future."

In 1992, Governor William F. Weld proposed legislation to replace police details with flaggers, prompting some 800 police officers to picket the State House. Weld gave up.

"It's just clear we're not going to get anywhere on that issue," he told the Globe several years later.

Eric Kriss, who served as budget chief under Governor Mitt Romney, said it is "nearly impossible" to change the laws governing the detail policy because public unions have an iron grip on the State House.

But Robert Haynes, president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, countered that unions across the state "will do whatever it takes to make our workforce more productive." The detail policy, he said, exists to ensure the safety of workers on dangerous job sites.

Patrick was swept into office with strong support from unions, including the International Brotherhood of Police Officers. The State Police Association of Massachusetts, however, endorsed his Republican opponent, Kerry Healey.

Yesterday, the president of the State Police union, John Coflesky, praised Patrick for declining to take on the detail issue. He said that replacing police with flaggers would not save much money and that there would be a public safety cost.

"I know how construction people feel," he said. "They would much rather have a state trooper or local police officer standing at their detail with cruisers and lights and first-responder capabilities and radios."

Massachusetts is the only state that requires police officers, rather than less-expensive flaggers, on nearly all road work sites.

Addressing a luncheon of more than 400 Southeastern Massachusetts business people yesterday, Patrick outlined a few of his more immediate priorities.

He said his economic development cabinet is on the verge of persuading a renewable energy company to put aside its plans to expand out of state and to add 1,000 jobs in Massachusetts.

The governor also said he plans to create a commission to study what outcomes the state wants from its public education system and how to make it more "seamless." The group would explore how much its proposals would cost and how to pay for them.

In the next week or two, he said, he will introduce legislation that would give him authority over areas of state government that he otherwise could not control for another three years.

He was not specific, but a previous Globe report said that Patrick was interested in gaining control of high-profile boards such as the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and those that oversee education and economic development.

"Give me the tools, and I will do the job," he said.