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Thursday, July 19, 2007

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The Police Negotiator's Handbook
Power, Influence, & Persuasion
How to Get It. How to Use It.
by Ronald J. York
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THE POLICE NEGOTIATOR’S HANDBOOK

AKRON, OH

Akron police to get 3 percent raises

ROCHESTER, NY

No clear winner in city police contract

NEW YORK CITY

City Police Sergeants’ Pay Would Rise 27.5% Under Pact

NEW ORLEANS, LA

New Orleans Police Get Pay Hike

VISALIA, CA

Police, fire get raise

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Akron police to get 3 percent raises

From The Beacon Journal, July 11, 2007

 

Akron police officers will receive 3 percent annual raises for each of three years, under a state conciliator's report released this week.

 

Officers will not have to pay more for health care or prescription drugs.

The city and the Fraternal Order of Police Akron Lodge 7 went before a state conciliator last month after being unable to settle a contract dispute. The two sides had been in negotiations on a three-year contract since the previous contract expired at the end of 2006.

 

``All in all, we consider it a victory,'' said Paul Hlynsky, the union's president. ``It's unfortunate we had to go through a year of negotiations to get something we wish we would have been able to get at the table.''

 

The state conciliator's report is binding.

 

Conciliators settle contract disputes involving unions that by law can't strike. Police and firefighter unions fall into this category.

 

 

No clear winner in city police contract

City officers get higher wages but pay more for health care

From the Democrat and Chronicle, July 19, 2007

 

The Rochester Police Department's new labor contract provides officers higher salaries but asks them to pay more for health care.

The new contract, which was handed down Tuesday by an arbitrator, is retroactive to July 2005, the date the last labor agreement expired.

Key players in the talks said there was no clear winner.

"You know an arbitrator did a good job when neither party is entirely happy," said Deputy Police Chief George Markert. "It's safe to say he did a good job."

Locust Club President Ron Evangelista said it was time to move on and prepare for the next round of talks in November.

"You either get on the bus or end up under the bus," he said. "If you don't agree with the arbitrator, he's going to say, 'Well, I agree with the other guy.'"

The contract provides a series of salary increases every six months starting in July 2005. The officers will be awarded the back pay and receive two more raises by Jan. 1.

 

Evangelista said the raises total 10.4 percent.

Rochester police officers' current salary starts at $34,400 and rises to $60,000 at 44 months.

Officers hired after July 1 will have fewer health plans to choose from. And the officers' contributions to some health plans will be higher.

 

Evangelista said the concessions were inevitable given the rising cost of health care.

"We need to recognize we can't force the city into fiscal disaster, and the city needs to recognize there are six to eight suburban departments that pay better than (the city) even though our job is more dangerous."

 

The contract also provides the ability to award 40 officers additional raises based on merit. That was a primary goal of Mayor Robert Duffy, who wants to bring private-sector incentives to government.

 

Duffy, a former chief with a long history of conflict with Evangelista, credited Evangelista's willingness to compromise. He said they had a good talk in May about city finances and the role of police in expanding the tax base.

 

"We put our differences behind us and agreed to focus on the future," Duffy said. "Ron represents his members very well, but he also realizes our futures our linked."

 

 

City Police Sergeants’ Pay Would Rise 27.5% Under Pact
From the New York Times, July 11, 2007

New York City and the police sergeants’ union have reached a tentative agreement that would increase pay by 27.5 percent over six years and bring the sergeants’ maximum base salary to $94,962 at the end of the contract, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said yesterday.

Intended to encourage officers to become sergeants and to bring salaries in line with
those paid in the suburbs, the agreement could also help set the terms in a protracted dispute, now in arbitration, between the Bloomberg administration and the largest police union, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association.

“A substantial salary increase for these newly promoted sergeants will provide officers with financial incentives to seek promotion,” Mr. Bloomberg said in announcing the agreement at a news conference at his temporary offices in Brooklyn.

“And an enlarged salary schedule will also encourage new sergeants to remain with the N.Y.P.D., and this is very important for the future of the department.”

The retroactive 74-month agreement, which would need approval from the roughly 4,600 members of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, is unusually long, covering the period from June 1, 2005, through July 31, 2011. The agreement would cost about $200 million over the six-year term, most of which has already been budgeted, officials said.

The agreement includes a new schedule of raises, with 3 percent in the first year, 3.15 percent in the second year and 4 percent each year after that, and a new starting salary of $73,000 beginning next year. The agreement would also provide for two increases of roughly 1.5 percent beginning in 2008, in the form of improved longevity pay and other extra compensation.

The current salary structure, starting at $61,093 and rising to a maximum base of 76,403 — roughly $82,000 with extras like longevity pay — was inadequate to attract enough officers to try to become sergeants, Mr. Bloomberg said.

But with the new agreement, veteran sergeants could earn more than $103,000 with longevity, holiday pay and other compensation, officials said, with those on special assignments like supervising detective squads earning $109,002.

Ed Mullins, president of the sergeants’ union, dismissed the 3 percent raises as inadequate earlier this year, but said yesterday that the overall agreement met his union’s goals and that it would help close the gap between city officers and their suburban counterparts.


The agreement roughly follows the pattern set with other unions, including firefighters, and could influence the amount a state arbitration panel ultimately grants to police officers, who have been holding out for larger raises than the
4 percent other civil servants have accepted.

A spokesman for the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association declined to speak about the
agreement, saying that it did not comment on other unions. But union officials have argued in the past that the city’s insistence on offering police officers the same percentage raises it has offered other uniformed unions is ill-considered.

With salaries in Nassau and Suffolk Counties and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey far higher than those in the city, and with a low starting salary of $25,100, the Police Department has been reeling from a recruitment crisis, with just 800 cadets in the academy’s new session, one-third of what officials had hoped.

But while the officers’ union is hoping to pressure Mr. Bloomberg into granting higher
raises, city officials have said that the arbitration panel would award the same raise
granted firefighters in March, 8.16 percent over two years, in keeping with the pay parity in place between police officers and firefighters since 1898.

 

 

New Orleans Police Get Pay Hike

From the Times-Picayune, July 12, 2007

 

In a move to aid recruitment and slow the exodus of experienced officers, the New Orleans City Council voted Thursday to give police their second substantial raise in less than a year.

 

The council voted 5-0 to give recruits a 12.5 percent raise and all higher ranks a 10 percent raise, retroactive to July 1.

 

Police officers and most other city workers got a 10 percent raise in the fall.

 

Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Cary Grant said the latest raises will cost the city $3.5 million this year and $7 million in 2008. Because the Police Department's 2007 budget included money for many more officers than it has been able to hire, an additional appropriation will not be necessary.

 

Grant said the raises put New Orleans police pay "a little bit above the Southern regional average," though it was not clear whether that is true for higher ranks such as captains and majors.

 

Superintendent Warren Riley said the raises will help prevent the loss of officers looking for more money. "It's very, very important," he said. "We lost over 500 police officers in the aftermath of Katrina." The raises do not affect Riley's salary.

 

City Councilwoman Cynthia Hedge-Morrell, chairwoman of the council's Budget Committee, led the latest effort to increase officers' pay. She said she hopes to deal eventually with two more issues: giving police more frequent longevity raises and getting promotional exams scheduled more often.

 

NOPD personnel get a 2.5 percent longevity raise every five years. Many other jurisdictions offer annual raises.

 

Recruits get $34,797

 

But Hedge-Morrell also warned that with the latest raises, police "now have no excuse" for not doing a better job. Council members have said they want to hold officers to higher standards in areas such as treating residents with respect, writing reports in a timely manner and presenting effective testimony at trials.

 

"We are going to focus across the board on our officers being more professional," Riley said.

 

The latest raises boost recruits' pay from $30,732 a year to $34,797. The base pay for a police officer I goes from $33,111 a year to $36,570; for a police officer IV from $38,433 to $42,449; and for a sergeant from $42,449 to $46,885.

 

There are four grades of police officer, based on seniority and passing the promotional exams.

 

The base pay for a lieutenant increases to $50,513; for a captain to $59,366; and for a major to $64,759.

 

Base pay does not include longevity raises, overtime, paid details, state supplemental pay, a $500 annual uniform and equipment allowance, or the $1,400 a year that officers get from a special property tax millage.

 

The Legislature this year increased the supplemental pay for police statewide from $3,600 to $5,100 a year.

 

Educational bonuses

 

The City Council also recently approved giving bonuses to officers in specialized units and to officers with college degrees.

 

Officers will receive an extra $1,500 a year if they are assigned as field training officers or as members of the tactical unit, motorcycle unit of the Traffic Division, bomb squad, marine unit, K-9 unit or mounted patrol unit. In addition, captains assigned as district commanders will receive a 10 percent bonus.

 

Under the educational benefit provision, an officer with an associate degree will receive an extra $1,000 a year. A bachelor's degree will bring an extra $2,000 and a master's degree $3,000.

 

The extra pay for specialized jobs is expected to benefit about 180 NOPD officers. The educational bonuses could benefit about 185 officers.

 

Hedge-Morrell unveiled a plan in May to give police raises of 10.5 percent to 33 percent, with the largest raises going to captains and other top ranks. Hedge-Morrell said those raises would have matched the salaries offered in competing Southern departments, with the largest raises going to the higher ranks in an effort to keep veteran officers from retiring early or taking their years of experience to other jurisdictions.

 

Because hundreds of officers have left the force since Hurricane Katrina, the department's overall strength has declined sharply despite continuing efforts to sign up recruits.

 

However, Hedge-Morrell's plan drew opposition from Mayor Ray Nagin's administration, which said the exodus of veteran officers has slowed and recruitment should be the top priority. As a result, the plan was rewritten to give recruits the biggest raises and all higher ranks a flat 10 percent.

 


Police, fire get raise
From the Visalia Times-Delta, July 18, 2007

 

Visalia police and fire personnel will receive a cumulative 12 percent pay increase over three years as part of a new three-year labor agreement approved Monday night by the Visalia City Council.

 

The vote was 4-1, with council member Don Landers dissenting. Landers did not comment on the reasons behind his dissenting vote.

 

Negotiations started on a new contract in early March, according to a report prepared by Janice Avila, the city's human resources director, and Eric Frost, director of administrative services. Talks concluded with a tentative agreement on June 1 — a month before the old contract was to expire on June 30.

 

The increases, the same for police and fire, are as follows:

 

  First year: 6 percent total — 4 percent, retroactive to April 28, and 2 percent, effective Jan. 1, 2008.

 

  Second year: 2 percent, effective July 1, 2008.

 

  Third year: One of three options — 4 percent, a raise based on the Consumer Price Index, or an "unrepresented increase," whichever is higher.

 

The contract runs through June 30, 2010. Merit pay, a part of both police and fire contracts, differs between the two agencies, according to the new contract.

 

Police can accumulate between $750 and $1,400 per year based on participation in the following qualifying categories: investigations, youth services, SWAT, field training program, bomb squad and special enforcement. Firefighters can receive between $800 and $2,000 in additional pay for participating as hazardous-materials specialists, the contract states.

 

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