Tonawanda, N.Y. (WBEN) – Letters were sent over the weekend to dozens of Town of Tonawanda police officers accused of violating Taylor Law by participating in a suspected ticket strike earlier this year.
The letter states, “A majority of the Town of Tonawanda Police Department engaged in a stoppage or work slowdown … between January 15 and February 5.”
The Town of Tonawanda Police Club, the union representing officers, estimates each officer who received a letter could face hundreds of dollars in fines.
The letter goes on to say, “a payroll deduction in the amount equal to twice your hourly rate of pay … will be taken from your paycheck.
"[Emminger] decided that under Taylor Law, he was going to conduct an investigation. This investigation did not include interviewing any officers. It did not include any due process, really, for the members at all. Then all of a sudden, we get letters in the mail saying that we're being charged for every day that we didn't write a ticket," stated Town of Tonawanda Police Club President Andy Thompson.
Thompson explains that the union has twenty days, from the date on the letter, to respond to the town.
"I highly doubt he'll take any of our responses into consideration. The fines should be pretty much what they are. Beyond that, we filed our rebuttal with PERB, which is the Public Employees Review Board. That's where this is eventually going to sit. We're waiting for a date from PERB. When PERB finds in our favor, the town is going to be responsible for reimbursing us this money that they took out of our checks," stated Thompson.
Tonawanda Town Supervisor Joe Emminger explains that the fines will be taken out in increments, instead of all at once.
"There were 44 letters sent out, which represents less than 50% of the officers, of the sworn officers in the town. So I know there's information out there that it's more than 50% of the officers got letters, but that is not correct. So 44 got received letters. They all went out same time, certified mail. So I would believe that all of the officers have received the letters by now," stated Emminger. We will, at some point, be taking the money out. I don't think we take it all out at once. We're certainly not going to ask them to pay the fine in one fell swoop. We'd be asking to take that out over a series of paychecks. What that number is, is to be determined still."
Emminger explains that the board doesn't have the discretion to pursue fines and that the laws clearly outline how they should be handling it.
"We had to take the steps that we took. The steps I already outlined. We had to do an investigation. We had to file a public report. We had to send out letters. All that we've done so far is is follow the law. If we would have thought there was a public strike and not done an action, I believe we would have been violating not only our oath as elected officials, but we would have been violating the law," stated Emminger.
Last week, the Tonawanda Police Club voted no confidence in Chief Stauffiger, claiming the force has suffered years of mismanagement under his leadership.