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POLICEPAY.NET
NEGOTIATION TRAINING JULY 26-27 -
More city
cops defecting for higher pay Surrounding departments are luring
NYPD officers, police union chief says From The The NYPD pays its cops so little that they are leaving in droves
for other, better-paying police departments, according to Patrick Lynch,
president of the largest police union, the Patrolmen's Benevolent
Association. "The problem is out of control," said Lynch during a
news conference in the PBA's Leveraging recent news of an NYPD staffing shortage during a
bitter contract fight with the Bloomberg administration, Lynch contended the
reason the city can't attract and hold onto police officers is because it
doesn't pay them salaries comparable to surrounding
jurisdictions like the Lynch said 902 officers quit in 2006 -- all with fewer than five
years on the job and therefore no pension benefits to gain. That's 42 percent
more than the 635 who left in 2004, and nearly six times the number who quit
in 1991, he said. The resignation numbers were compiled by the PBA and based on city figures and exit interviews, which
showed that in most cases the officers said they were leaving for a
better-paying police job, Lynch said. Island PBA trustee George Winkler said
the problem has a clear impact in the borough. "All the precincts on
Staten Island are severely understaffed," said the The The quitting trend could give the union leverage in stalled
negotiations for a two-year contract that ended in July 2006. Both sides are
now in the process of choosing an independent state arbitrator, and blame
each other for refusing to negotiate. This will be the fifth contract of the
last six to go to binding arbitration. The city's latest offer would raise top base pay from $59,588 to
$63,309, an amount Lynch said is still far lower
than surrounding jurisdictions. The MTA pays its
police a base of $68,781; the Port Authority pays $80,720, and NYPD salaries began losing ground to surrounding departments in
the early 1990s, just as crime started the long decline that now makes New
York one of the safest big cities in the country. But cops have watched as
pay climbed everywhere but here, said Lynch. Noting that it costs the city $100,000 to recruit and train a
single officer, Lynch estimated the exodus of 1,709 rookies in 2005 and 2006
represented a waste of $176 million. "When that police officer who's fully trained, and earned
experience on our streets, quits for another police department, that is an
absolute waste of money," he said. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly responded that the attrition
rate, excluding retirees, has remained steady at about 2 percent a year, low
by most employers' reckoning. Both Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg switched the focus from
top pay to the department's ultra-low starting base pay of $25,100, which
they claimed is hurting recruitment efforts. They once again blamed union
leaders, saying they asked for binding arbitration in the last round of talks
and then chose higher salaries for senior officers at the expense of rookies.
"They chose moving monies from the people who were joining
the union to the people who were there a long time," said Bloomberg
during an event in Kelly said the department is down 4,000 officers from where it
was in 2001, and the low starting salary doesn't play well in recruitment
campaigns. "We are in the most expensive city in Police union
won't back Daley Joins Federation of Labor in sitting out race From the For the third time in the last week, Mayor Daley has been denied
a union endorsement, underscoring his strained relationship with organized
labor. The Fraternal Order of Police on Tuesday joined the Chicago
Federation of Labor in taking a pass on the mayor's race. Earlier this week,
the Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2 endorsed mayoral challenger Dorothy
Brown. Daley and the FOP have never seen eye-to-eye -- even though the
mayor has spent 18 years crusading against gangs, guns and drugs and was a
law-and-order state's attorney. During the Daley years, police contracts have routinely gone to
arbitration. The FOP has complained about police manpower shortages, mistakes
made by the city's computerized payroll system and blocked Daley's plan to
strip officers of their right to direct traffic at Bears games and other
lakefront events. Upset over appointments The union also filed a lawsuit seeking rebates for retirees
billed more for health insurance than a court order allows. But Tuesday's non-endorsement is about more than past beefs,
according to FOP President Mark Donahue. He said it's about a mayor who jumps to conclusions on
allegations of police misconduct and named two people "who have shown
nothing but disrespect" for police officers to the panel that will
select the new director of the Office of Professional Standards. Donahue was
referring to the appointments of the Rev. Michael Pfleger
and Andre Grant. David Axelrod, the mayor's political consultant, attributed the FOP's non-endorsement to the "natural tension"
between a mayor and city unions caused by budget constraints. From The Daily Pilot, January 23, 2007 Newport Beach police will be the highest paid in salary and
benefits in Orange County, after the City Council voted Tuesday to give
officers an 11% raise and police management a 10.25% raise over the next
three years. The new three-year contract with police will cost $3.7 million
through 2009. It offers more pay to employees other than police officers who
get more education, boosts contributions to health insurance and retiree
medical costs, and offers management employees a differential for staying
with the department. The contract
replaces one that ended last month. State Police agree on new contract From WPRI.COM, January 24, 2007 The Providence Journal says the contract also requires union
members for the first time to contribute to the cost of their health care
coverage. The new contract provides union members with raises of four percent
for 2004 and 2005, and three percent raises for the final three years of the
contract. The new contract expires on April 30th, 2009. In addition,
Governor Carcieri says he expects to name a new
leader of the agency after giving his State of the State address next week.
Colonel Steven Pare announced his retirement as superintendent earlier this
month. Don't hit me
over cop pay Mike: PBA wanted 25G
for rookies From the Daily News, January 19, 2007
Despite an enormous budget surplus
and plans to slash taxes by $1 billion, Mayor Bloomberg yesterday defended
the hard-line stance his administration has taken with city cops in contract
negotiations. When asked about Daily News columnist Michael Daly's Thursday
column imploring Bloomberg to award cops higher pay now that city coffers are
flush with cash, Bloomberg replied, "I just think he's wrong on this
one. "The truth of the matter is the low starting salaries for
the police officers was the choice of the police union," Bloomberg said
on his weekly WABC radio show, referring to the
$25,100 annual pay that rookies now get. Bloomberg conceded the starting salary has made it harder for
the city to attract new recruits. But he said the total compensation - base
salary, overtime and benefits - is still appealing. "The total package that you get, however, is
attractive," he insisted. "This is a great job." In July, the city formally notified the state of an impasse in
contract talks with the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association - the first time
the Bloomberg administration has ever thrown up its hands in a labor dispute. The union and the administration have been at loggerheads ever
since. The union's last pact expired in summer 2004. "All this mayor has to do to solve the critical recruitment
and retention problem that the NYPD has been facing for the past decade is to
put a package on the table that would bring [city] police officers up to a
salary level comparable with other local departments," PBA President Patrick Lynch said yesterday. "Absent the wisdom and leadership to do that," Lynch
said the PBA will be forced to convince a state
arbitrator to award city cops the pay he believes they're due. According to the PBA, the maximum
salary for an NYPD officer is $59,588, which the union says is $22,478 below
the average pay of cops in nearby departments. Bloomberg said he is hopeful the next police contract will
address the city's low starting pay and provide "better compensation at
the front end." But the mayor insisted the salary statistics the union uses are
misleading because they don't include benefits. "Whatever salary you're getting quoted, just double
it," he said. "That's the real benefit you're getting." The News detailed in an exclusive report last Sunday how
suburban departments near the city have been raiding the NYPD to fill their
own ranks, luring away dozens of veteran cops with the promise of better pay. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly also has said that the city's
low starting pay crippled its attempt to boost the ranks of the department by
800 cops over the past year. Kelly refused yesterday to say whether he thinks cops should get
a raise funded by the budget surplus. "The mayor's in charge of the
budget," Kelly said. When asked a second time, Kelly said, "I'm not going to get
involved in the source of funding." With Alison Gendar POLICE PAY, BY THE
NUMBERS Much has been made about the low starting salary for NYPD cops.
But even at the high end, the city's officers suffer. Here's how the maximum
base pay for city cops compares with neighboring police departments: NYPD .... $59,588 Suffolk Co. .... $94,417 Nassau Co. .... $92,432 Port Authority .... $80,720 Westchester Co. .... $80,366 MTA ....$68,781 Average (excluding NYPD) .... $82,066 Source: Patrolmen's
Benevolent Association CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS POLICEPAY provides
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