The Munster Police Department’s second raise of the year is not up for discussion, say the four councilmen who shot down the fifth’s concerns.
The department’s plans to add to six more officers will help with residents’ complaints about speeding, policing the new train station and keeping an eye on “what’s coming over from Illinois,” Councilman George Shinkan, R-1, said during a discussion of the salary ordinance and an additional appropriations ordinance at the Aug. 5 council meeting. The department has proposed adding three First Class officers, bringing its total number to 35; two sergeants, bringing their number to 11 from nine, and a deputy chief.
The requested $2.5 million in appropriations that will cover the reconfiguration through the end of the year, as well as the new police vehicles, is set to come out of the town’s tax increment financing district, which currently has between $20 million and $25 million in it, interim Town Manager Patricia Abbott said. While that may sound sustainable now, it may not be by time the TIF district comes up for renewal, Councilman Chuck Gardiner, R-3, pointed out.
“I’m proud of the focus (we have on public safety), but 80% of our tax dollars — or $7 million — goes toward the police department. In 2020, it was $4.8 million,” Gardiner said. “We spend $875,000 on the Fire Department, so I think that it’s important we look at the total picture of public safety, because that TIF will go down.”
Gardiner added that the TIF money is supposed to go toward town improvements, and that other departments have fewer officers than Munster does even without adding the six additional officers.
“We’ll be too top-heavy. Of the 50 highest-paid employees in Munster, 35 of them are officers,” Gardiner said. “We don’t want to shortchange our other departments, and we don’t want to end up like the School Town of Munster did 10 years ago.”
Councilman Jonathan Petersen, R-5, said the town is taking advantage of a change in state law that allows municipalities to spend TIF money on public safety and that the TIF is supposed to increase between $2 million and $4 million over the next 10 years. When the TIF expires, however, it’ll start from scratch, Abbott said.
“Now is when we need it, and we can afford it,” Petersen said.
Shinkan asked Gardiner where he got his information about how many officers other towns have, while Council President Dave Nellans, R-4, said the School Town has nothing to do with the town. Additionally, the $2 million the town is spending on new police vehicles “won’t happen again,” Nellans said.
Shinkan then called for a motion to end the discussion, and Petersen seconded it. The council voted on that motion 4-1, with Gardiner dissenting, after which he also cast the dissenting vote on the salary ordinance’s first reading.
Later, Petersen asked Gardiner to read into the record the email from which he was taking his statistics and who sent it.
“I’ll tell you who it was from: It was from ‘Chuck Gardiner’ to ‘Chuck Gardiner,’” Gardiner said. “I can’t believe I have to justify how I get my information to a fellow councillor.”
With some modifications to the ordinance the council approved 4-1 at its meeting on April 15, the council in May unanimously gave the Munster Police Department its second raise of the year after the department received a 4.6% raise along with the rest of the town employees at the first of the year. The new increases, which kicked in June 21, give First Class officers a 6% to 21% raise, bringing their average salaries to $88,000 from $84,000, the Post-Tribune previously reported.
Sergeants will receive a 5% to 15% raise; and Police Chief Steve Scheckel who, according to the Indiana Gateway was paid $122,844.14 in 2023, will get a $25,000 raise, bringing his salary to $147,844.14. It also removes the current car stipends — using them to help pay for the raises — but gives officers take-home cars instead.
Also, probationary and Second Class officers won’t be included in the raises, the Post-Tribune previously reported, but the ordinance changes the incoming officer hourly rate to $31.44.
Before this latest increase, the average salary for Munster police ranked fourth in Lake County, according to public salary data on Indiana Gateway, behind East Chicago, Lake County Sheriff’s Department, and St. John.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
