An assistant D.C. police chief has been given the rank of chief of police and a 10 percent pay boost, according to payroll records obtained by The Washington Examiner.
The pay increase keeps Alfred Durham's annual salary at about $178,000 after the department stripped him of "longevity" pay, a 10 percent bonus added to the salary of officers who have 20 years of continuous service. Alfred has more than 20 years with D.C. police, but they're not continuous. Starting in 2005, he spent two years with the Richmond Police Department.
Police Chief Cathy Lanier told The Examiner in December that if it were found Durham didn't deserve the longevity pay, he would be asked to pay it back, and Durham said he would. On Tuesday, police spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump said Durham has "made arrangements to pay the money back in full."
Durham's changing payroll record
December:
| Rank: assistant police chief | Pay grade: 10 | Longevity: yes | Now: | Rank: police chief | Pay grade: 11 | Longevity: no | |
But even as he pays back the nearly $20,000 extra he received each year, Durham's salary hasn't dropped.
Payroll records show that when Durham was still receiving the longevity pay, his rank was listed as "AC," which police union Chairman Kris Baumann said stands for "assistant chief." At the time, Durham also was being paid at "grade 10," the second-highest level in the city's pay structure, payroll documents show. When the longevity payment was cut, Durham's pay grade jumped to 11, the highest in the city's pay structure. The new payroll record now also displays his rank as "COP," which Baumann said stands for "chief of police."
Crump said Durham is Lanier's chief of staff and he has not been promoted. She said the only person in the department who holds the rank of police chief is Lanier. Crump would not respond when asked whether anyone in the department other than Lanier is at the top pay grade, referring that and other questions regarding Durham's pay and payroll record to the human resources department? -- which did not return calls from The Examiner on Tuesday.
Mayor Vincent Gray made clear during a Tuesday news conference that Durham is not the city's new police chief.
"There's only one chief of police who is appointed by the mayor, and that's Chief Lanier," Gray said.
Baumann said taxpayers are taking the hit for Durham's unbending salary, and he has asked the mayor and D.C. Council to investigate.
"Taxpayer funds are viewed as an endless source of money to profit for select individuals," Baumann said. "Even when incontrovertible evidence, no action is taken, no investigation, no hearings, only denials and excuses."
