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POWER, INFLUENCE & PERSUASION POLICE CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY OCTOBER 25 & 26, 2007
POLICEPAY.NET
SERVICES (Click on service name for information and
pricing) Failure to do proper research dooms your negotiations from the
start. You're pretty sure that you are underpaid, but how do you know
that? Even if you really are underpaid, how far behind are you? What
would it cost to bring your department up to a competitive level? How
would it be paid for? It is going to be difficult to be very persuasive
if you do not have the answers to these basic questions. Research is
the first step of negotiations. Don't know where to start? Call POLICEPAY. We know what to do. For a further explanation of this and many other negotiating
tips, plan to order The
Police Negotiator's Handbook, POLICEPAY's
new book, which will be available later this summer. This book is
written by Ron York, POLICEPAY.NET president, and is
based on nearly forty years of experience with public safety negotiations. "Executive leave" was
pushing up pensions by thousands of dollars a year From The Oregonian, June 13, 2007 The city board that oversees public
safety pensions voted Tuesday to eliminate a perk that has substantially
increased the pensions of police command staff. The Portland Fire and Police
Disability and Retirement Fund board voted 3-2 to make a change supported by
Mayor Tom Potter. The dissenters were the two union
members on the new board, which includes two citizen members and the director
of the city Human Resources Bureau. Portland Police Cmdr. Dave Benson,
president of the city's 41-member commanding police officer's union, said the
union likely would take legal action to overturn the decision. At issue is "executive
leave," which is designed to compensate supervisors who work long hours
but are ineligible for overtime. Unused leave converts to pay. Thirteen years ago, the pension board
ignored the advice of the city attorney's office and ruled that executive pay
should be used to calculate pensions. In some cases, that meant as much as
an extra $10,000 a year for retiring officers. In addition, what was created as a
reward gradually became an automatic perk. At the request of Potter, Chief Rosie
Sizer changed the policy and required supervisors
to document what they did to earn the extra time off or pay. The command staff union has filed a
grievance against the city saying the new rules are "onerous."
Changes, Benson said, should be negotiated through collective bargaining. Benson said command staff deserved
the extra compensation. The board did not easily reach its
decision. One motion sought to change the
policy for future command staff, but that failed 2-3. The motion that passed is harsher: It
cut off using executive pay to calculate pensions starting Jan. 1, 2008.
State police are looking to draw more officers to
their ranks with two moves designed to lure experienced officers from other
law enforcement agencies. A proposal to shorten the training
academy for some veteran officers coupled with a pay increase for troopers
now being debated in the state Legislature is part of a strategy to increase
the ability of state police to recruit. Trooper Lawrence McLeary,
public affairs supervisor for the state police, said House Bill 1, sponsored
by Rep. John Alario of Westwego, would give
supplemental pay increases to police officers and would boost the pay for
troopers, making them the highest paid law enforcement agency statewide. McLeary
said the increase in pay, if approved, may attract officers from local
agencies. "I would think it would probably
make a difference," said McLeary. "It
would make a difference for those officers who always wanted to do this and
used local departments as a stepping stone to the State Police. It would also
affect officers with small departments who want an increase in pay." But that isn't exactly good news for
understaffed law enforcement agencies, such as the Lafayette Police
Department, which already faces a difficult time recruiting and retaining
officers. Cpl. Paul Mouton, public information
officer for the Lafayette Police Department, said the department currently
has 18 openings. "It would be foolish not to
think the plan would not affect the Lafayette Police Department. I would
think more officers would apply if they didn't have to go through the full
academy," Mouton said. "It appears to me that they're targeting
experienced officers. I think in the long run, our officers would put in applications
for the state police." Mouton said a loss of officers would
not affect patrols around the city, but could limit "specialized
services" such as criminal investigation, traffic, K-9 and other patrol
support services. "Our priority is focused on
patrolling and policing," Mouton said. "That's our priority. Maybe
the specialized services will be affected. Instead of five officers, they may
have four officers doing it. But the everyday workings of the department will
not be directly affected, no." A trooper fresh out of the academy
makes $36,600 a year while The House bill to increase trooper
pay is currently in the Senate Finance Committee, awaiting approval. It is
unknown how long it will take before the bill is implemented, if it is
approved. A shorter training The idea of shortening the state police training
academy was raised because many experienced officers say the training is
redundant. Currently, the training academy lasts
for 26 weeks. Under the plan, officers already Peace Officer Standard
Training certified would be allowed to undergo the training in eight to 12
weeks. "It's still in the experimental
stages and it's something we've been talking about on and off for around
three years now," McLeary said. "To do it
right, we have to look at what agencies we would shorten the training for,
because not all agency training is created equal." Trooper Darren Juneau, who works with
Troop I, is a former "In the first three months,
you're doing basic POST training, which is what all police officers
learn," "I think a lot of A matter of manpower The Lafayette Police Department's number of officers
sits at 244, just 18 short of their ideal number of officers. At the Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office , 170 deputies serve in the enforcement side of the
department, said Lt. Craig Stansbury, spokesman for
the LPSO, who added that there are few vacancies at
the department. "I think right now we have a few
openings in patrol, but we'll probably fill those internally," Stansbury said. "We're pretty much filled up." According to Trooper Sam Jones, a
recruiter with the state police, the total number of troopers statewide sits
at 1,007, with an additional 48 graduating from the academy on Friday. With a current shortage of officers
plus the chance of losing officers to the state police if some should defect
due to the shortened training academy and higher pay, Mouton said duties would have to be
shifted around to make up for the loss of officers. "The workload would have to be
shared among the officers and means that officers that are already busy would
be even busier doing more work, because of a shortage," Mouton said. Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft said
retaining officers with experience is a constant struggle. "Our problem is with retention
mainly," Craft said. "Retaining officers for two to five years is
where our problems come in. But it's been my experience that every few years
or so you get a rumor about a bunch of officers leaving for the state police,
and maybe only two leave." McLeary said that the shortened academy issue is back on the table
however, with surveys being sent out recently to the members of the state
police Commission, asking their opinion on a shortened training academy for
POST- certified officers. Another bill in the Legislature,
House Bill 2, would increase the state police's manpower and allow them to
hire more troopers. "If we don't get approval for
extra people, we'll try to shorten the academy for POST-certified officers to
recruit them," McLeary said. "We're all
competing for the same applicants. "We've been
operating under the 'we can do more with less' strategy, but we're not going
to be able to do that for much longer." Flagler sheriff's office enacts pay hike From the News Journal, June 10, 2007 BUNNELL -- As the threat of an extraordinary budget squeeze bears down
on the county, deputies and other Flagler County Sheriff's Office employees
are enjoying the first of a series of raises scheduled to increase their pay
by more than one-third in three years. The increases are being phased in
with pay hikes every six months. Raises alternate in size, 7.5 percent each
October, followed by 2.5 percent more each April. With compounding, the
numbers work out to a 33.8-percent boost by April 2009 for each employee
covered by the contracts. Sheriff Don Fleming
, who signed labor contracts in December with a union representing
three employee groups, said his department needs the big pay increases to
compete for qualified job candidates. The new raises also are reflected in a
$22.1 million budget request that Fleming submitted last week to the Flagler
County Commission. "Volusia and A comparison of pay rates, however,
suggests that some Flagler sheriff's deputies' pay levels are already well
ahead of comparable positions in the Volusia County Sheriff's Office, even
before the bulk of the contracted Flagler raises are scheduled to go into
effect. For instance, top base pay for the
most senior deputy first class -- the higher of two ranks of deputies --
currently is $48,895 a year in At the low end of the wage scale,
Flagler is also already ahead of Volusia. Starting pay for a deputy or
bailiff at the Flagler Sheriff's Office currently is $28,566 a year. That's
more than 6 percent higher than the $26,915 that the lowest-paid deputy
currently would earn on the Volusia force. In addition to base pay, Flagler
deputies who are detectives also get a 7 percent bonus over the pay for their
deputy rank. The Volusia contract shows no such differential for detectives.
Compensation comparisons between the two sheriff's offices are difficult and
imprecise in some cases, because the labor contracts use different criteria
for wage rates. The contract with the Flagler
Sheriff's Office uses a seniority scale that by the end of the contract will
extend to 16 years. The Volusia Sheriff's Office ignores seniority. Instead
it establishes wide ranges for each pay ranking and provides for merit raises
as well as annual increases in the ranges. Also, the current Volusia contract
expires this year, so no comparisons of future wages are possible. However, some other general
comparisons are possible. For instance, a mid-career sergeant in his 11th
year in the Flagler County Sheriff's Office, would
earn $50,509 this year. By April 2009 the same person, if not promoted to a
higher rank, would be earning $61,325 a year. Volusia sergeants currently
could be paid anywhere between $39,021 to $59,675,
depending on merit raises, not seniority. Vacations are more generous in The Volusia County Sheriff's Office
has about 462 sworn officers for an estimated population of 475,000 compared
with 130 sworn officers in Not covered by the Flagler contract
are the salaries of 26 other employees, including officers above the rank of
sergeant, and other department employees. Among the officers, eight got raises
of about $5,000 in October that worked out to increases of 7.5 percent to 9
percent of their salaries. One officer, Chief Deputy Rick Look, the
department's highest-ranking officer under the sheriff, got a raise of
$10,000 or about 11.1 percent, to $100,000 a year. Fleming's salary,
currently $115,722, is set by state law. Some of the costs of the new pay
raises are already being felt in Fleming's new budget proposal, if
adopted by the commission, would amount to a 17.8 percent increase in county
support for the sheriff's office in a year when the Florida Legislature will
meet in special session this week to discuss cuts in local property taxes.
The city of Fleming's proposed budget includes a
request for 21 new positions, including 10 certified law enforcement officers,
four certified corrections officers and four certified court security
officers. In a workshop meeting scheduled for
Monday, the However, the increases in the
sheriff's budget did not come as a surprise. Commission Chairman Jim Darby
said the commission had approved three successive annual pay increases of 10
percent each when the commission voted on last year's budget. "I was fine with it at the time,
under the circumstances that existed at that point," Darby said. Patrolmen,
city reach pact on $500,000 in raises From the The city and the union representing
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