Avner Gregory, a New London property owner and landlord who might count himself among those residents frustrated that this year's budget debate has hinged on whether taxes should go up a hefty 6 or staggering 12 percent, this week shared some of his research into city spending habits.

Gregory sent along a document he obtained from the city itemizing the $1.3 million the city spent on police overtime in 2014.

The numbers would generally raise eyebrows, but I found the real eye-popper was the $55,393.95 that City Councilor Anthony Nolan, a city police officer, took home last year.

The overtime helped him earn $122,361 for the year, which will eventually turbocharge a lifetime of pension payments, since his final pension from the state fund the city contributes to will be determined by his highest three earning years.

Nolan is by no means even the highest police overtime earner.

That prize goes to Capt. Brian Wright, who earned $65,635 in overtime, for total 2014 pay of $167,779. Imagine that pension.

I counted more than 30 police officers who took home more than $15,000 in overtime in 2014. Quite a few made more than $25,000.

I put some questions to Deputy Chief Richard Reichard about overtime, how it's assigned, how much is volunteered, how much is reimbursed by contractors who need police road patrols.

The overtime is doled out on a rotating volunteer basis, he said. It is generally only ordered to fill patrol positions, which come up because of staff shortages, he said.

Private-duty-hiring money paid to officers amounted to around half a million dollars in 2014, he said. In addition, the city gets a 30 percent surcharge on hiring costs and charges for police cruisers, a "profit" last year of close to $700K that went into city coffers, not to the department, Reichard said.

The captain's overtime was high in part because his base pay is higher than officers, the deputy chief noted. The captain, who did a major records room reorganization last summer, is also required to work his first 96 hours of overtime without pay.

Police Chief Margaret Ackley at one time got a lot of credit for wringing money out of the police overtime account. But of course she's been sidelined for almost a year by Mayor Daryl Finizio, who assigned her to what looks like permanent paid leave.

The mayor's new best friend, police union President Todd Lynch, took home a relatively modest $6,345 in 2014 overtime, for total city pay of $73,206. Lynch made headlines years ago in news coverage of state police trooper pensions, having used three years of hefty overtime to boost his state pension to more than $70,000 a year.

I tried to reach Councilor Nolan this week. I didn't hear back from him, after I left a specific message saying I was calling to ask about his police overtime.

I single him out here not because there's any crime in working overtime, whether it's assigned or volunteered.

The trouble is that police overtime money is a budget cost that elected officials are supposed to address. Indeed, Councilor Nolan routinely votes on a budget that makes him, by average city incomes, a relatively rich guy.

I used to think the conflict of Officer Nolan serving on the council was his likely predisposition to vote for higher police budgets, for a larger police force.

But given the way he enormously benefits from overtime — it's more than a third of his pay — it would seem that he might be inclined to settle for a smaller police force, which drives up the need for overtime.

Gregory is bothered by the fact that both Nolan and City Councilor Michael Passero, a firefighter and candidate for mayor, are city employees who have a conflict of interest in voting on city matters, including the budget.

I agree with him. It's a conflict.

On the other hand, voters put them both on the council, knowing full well they work for the city.

Passero is on a course to resolve his conflict. He is not running for council again, and if he wins the race for mayor he will step down as a firefighter.

Nolan, if he stays on the police force — and it's hard to think how he could afford not to — should not run again.

And if a charter change commission is seated again, one of the first orders of business should be crafting a measure that would prevent city employees from serving on the City Council.

It's hard to think why being both employer and employee at the same time is a good idea.

This is the opinion of David Collins

d.collins@theday.com

Twitter: @DavidCollinsct