Ohio highway patrol chief juggles budget cuts

Ohio Highway Patrol Superintendent Richard Collins oversees a $260 million annual budget, with 2,605 employees, including about 1,100 troopers and another 400 or so uniformed personnel spread out over 10 districts

By MATT REED
The Associated Press

9/24/2008

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Since taking charge of the State Highway Patrol last year, Superintendent Richard Collins has had to deal with a string of embarrassing personnel issues.

Two troopers were fired over a prank involving what looked like a Ku Klux Klan outfit, and 12 others lost their jobs over accusations they cheated on yearly exams required for law enforcement officers who give breathalyzer tests.

Personnel matters have lately taken up the great majority of Collins’ workload during a time when the patrol has been told to reduce spending, he said. No new state troopers were hired this year — the first time since 1996 — and the patrol has cut back on buying new patrol cars and postponed acquiring video cameras and other equipment.

“We were asked to come up with a plan to save money and we’ve done that,” Collins said in an interview last week with The Associated Press. “We realize that everybody is hurting and everybody needs to hurt equally.”

But the patrol’s biggest challenge is persuading lawmakers and Gov. Ted Strickland to raise fees for vehicle and driver’s license registrations and other related transactions to give the patrol a long-term funding source, said Collins, a 30-year veteran of the patrol.

Patrol officials have eyed potential budget shortfalls since 2004, when lawmakers approved a four-year plan that phased out using gas tax revenue for patrol funding. There were worries last year before Collins took over that some troopers would be laid off.

Strickland appointed Collins, 49, in April 2007 to replace Col. Paul McClellan, who retired. He oversees a $260 million annual budget, with 2,605 employees, including about 1,100 troopers and another 400 or so uniformed personnel spread out over 10 districts, patrol spokesman Sgt. Tim Karwatske said.

The choice of Collins, who previously commanded the 12-county Findlay District, was a rare one: Superintendents are usually chosen from among high-ranking administrators at the patrol’s Columbus headquarters, Collins said.

“It was kind of an unexpected opportunity,” he said. “Going from a field environment, where you’ve been involved in the nuts and bolts of what’s going on every day, and then coming into Columbus where you’re handling the global operations of the highway patrol has been a pretty big adjustment.”

Collins, joined the patrol in 1978 as a cadet dispatcher and served in patrol posts in Marion, Mansfield and Piqua. He remembers troopers covering maps with colored pins to show the locations of highway crashes and arrests.

Computer technology has changed that dramatically, he said. Troopers who investigate an accident now enter in latitude and longitude coordinates on their report. Those numbers are fed into a computer and displayed on the patrol’s Web site, allowing everyone to view the problem areas, he said.

The patrol has focused on urban highways to reduce traffic deaths — what Collins called the patrol’s fundamental mission. So far this year, deaths are down about 20 percent, he said.

“Certainly the cost of fuel has something to do with that,” he said, referring to studies that have shown that fewer people are driving because of higher gas prices.

“But I think a lot of it has to do with a number of programs that we’ve done, going back to Col. McClellan’s administration,” he said. “We’re focusing in on the places where we need to be and seeing the numbers come down in the areas where we’ve worked.”

Meanwhile, a grievance has been filed by the two troopers from the patrol’s Sandusky post fired in May over the handmade Ku Klux Klan-like outfit that was photographed and forwarded by cell phone. They’re awaiting a binding decision from an arbitrator on whether they can get their jobs back, said Herschel Sigall, a lawyer for the Ohio State Troopers Association.

The 12 troopers accused of cheating have filed appeals that should take until February to be completed. Each will have a separate hearing, and a number of arbitrators will be involved, Sigall said.

Collins said he stands by the decision to fire the troopers accused of cheating, which he said isn’t a widespread problem in the patrol.

“It was somewhat of a breakdown among a group of people that were involved in the process there,” he said. “We dealt with that like we deal with any other issue of dishonesty, where you weigh the evidence and you make the decision.”