NYC Sues Mount Pleasant for Poaching Police Academy Graduate
The Town of Mount Pleasant is being sued by New York City for hiring a recent graduate of the city’s police academy without proper reimbursement for the cost of his training.
Mount Pleasant Supervisor Carl Fulgenzi said he learned of the suit on Feb. 17 that was filed six days earlier in state Supreme County in White Plains claiming the town poached Officer John Kardian from the NYPD. Fulgenzi denied the city’s contention.
“I was very surprised,” he said.
Fulgenzi said the town had hired two other graduates of the city’s police academy over the past few years, paying $20,000 per officer to cover some of the training costs. However, the city is looking for more than $47,000 from Mount Pleasant in this instance, he said.
New York City Law Department spokesman Daniel Roca responded to questions in an e-mail statement last week saying the city must be fairly compensated when its police academy graduates are hired by other departments.
“The city makes significant investments in the training of new recruits and state law protects those investments when recently-trained officers are hired away by other municipalities,” Roca stated.
Municipalities that hire a police officer from other departments less than three years after the officer completes training are required to pay a reimbursement.
Roca said he did not know if other Westchester municipalities were being sued by the city for taking graduates of its police academy, but there are eight similar pending suits that have been brought against suburban departments in the New York metropolitan area.
The $47,000 figure is based on a state formula which includes the length of time served by the officer in the municipality that did the training, Roca said. Kardian, a Mount Pleasant resident, graduated from the New York City Police Academy in December 2013, worked for the NYPD for less than seven months and was hired by Mount Pleasant in July 2014.
A source told The Examiner that New York City has resolved similar lawsuits out of court. Only Mount Pleasant is being sued by the city, not Kardian.
Fulgenzi said he did not understand why the city was claiming Mount Pleasant had underpaid its share of the training costs when it hired Kardian, who learned of the opening in his town’s department and sought the position.
The supervisor said he was optimistic the town would negotiate a fair settlement with city officials.
“We would be happy to sit down with them” and settle the matter out of court, he said.
A message left last week for Mount Pleasant Police Chief Paul Oliva was not returned.
