Lehighton has hired a new full-time police officer.

On a 5-0 vote, borough council on Monday hired Christopher Novak pending his completion of the pre-employment process.

After a lengthy executive session, council approved full-time officer Robert DeFuso for disability pension, subject to his resignation.

DeFuso had been with the police department since 2001.

12-hour shifts

Also on Monday, council revisited a discussion on whether or not it would keep its full-time police officers on 12-hour shifts.

Borough solicitor Jim Nanovic told council it was up to them.

“Do you want to do it on a permanent basis?”

Nanovic told council that he had drafted something up and could revise it.

However, Councilwoman Autumn Abelovsky said she wasn’t on board.

“It sounded great the first month,” Abelovsky said. “It wasn’t working (and was) at the detriment of our budget.”

Councilman Donnie Rehrig concurred.

“In reality, it’s created more of an issue.”

Police Chief Joe Sparich, who has since resigned, brought the matter up for discussion at last month’s meeting.

In December, council approved an amendment to the FOP contract to allow for full-time officers’ hours to go to 12-hour shifts.

That went into effect for Lehighton Police Department at the start of this year.

It was noted that it’s in the contract that the union and borough could do a one-year trial period of 12-hour shifts.

Sparich said that next year’s schedule per the Bargaining Agreement has to be completed, and that both sides have to say yes for it to continue.

Lehighton’s police department isn’t the only one in the area to agree to such a concept.

Neighboring Palmerton Borough Council in April added language to an existing agreement concerning its police department.

After a lengthy executive session, Palmerton Borough Council on a 6-1 vote approved a change in the memo of the agreement with the police department.

The motion was to add language clarifying the parties as the Palmerton Borough Council and the Palmerton Police Benevolent Association.

Councilman Andrew Hollywood cast the lone vote in opposition, and said at that time he believed it was a matter that should be dealt with at contract negotiation time.

After the meeting, borough Manager Autumn Canfield said, “This was done to clarify some ambiguous language in the original agreement. The agreement still stands, and officers are still working 12-hour shifts.”

Civil service consortium

Council on Monday also discussed the possibility of joining a civil service consortium for police testing.

Palmerton and Jim Thorpe police departments are looking at starting a consortium for police testing.

Councilman Ryan Saunders said he could see where such a consortium could have benefits.

“It’s very taking the way we have to do it (presently),” Saunders said. “You’d have a much larger pool (of candidates).”

One or both chiefs will be attending next month’s Lehighton Borough Council meeting to provide more information.