By Rod Hansen
Staff Writer

A $4 hourly pay raise for the town’s police sergeant won’t increase the department’s pay expenses, New Boston’s chief of police said.

Sgt. Frank Kochanek is already performing the duties of two police department employees, Police Chief Chris Krajenka said.

“He was given the duties of a sergeant and a lieutenant and not properly paid for it,” Krajenka said in a recent interview.

Kochanek assumed the lieutenant’s responsibilities following the departure of former Lt. Tim Lemay in November of 2005.

A police lieutenant is considered second in the structure of the town’s police department, Krajenka said. Responsibilities for a lieutenant in the New Boston police department include supervision of patrol officers, serving as the department’s accreditation manager and overseeing the day-to-day operations of the department, Krajenka said.

“When I’m not there, he’s the chief,” Krajenka said of Kochanek, who has been on the New Boston police force since March of 2003 and has been a sergeant for a year and a half.

Sgt. Kochanek also ran the department for the eight months in the interim between the departure of former Chief Gregory Begin in April of 2005 and the arrival of Krajenka in November of that year.

Selectmen voted unanimously to increase Kochanek’s hourly pay from $20.95 to $24.95, a raise of approximately 20 percent that will increase Kochanek’s yearly pay from about $43,576 to $52,000.

The pay hike came following a presentation by Krajenka in which he told selectmen Kochanek was not making a salary equivalent to one earned by sergeants on departments similar in size to New Boston’s.

“We should pay him comparably to what he’d make in a department of our size,” Krajenka said.

The comparison to other towns’ police pay comes from a study Krajenka is conducting of the salary structures of 26 departments in towns comparable in size to New Boston.

Currently, 11 departments are represented on the study, Krajenka said.

Kochanek’s raise will not affect the police salary budget because there are no plans to replace the lieutenant’s position, Krajenka said.

Although Kochanek has assumed lieutenant’s duties, selectmen decided not to promote him in rank, Krajenka said.

Selectmen Chairman Dave Woodbury and Town Administrator Burton Reynolds could not be reached to comment on that decision.

The police department currently employs three full-time patrol officers including Sgt. Kochanek; a part-time patrol officer, an administrative assistant and a clerical employee, all on an hourly basis, Krajenka said. Because Krajenka also performs patrol duties, he said he is considered a “working chief.”

He is the department’s only salaried employee.

The police department has a $430,280 budget for 2006, with $249,105 of that going to fulltime wages and $32,000 in parttime wages, Krajenka said.