EDINBURGH — Edinburgh officials are considering abolishing the town marshal’s office and creating new police board.
The change could also lead to the established of new police and fire pension funds with better benefits, officials say.
The Edinburgh Town Council is considering an ordinance that will get rid of the town marshal office and create a Board of Metropolitan Police Commission. This will, in turn, allow the town’s police officers and firefighters to become eligible for the 1977 Police Officers’ and Firefighters Retirement Fund, or the 1977 Fund, town attorney Dustin Huddleston said.
The 1977 Fund requires employees to contribute 6% of their salary deducted from their paycheck each pay period and employers to pay a contribution rate determined annually by the board of trustees of the Indiana Public Retirement System, or INPRS.
Creating the Board of Metropolitan Police Commission is a requirement to opt into the 1977 Fund, said Doyne Little, police chief. Currently, Edinburgh police officers are in the civilian Public Employees’ Retirement Fund, or PERF. Little says the 1977 Fund has better pension benefits and also establishes a merit board that disciplinary or other actions would go through.
“It’s something that every agency does eventually as they grow and we’re just blessed that the council is working towards giving us a little better of a retirement and to do that, we can’t be a marshals agency — we have to be a police department,” Little said.
Those who qualify for the 1977 Fund must be full-time police officers and firefighters, not including volunteer firefighters, less than 40 years old or veterans with 20 years of armed forces service at a maximum age of 40 years and six months. INPRS states that they must have been hired or rehired after April 30, 1977, and pass the required statewide baseline physical examination test and the local board’s mental examinations.
Although the office of the town marshal would go away if the ordinance is passed, the town marshal position itself would become the position of police chief, Huddleston said.
The Board of Metropolitan Police Commission would consist of three Edinburgh residents with no more than two members of the same political party. The council would appoint each board member and can amend the ordinance to increase the number of members to five, according to a draft of the ordinance.
The board’s role would include appointing people to serve on the Edinburgh Police Department, recommending compensation for police employees and dealing with suspension, demotion and dismissal proceedings, according to the ordinance. The board can also make general and special rules for the governing and discipline of the police department and make special and general orders of the department through the police chief.
Each board member’s term would expire the Jan. 1 of the third year after their appointment. The initial terms will be staggered so one member’s term must expire each year. That means two of the members will have a shorter initial term.
The town council can remove a board member for any cause and council members cannot appoint a police officer employed by Edinburgh to the board and can only appoint one town council member as an ex-officio member on the Board of Metropolitan Police Commission.
Board members who are not also members of the town council will receive a salary determined by the council payable monthly out of Edinburgh’s treasury, according to the ordinance draft.
The proposed ordinance also gives information on requirements for the town council regarding expenditures for injured or sick full-time police officers and body armor.
The council will consider adopting the ordinance at the Oct. 28 town council meeting, Huddleston said. The council is also considering two ordinances that would establish a seven-member police pension board and three-member fire pension board.
