St. Ignace Post Dodges Bullet on State Police Cuts

Ten Michigan State Police positions will be cut in the Upper Peninsula, none from the St. Ignace post, the agency announced Monday, March 19. In the wake of a projected $13.6 million deficit for the current fiscal year, the agency is cutting positions, reassigning personnel, and changing responsibilities.

Statewide, 112 officers will have a change in responsibility or assignment and as many as 46 officers could lose their jobs when the process is complete. The announcement was made by State Police Director Peter Munoz Monday.

Locally, one trooper will be laid off from the Negaunee post, while post commander positions will be eliminated in Cheboygan and Newberry. Cheboygan now will be under the command of the Petoskey post. The Sault Ste. Marie post commander will oversee operations at the Newberry post.

Sergeant positions will be eliminated at Cheboygan and Sault Ste. Marie, and in Newberry both the sergeant and detective sergeant positions will be cut.

A polygraph position will be dropped in Marquette.

Layoffs of 29 troopers from the department's most recent recruit school, which was completed in December 2004, are set for April 8. Additionally, an upcoming recruit school of 50 new troopers has been canceled.

"After several years of belttightening, there were no easy areas left to cut," said Col. Munoz in a prepared statement. "We made every effort to minimize the affect on public safety and to our employees, but with such a large deficit and approximately 80 percent of our General Fund monies used for payroll, tough decisions had to be made."

Already reassigned are 22 command officers, four sergeants, and 14 civilian employees. They were moved into non-general fund vacancies within the department in an attempt to reduce general fund costs. In addition, the department is eliminating 41 other positions through job bumping, a process by which an employee displaces another or fills a vacant position through seniority-based employment preference. The bumping process will result in some employees being demoted, reported Shanon Akans of the Michigan State Police public affairs office.

Administrative reductions and division consolidations have taken place to lessen the number of layoffs. The training and human resources divisions were merged and functions were transferred out of the West Region Special Investigation Division to other areas within the department.

Fifteen on-site post commander positions were eliminated and the number of commanders was reduced on five of the department's multi-jurisdictional drug teams.

Other reductions include the elimination of nine sergeant positions and 10 polygraph operator positions in the Forensic Science Division.

Last month, facing a projected $3.1 million deficit in the fleet division, the department began efforts to cut $2 million by reducing the number of vehicles in the fleet and the number of miles driven by troopers.

In 2006, employees drove 35 million miles while providing public safety services, said Ms. Akans.

Technology expenses are being cut by $1 million she said, by delaying various planned upgrades and purchases.