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SERVICES (Click on service name for information and
pricing) RAND: To
recruit cops, Orleans should raise pay, lower pensions From NOLA.com, March 30, 2007 NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The department, where starting pay is $33,000 and a second-year
officer gets $37,000, currently has 1,388 officers. About 30 recruits are
scheduled to graduate Monday, Superintendent Warren Riley said Friday. Before Hurricane Katrina, the department had 1,742 officers, and
had a budget for 1,885. It has lost more than 400 since Hurricane Katrina and has hired
only about 60, Riley said. "This year alone we have lost 42 police
officers," he said. A That holds true in The report also suggested hiring civilians to do much of the
department's clerical work, speeding up work to fix the headquarters and
district stations, and offering houses to recruits who agree to stay for a
specific number of years. Some steps already are being taken — report author Bernard Rostker said he has talked with the city's Civil Service
board about a proposal to give promotion exams every 12 to 18 months rather
than every 3 to 5 years. The report said many junior officers had not received promotions
they already had earned because of the city's money troubles. That is no
longer true, Riley said — all of those officers now have those raises, some
after years of waiting. The newest class should get its first 5 percent step
up in 40 days, he said. "One of the things that has been
most gratifying is the speed with which the mayor took our recommendations
and moved with them," Rostker said. Police From WISN.com, April 3, 2007 The Milwaukee Police Union has proposed the changed. Police
Chief Nan Hegerty and many others have been highly
critical of the state law, which is believed to be unique in the nation. The attack of Frank Jude at a Bayview
house party three years ago brought the issue to a boil. Hegerty
fired nine off-duty officers in the aftermath of that case, including two,
Daniel Masarik and Andrew Spengler, who continued
to receive paychecks as they awaited their federal trials. In another case, former officer Steven Lelinski
was fired in August of 2006 after he was charged with sexual assualt. He continued to be paid until he was sentenced
last week, collecting an income of more than $36,000. The Milwaukee Police Union now has the position that an
officer's pay would stop as soon as they are bound over for trial on a felony
charge. "I don't know of any officer who thinks that an officer
dealing drugs should continue to get paid. There's not a police officer on
this job that would say he should continue to get paid. But you have to keep
in mind, you have a system in this place in this country, and it's called the
Constitution, and the Bill of Rights," Union President Balcerzak said the
union would also like to see an independent arbitrator rule on police
discipline, even offering to pay half the cost, which would free up the
bogged-down fire and police commission, which currently handles reviews of
discipline. "They'd be able to focus on what they should be doing.
They'd be able to focus on the citizen complaints that come into the fire and
police commission. They'd be able to focus on the trianing
aspects. We know over the past few years that we need to improve our
training. We need to improve our recruiting of police officers, get a higher
standard of police officer, Balcerzak said. State Representative Barbara Toles
proposed a bill in the last session to end the pay-until-sentenced practice,
but it was shot down. With the added willingness to negotiate from the police
union, a similar bill would seem to have a better chance of passing this time
around. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett remains hopeful from his talks with
the police union and said he's still optimistic they can present a united
front to the Wisconsin Legislature later this spring. Pension
Squeeze "Spiking" eyed as culprit From WOWT.com, March 30, 2007 A new report on police and fire pensions spells out money
trouble for the city. On paper, City officials say so-called spiking is the trouble spot and
Mayor Mike Fahey says spiking has to go. Spiking is when police officers and firefighters boost their
pensions in the last years on the job. Since the pension payout, what is earned for the rest of the employee's
life, is determined by a percentage of their highest
paychecks, police officers and firefighters typically volunteer for extra
shifts and cash in stockpiled comp time. That is adding to the pension
problems more than expected. These are the latest numbers revealed to the police and fire
pension board. For 2006, the fund had $453 million in assets and $733 million
in liabilities. Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey says, "I think if we address it the
way we should, take out the spikes is what they're talking about, which is
what our intentions are to do, we'll get this down to a more manageable
level. But we're not going to change it overnight." Omaha City Councilman Chuck Sigerson
says, "If we correct it now, we won't have trouble 20 years from
now." Sigerson and a
handful of others have been sounding the pension alarm for the past three
years. While the pension plan isn't in jeopardy of collapsing, (very
few pension plans are fully-funded anymore) something has to give. Sigerson says the
city needs to, "correct the percentage of money going in or decrease the
money going out: one of the two, just like you would do with the mortgage or
credit cards." Two major items contributed to the pension woes. The tech-bubble
bursting in 2000 cost the pension plan some serious cash in loss of
investments and a strapped-for-cash City of Omaha in 2004 traded a better
pension deal for frozen wages from police and fire. Fahey says, "I wish we weren't $10 million in the hole back then. A lot of this was done because we were
trying to hold off a property tax increase." All of this surfaced as the police and fire unions began
contract talks. Negotiations started last week for the fire union. Both
contracts expire at the end of the year. The attorney for the unions is not commenting. He hasn't read
the consultant's report and wants to research the assumptions used to compile
the numbers before reacting. Sheriff,
deputies at an impasse Gap health insurance and the use of an outside arbitrator are
the sticking points. From the After a month of deadlocked contract negotiations with Sheriff
Bob White, They created a Web site, www.supportyourdeputies.com, to
publicly air their grievances. They also plan to send brochures to local
business owners in hopes of stirring up support. The deputies' gripes against White - which include their desire
for gap health insurance coverage for retirees and the right to appeal
disciplinary decisions to an outside arbitrator - are detailed on the Web
site. So is their disdain toward the sheriff. "Sheriff White will not afford his own deputies the basic
benefits he enjoyed as a law enforcement officer," the site reads. It concludes: "This is about the Sheriff against his
Deputies, not the Deputies against the Sheriff." Paul Noeske, staff representative with
the Fraternal Order of Police, which represents the deputies at the
bargaining table, said the union sent a letter last week to the sheriff's
attorney saying deputies were about to go public with their grievances. The sheriff's attorney, Wayne Helsby,
did not return a call Monday for comment. Sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll referred all questions in this
matter to Helsby. In an interview last month, White listed other perks he has
provided to the deputies, including better extra-duty pay, new cars for
detectives and new gym equipment. But he declined to say why he wouldn't
grant the requests for gap insurance or an outside appeal of disciplinary decisions. "This is between my deputies and I,"
White said last month. "Just because we've disagreed on a few issues
doesn't mean we've had a falling-out." With the declaration of an impasse, however, the deputies plan
to take their grievances to the public, both through the Web site and
brochures that will be sent to local businesses. "We just hope to come to an agreement," Noeske said. "We expect to have a contract like
other places do." Noeske said if
White and the union don't come to an agreement by April 14, a hearing will be
held before a magistrate. The magistrate will then make a nonbinding
recommendation on the terms of the contract, Noeske
said. If the two parties still can't agree, then White may impose a
contract on the deputies, said Matt Puckett, deputy executive director for
the Florida Police Benevolent Association in "Right now," he said, "the sheriff holds all the
cards." Binding
arbitration off the ballot From the Monitor, April 3, 2007
From the Marion Daily Republican, March 30, 2007 11:32 AM CDT MARION (IL)— After the membership of
the Marion Fraternal Order of Police overwhelmingly rejected the City's
latest contract proposal, arbitration is the next step. According to Mehrtens the city
initially wanted its police officers to live within a 10-mile radius of city
hall rather than within 10 miles of the city limits which is the current
Standard. The second sticking point involves length of work days and
wages. A meeting with arbitrator scheduled for Wednesday was cancelled
because initial indications were that an agreement was near. |
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