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New law ends
Legislature's role in setting St. Louis police pay
From the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, June 22, 2006
The St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners gained the authority Wednesday to
set pay for city officers, under a law that provides some streamlining of the
way the department is structured.
The process still requires negotiation between the board and City Hall, which
must pay the costs. But it no longer requires the Legislature to sign off on
raises.
"We ought to make decisions about (police) salaries at the local
level," Gov. Matt Blunt said at a press conference at the St. Louis
Police Headquarters. He signed Senate Bill 1086.
State Sen. Harry Kennedy, D-St. Louis, sponsor of the bill, added: "It's
important for the City of St. Louis.
Now there can be work on police pay without it being wrapped up in
party politics in the state Legislature."
State Rep. Fred Kratky, D-St. Louis, who sponsored
the House version, said the measure enjoyed bipartisan support. "It will
be easier for the Police Board to negotiate with the city, so no one has to
come to Jefferson City to argue with us," he said.
St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, a Democrat who was introduced by the Republican
governor as a "tremendous mayor," said he was pleased by the law.
"Now, the city and the Police Board can talk to each other and take the
politics in Jeff City out of this," he said. "I'm excited about
this."
In St. Louis' uncommon setup, the Police Department is a state agency under a
board composed of the mayor and four appointees of the governor. The city
still must provide the funding. Those factors are unchanged.
Police Chief Joe Mokwa said the new legislation
allows the Police Board to adopt a salary schedule for the next several years
that will make pay more comparable with other departments in the region.
Mokwa told a reporter that officers will get a
raise later this year, but he said he doesn't know exactly when because
budget negotiations with City Hall are ongoing. The police budget must be
finalized by July 1.
The last police pay raise was in 2005 - a $1,350 across-the-board increase.
The most recent before that was in 2002 - $1,500 for everyone.
Sgt. Kevin Ahlbrand, president of the St. Louis
Police Officers Association, which often lobbied lawmakers for favorable pay
legislation, said he is "hopefully optimistic" about the change. He
explained: "I'm in favor of anything that will put more money in police
officers' pockets. We'll wait and see."
Dallas Officers Applaud New Police Pay Proposal
From CBS 11, June 20, 2006
(CBS 11 News) DALLAS
A new proposal obtained by CBS 11 News could give Dallas police officers a
significant raise.
A few weeks ago, the city manager announced plans to raise starting pay and
offer incentives to retain officers.
There were complaints that veteran officers would be left out. Now those
officers are applauding a new proposal that will be presented to the city
council Wednesday.
It includes step increases of five percent for all ranks in 2007 and 2008.
Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm tells CBS 11 News it
will cost millions of dollars to become more competitive with surrounding
cities that are struggling to recruit officers.
The step increases help officers get promotions faster, and earn more money
quicker. The proposal would also require officers to remain free of
accidents, or disciplinary action, to qualify.
Under the proposal starting pay for Dallas officers will go from $38,640 to
$41,690.
TOLEDO POLICE
Officers to vote on contract
From the Toledo Blade,
June 21, 2006
Toledo
police sergeants, lieutenants, and captains will vote today on a tentative
contract agreement with the city.
Neither side revealed details yesterday, but the
vote comes after what would have been two days of scheduled fact-finding
sessions.
Terry Stewart, president of the Toledo Police
Command Officers Association, said the tentative pact was reached late Friday
after several days of "serious negotiating" with the city last
week. The union's members have been working without a new contract since Jan.
1.
"We kept plugging away, and things came
together," he said.
He declined to discuss particulars of the tentative
agreement because union members have not been told what they are. Members
will learn of the terms and vote on them during two sessions - one at 9 a.m.,
the other at 1 p.m. - at the Erie Street Market.
The city declined to release details pending a vote
by the union, according to a statement announcing the tentative pact.
Mayor Carty Finkbeiner
congratulated members of both negotiating teams.
"Toledo is blessed with one of the finest
police departments in the country, and I am pleased that these negotiations
have concluded with a contract that meets both the needs of the command
officers and the needs of the city," Mr. Finkbeiner
said in a statement.
If TPCOA members
approve the tentative pact, it will have to be approved by City Council. If they
don't accept it, negotiations probably would continue and a new fact-finding
date probably would be set, Mr. Stewart said.
The city said the TPCOA
has about 143 members. Their salaries range from about $61,400 for sergeants
to about $79,800 for captains.
The Toledo Police Patrolman's Association was the
first of the city's four safety force unions to approve a new contract.
Last month, TPPA
members voted in favor of a three-year contract, which included a 6.5 percent
pay raise over three years and a 3.75 percent increase in the city's
contributions to their pensions.
The raise was the same as that approved in
September by the city's largest union, Local 7 of the American Federation of
State, County, and Municipal Employees.
The pact called for TPPA
members to pick up health care co-pays they didn't before and to pay more for
prescriptions.
Dan Wagner, TPPA vice
president, said after the vote he thought it was a better package than going
to fact-finding.
The city's fire unions have been working without
new contracts since Jan. 1. The city has been in negotiations with them.
Deputy sheriffs agree to wage deal
From Newsday, June 16, 2006
Suffolk County has reached a
tentative contract agreement with its deputy sheriffs union that would raise
wages a combined 6.6 percent over two years.
If the pact is ratified, deputies also will receive a small increase
attributed to new homeland security responsibilities.
"Overall, it's a fair deal, with
acknowledgment that our duties have expanded," said Michael Sharkey,
president of the 260-member Suffolk County Deputy Sheriffs Police Benevolent
Association.
Concessions in the deal, which had been sought by Sheriff Vincent DeMarco and County Executive Steve Levy, would allow the
sheriff to assign 10-hour shifts without paying overtime; a formalized
disciplinary process; and a longer waiting period for disability insurance.
County representative Jeff Tempera called the 10-hour shift a critical
concession. "This was something that both the sheriff and the county
executive wanted to cut costs in the sheriff's office," Tempera said.
Wages would rise 3.25 percent each year. That adds up to 6.6 percent when
compounded. The total cost to taxpayers was not immediately available.
But while the deal heads to a membership vote next week, a sticking point
remains: a lawsuit filed by four deputy sheriffs involving then-union
representative DeMarco, who was on the three-member
arbitration panel that decided a previous dispute.
By the time the agreement was signed Jan. 3, DeMarco
had become sheriff. Charging that DeMarco
improperly changed sides, the deputy sheriffs moved in court to void the
arbitration results. County officials and the union agree the case would need
to be withdrawn or won by the county for the new agreement to take effect.
Bossier City
police soon could see a pay raise
From the Shreveport Times, June 21,
2006
Without an increase in pay, the Bossier City Police Department will have a
tougher time filling positions and the officers who are working will have
less time for patrolling neighborhoods. Police Chief Mike Halphen
used this argument Tuesday as he and Mayor Lo Walker pitched a $400 per month
raise to the City Council.
The issue was the only item on the agenda for a workshop that Walker scheduled
after the City Council meeting.
"I need your help on this to be
competitive," Halphen said during the
approximately half-hour meeting.
The department pays the lowest starting salary of the other agencies it
regularly competes with for employees, including the Shreveport Police
Department and the sheriff's offices in Bossier and Caddo parishes, according
to numbers provided by the agencies.
After Walker asked if the City Council would be comfortable with him formally
proposing the idea, no one objected.
The mayor added that he will not seek more money for employees in other
departments. The Police Department is being singled out because it's home to "a very, very serious problem,"
Walker said.
The City Council's next voting meeting is July 6, according to the city's Web
site. Members will go over the agenda for that meeting at 3 p.m. Tuesday at
Bossier City Hall, 620 Benton Road.
If the raise is approved, 224 police officers, jailers and dispatchers in the
department would see a raise beginning Aug. 2, Charles Glover, the city's
finance director, said. He estimated the raise would cost the city about
$500,000 this year and about $1.3 million per year in the future.
Glover said the Police Department's budget would pay for this year's cost
with money budgeted for salaries. The department is short 13 officers, Halphen said.
After this year, about $500,000 each from sales taxes and property taxes and
another $300,000 from the general fund could pay for the raises, Glover said.
At the meeting before the workshop, City Council members elected officers for
the next year. Tim Larkin, an at-large councilman, will serve as president.
The vice president will be Jeff Darby, who represents part of central Bossier
City.
PAY COMPARISON
Agency: Bossier City Police Department.
City population: 59,611.
Starting monthly salary: $2,333.
Agency: Shreveport Police Department.
City population: 198,675.
Starting monthly salary: $2,529.
Agency: Bossier sheriff's office.
Parish population: 105,541.
Starting monthly salary: $2,500.
Agency: Caddo sheriff's office.
Parish population: 251,309.
Starting monthly salary: $2,529.
IN THE REGION
AGENCY: Alexandria Police Department.
City population: 45,971.
Starting monthly salary: $2,445.
AGENCY: Monroe Police Department.
City population: 52,141.
Starting pay: $2,034.63.
AGENCY: Frisco, Texas, Police Department.
City population: 62,372.
Starting pay: $4,073.
Peoria County, jailers headed for
arbitration
Correctional officers union has worked without a contract for
past year
From THE JOURNAL STAR, Tuesday, June 20, 2006
PEORIA - The county and the correctional officers' union are
headed to arbitration in August to settle a dispute that has left jailers
working without a contract for the past year.
Officials were unable to reach an agreement during a mediation
session held by an arbitrator two weeks ago. Arbitration begins Aug. 16.
Salary is the sticking point of negotiations, Peoria County
Fraternal Order of Police Corrections President Daniel Basfield
said Monday.
The union is asking for 4 percent salary increases for three
years. The county's final offer is 1.9 percent pay increases each year, he
said.
A Fraternal Order of Police unit representing Peoria County
deputies and lieutenants reached contract agreements with the county in
March, just before it would have gone to arbitration. That three-year
contract contains 3.75-percent annual salary increases.
"All we're asking for is the equivalent (increase), maybe a
little more. Over the last 15 years, every year we have settled for less
money than they give the deputies," Basfield
said.
Peoria County has one of the largest jails in the state yet pays
its correctional officers less than Tazewell County and most other central
Illinois counties.
Beyond that, top county officials have been getting hefty pay
increases themselves, Basfield said.
"Our families are just as important as theirs. It's a fair amount we're asking, especially
when you look at the comparables of the counties around us."
The corrections contract expired last June. The union represents
about 80 correctional officers and jail technicians.
Peoria County Administrator Pat Urich
declined to discuss contract specifics Monday, saying it is the county's
policy not to negotiate in the media.
However, he said the county feels it has offered a fair and
reasonable deal, comparable not only to what other jails are paying but also
to what other Peoria County bargaining units have settled upon.
It is fairer to compare Peoria County correctional salaries to
other correctional salaries across the state, not to what Peoria County
deputies are making, he said.
"We value the corrections unit as much as we value every
other bargaining unit in the county. This offer is as competitive as any of
them," Urich said.
Fed Up With Negotiations Failure?
Are
you wondering why you are failing even though you are doing all the things
the "big boys" do or following the advice of the negotiations
"experts?" The answer is easy. They are wrong - plain and simple.
Negotiating like the "big boys."
- Start with a frugal
negotiations budget, saving all of the money for grievances and
arbitration.
- Rent billboard signs
that call the mayor a "bum."
- Open negotiations
with outlandish proposals.
- Hire hard-nosed
lawyers to serve as negotiators who think they can intimidate the city's
negotiators.
- File Unfair Labor
Practice complaints when the city doesn't play ball the way you want. (ULP complaints are for sissies)
- Have 50 negotiations
sessions over a two-year period.
- Constantly lash out
at the mayor during the negotiations marathon.
- Motivate your
membership by keeping the hostilities at the highest crescendo possible.
- Fold and head to
arbitration to salvage a deal.
Alright,
that's "kickin' their butts." The only
problem is - it does not work. If it did, New York and Philadelphia
would be the highest paid departments in the country.
Negotiating like the "experts."
- Spill your guts to
the city.
- Give the city all of
your research.
- Drop your pants.
- Hope that the city
does not take advantage of you.
- Compromise,
compromise, compromise.
- Lose big time,
either at the table or at arbitration.
In
case you did not recognize this method, it is the trendy "interest
based" or "win-win" method. It is actually good stuff. The
only problem is that it usually fails for police associations. It is too
tempting for the city to "jump ship" and retreat to positional
bargaining after you "drop your pants." When you finally end up in
arbitration, the city has every document, idea and concept that you have, but
you have little or nothing from them. Under the "expert method,"
negotiations are nothing but a deposition of you by the city.
There is a better way. We can teach you how. Read about our
courses.
Click here for a
printable brochure.
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