Jefferson Hills Police Officer Chris Gawlas earned more than $224,000 in compensatory time over the past eight years as the department's K-9 officer, an independent audit has reported.

That's an average of about $28,000 above his base pay per year, it states.

The audit report was released this month after a three-month investigation by Corporate Security and Investigations Inc. Borough council hired the firm at $80 an hour after residents flooded meetings in January to protest council's elimination of the popular K-9 program in December. Council said the decision was made to curtail its out-of-control costs.

The K-9 program employed Fritz, a 5-year-old German shepherd, to assist with drug searches and in-school drug education programs, among other things. Officer Gawlas, who has run the police department's DARE program for the past 19 years, was the dog's handler.

Although Officer Gawlas' wife Kim argued that the K-9 program's costs were less than $7,000 per year, council members estimated that costs actually ran into the tens of thousands due to the comp time awarded to Officer Gawlas.

The report called Officer Gawlas an opportunist who exploited the collective bargaining agreement and his unique role as K-9 handler to maximize his personal income. But it acknowledged that all of his actions were approved by the former police chief or designee, and that his accumulation of large numbers of comp hours was in no way illegitimate.

Council members also said Officer Gawlas and Fritz spent a majority of their time serving other districts while Jefferson Hills paid the bill. The program, council argued, served Jefferson Hills' residents as no more than a public relations tool.

The report deems the K-9 unit's ultimate value as "relatively low" and questions whether it is a necessary tool for the borough. Usage reports submitted by Officer Gawlas note only two "Canine Apprehensions" and two "Canine Arrests" in five years. Use by outside agencies made up the majority of the K-9 unit's work from 2006 to 2010, the report states.

Officer Gawlas couldn't be reached for comment on the report. Borough manager Doug Arndt had no comment on it.

Teamsters Local 205 business agent Carl Bailey, a retired McKeesport police officer who represents the officers in Jefferson Hills, said it's common for emergency personnel like police and firefighters to receive compensation time.

In most municipalities, however, that time is capped and restricted in various ways. Not so in Jefferson Hills.

"Essentially the way its set up, [compensation time] is supposed to be a cost savings to the municipality, to save them from putting out overtime hours," Mr. Bailey said. "In principle, it's set up to be run the right way. Can it be run the wrong way? I guess it can."

Mr. Bailey said the way the borough handles its officers' comp time was in place when he began representing the department in 2006, but council didn't bring concerns about potential abuses to his attention until negotiations of the current contract began in fall 2009. He doesn't blame the officer.

"I don't think [Officer Gawlas] did anything illegal, anything unethical," Mr. Bailey said. "I think he just had the opportunity because he had the canine and took advantage of the opportunity he had."

Martin Reagan, police chief from 2006 to 2010, authorized much of Officer Gawlas' comp time from 2001 to 2010.

According to the report, Officer Gawlas' role as K-9 handler enabled him to take advantage of opportunities unavailable to other members of the Jefferson Hills police force.

When the K-9 program was being developed in the 1990s, research suggested that the unit would be most effective at night, when most crime occurs. For this reason, Officer Gawlas was given the night shift by then board President Brian Militzer.

As dictated by the collective bargaining agreement, regular comp time is accrued when officers spend time on the job outside of their regular shift. It can be cashed in for pay or converted to additional time off.

Unlike any other officer in the department, Officer Gawlas was positioned to earn regular comp time any time he worked during the day.

According to the report, "a vast majority of Officer Gawlas' regular comp time since 2008 is attributable to attending court appearances."

Because court hearings are held only during the day, any appearance Officer Gawlas made in court counted toward his regular comp hours.

"These higher-than-normal accrual rates of regular comp time largely account for the higher-than-normal pay received by Officer Gawlas throughout the years," the report stated.

The report also found that Officer Gawlas' role as K-9 officer allowed him to accumulate many more training comp hours than fellow officers. Training comp hours cannot be cashed in for pay. They may, however, be used to obtain additional time off when at least two other people are working on a shift to keep the department from being short-handed because of the absence.

On multiple occasions, the report indicates that Officer Gawlas used his accrued training comp hours to cover his regular shift so that he could instead work overtime detail and earn more money for work time.

Officer Gawlas was able to accumulate more training hours than other officers due in part to then-Chief Reagan's emphasis on community outreach. Under his tenure, officers were encouraged to receive outside training and Officer Gawlas was "given free rein to work ostensibly whenever he wished to do so." In most weeks, Officer Gawlas worked more than 40 hours.

Most of the searches and demonstrations Officer Gawlas conducted were outside Jefferson Hills, and the borough was not reimbursed for the time, the report states.

Although the direct cost of keeping Fritz, the police dog, came in at only about $7,000 per year on average, the report emphasized the great indirect costs of the K-9 program. "When training comp time accumulated for work performed outside of Jefferson Hills Borough was used, it had the net effect of limiting police coverage in Jefferson Hills Borough."

Additionally, the report suggests Officer Gawlas repeatedly inflated his self-reports and rounded up hours when possible. When asked about this charge, according to the report, Officer Gawlas insisted that the reported times were an accurate reflection of his time spent. A sergeant or the police chief approved all of his time sheets.

The terms of the 2006 collective bargaining agreement that permitted Officer Gawlas' actions are still in place.

Mr. Bailey, the police union representative, said an agreement to cap comp hours at 240 per year had been reached during contract negotiations last year, but the borough backed out of the arrangement. Officer Gawlas and former Chief Reagan routinely accrued more than three times the proposed maximum comp time in recent years.

Because an agreement could not be reached by the contract's expiration at the end of last year, both parties entered into arbitration with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board. The first arbitration meeting was March 2, but Jefferson Hills solicitor Mike Adams said he could not comment on specifics because negotiations are pending.

Mr. Bailey said the negotiations were going well and he respected the borough's professionalism in dealing with the matter. He reiterated that the previously agreed to 240-hour comp cap was still acceptable to him.

The report's findings have not weakened support for Officer Gawlas and the K-9 program, if recent posts on the 926-member Save Jefferson Hills K-9 Program Facebook page are an indication.

"Sounds to me like he submitted paperwork like he was supposed to and no one complained," commented Eric Pastor of Dravosburg.

First Published: April 28, 2011, 2:45 p.m.