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December 16, 2004
HEADLINE: Auctions little aid to schools; In Durham, police sales pay overtime



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In most Triangle law enforcement shops, police auctions are good for children. The public buys things that were confiscated during arrests and searches, and the profits go to local schools.

But at the Durham Police Department, the sales are good for a few employees.

Most of the money goes to pay overtime to workers who set up the auction.

In the past three years, 79 percent of the Durham auction proceeds have gone
to expenses, mostly overtime. "The percentages that other cities are able to afford to the school system are certainly a lot more than we do, and it does give you reason to be concerned about it," Durham Police Chief Steve Chalmers said in an interview.

Wake County schools get about 70 percent of auction money from the Wake sheriff and Raleigh police. The Durham Sheriff's Office reports that nearly all of its proceeds go to the schools, though it hasn't had an auction in years. Chapel Hill police spend a lot on advertising, so they send only 37 percent of the take to the schools.

In the Durham Police Department, the lion's share of the overtime pay has gone to one property room technician, Ruth A. Brown, who got $26,169.62 in salary and benefits from the past five auctions. That's 51 percent of the $51,237 that the auctions grossed.

Brown declined to answer questions about the auctions. But several years ago, she testified about overtime pay at the trial of Erick Daniels, a teenager charged with breaking into her home and robbing her at gunpoint of $6,000. Brown said she earned that money from working police auctions. She could work unlimited hours, she said, because she was paid out of the auction proceeds, not the department's budget.

"We have a police auction, and this is actually the first job that I've ever had that actually allowed me to work as much overtime as I possibly would want to work, because that money comes out of a special fund," Brown testified. Brown was asked whether the overtime was offered to all Police Department employees. "Anybody that's willing to work for our police station," Brown said. "But you have to put in the hours to do it."

At one Durham police auction, on Oct. 27, 2001, Brown and her colleagues put in so many hours that the Durham police actually lost money, city records show.

The auction pulled in $9,961.50, and the department spent $9,618.56 on overtime, with $8,217.01 going to Brown. After the cost of an auctioneer and legal notices to advertise the auction, the department lost $957.51.

Brown was in the news after she filed a criminal complaint in October against News & Observer reporter Demorris Lee, charging him with harassment. Lee had been trying to contact Brown while reporting on Daniels' contention that he did not rob Brown.
Before he was arrested, Lee tried to interview Brown and requested records of her overtime pay from the Durham police. District Attorney Jim Hardin has dismissed the charges against Lee.

Chalmers said the overtime was necessary to conduct the auctions. The workload in the Durham property room leaves the staff with no time to prepare for auctions during regular work hours, he said. "People down there are doing overtime just to do their 8 to 4:30 work, because they are overwhelmed," Chalmers said.

Chalmers suggested that his department probably was understaffed in the property room compared with other big departments in the Triangle, but the numbers don't bear out his hunch.

Durham has one property room employee for every 160 officers on the streets making arrests and confiscating property. Raleigh police have one property room employee for every 179 officers, and the Wake County sheriff has one property room clerk for its 345 officers, although at times a uniformed officer helps out.

Some police departments are moving away from traditional auctions. Raleigh police are moving to an online auction company, PropertyRoom.com, that operates a Web site called Stealitback.com The online auction eliminates overtime and the need to build an inventory big enough to hold an auction, spokesman Jim Sughrue said.

Stealitback gets a 50 percent commission for items $1,000 or less and a 25 percent commission on items sold for more than $1,000. "Oftentimes, goods bring more on these online auctions," Sughrue said.

The Wake County Sheriff's Office has used Wester Auction Co., and the company gets 25 percent of the proceeds, according to county Finance Director Raymond Boutwell. Although Wake officials have been pleased with the auction company, Boutwell said they have hit on a better option: the state surplus warehouse on Chapel Hill Road in West Raleigh. "They take 5 percent in commission," Boutwell said.

Copyright 2004 The News and Observer