The POLICEPAY Journal® Thursday, August 3, 2006
www.policepayjournal.net	Matt Barnard, Editor matt@policepay.net (405) 234-2235

2006 Training Classes Brochure

FREMONT, CA	Contract talks stalled for police
CALIFORNIA	Highway patrol union reaches $30 million contract deal
EAST PROVIDENCE, RI	New union pacts are 'precedent setting'
BELLEAIR BEACH, FL	Belleair Beach police ask city to dump their department
BACK ISSUES OF THE JOURNAL

Contract talks stalled for police
Brief session Thursday leaves union and Fremont at an impasse

From Insidebayarea.com, July 28, 2006

FREMONT — The Fremont Police Association and city staff members will head to mediation after a brief meeting Thursday yielded nothing to break stalled contract talks.

Both sides plan to meet soon — possibly by mid-August — with a mediator assigned by the State Mediation and Conciliation Service.

"Mediation is a logical process when you're at this point," City Manager Fred Diaz said.

Once the first mediation meeting is held, the process allows 30 days for all parties to reach an agreement. If no agreement is reached after that time, the City Council may make the final decision on the contract dispute after conducting a public hearing.

After nearly four months of bargaining sessions, the police union recently declared an impasse in talks, which city staff members accepted July 18.

Thursday's meeting came two days after Fremont Police Association members walked out of a City Council meeting while Diaz was in mid-speech. The move raised some eyebrows and, possibly, the level of acrimony attached to negotiations.

"I knew he would have a canned speech ready," said Officer Glenn Miller, Fremont Police Association president. "Nothing he said was news to us, anyway."

Dozens of officers, each clad in matching blue T-shirts, exited the Council Chambers immediately after Miller finished reading a prepared statement.

"We are disappointed at how we have been treated at the bargaining table. There have not been any meaningful negotiations," said Miller, a Fremont police officer for about 25 years. "A take-it-or-leave-it offer is not negotiating."

Miller also said that by January, Fremont officers' salaries will lag about 11 percent behind their peers in comparably sized cities.

Mayor Bob Wasserman, who served as Fremont police chief for 17 years, said he was disappointed at the timing of the officers' exit from the meeting.

"They have every right to go to impasse, but I don't think that showed much respect to the city manager and the City Council," Wasserman said.

Diaz declined to comment on the walkout, but he expressed optimism about the ongoing bargaining process. "I value the jobs that police officers have been doing in difficult circumstances," he said. "We'll continue to bargain in good faith."

But Miller countered that negotiations have been "going backwards" in recent weeks. He added that officer morale is "bad" because of the reduction of staffing and services in Fremont's public safety ranks in recent years.

Fremont, which once was ranked the nation's 23rd safest city of its size, has slipped to 59th, as its violent crime has increased.

"It's frustrating to see the crime rate go up. It's hard on us," Miller said. "We're trying to provide service as well as we can. Not only do we have the lowest amount of officers, we also have the lowest pay per peer group."

The police union's previous contract ran from 1999 to June 30 of this year.

After Fremont firefighters' seven-year contract was set to expire, the city in June reached an agreement to extend the pact for one year. The deal raised firefighters' salaries through a 2.9 percent cost-of-living adjustment and a 10 percent increase in health and benefits allowances.

City staff members have offered a similar deal to police union leaders, who made a counteroffer asking for an additional 40 hours in holiday pay and 40 hours of vacation time, Miller said.

The police union president said the counteroffer is reasonable because Fremont firefighters' pay is much closer to their peers in other cities than that of Fremont police officers.

Miller added that when the city recently countered with a figure lower than its original offer — a 2.5 cost-of-living adjustment instead of 2.9 — union leaders declared the impasse.

"We were shocked," he said. "In reality, there was no good-faith bargaining (from the city)."

City staff members declined to comment this week on the terms discussed in ongoing negotiations.

But Kathy Ito, Fremont's labor relations officer, said she is hopeful an agreement can be reached. "I think both (sides) are committed to working something out," she said.

Highway patrol union reaches $30 million contract deal

From the Associated Press August 1, 2006

SACRAMENTO - The union representing California Highway Patrol officers has agreed to a new four-year contract that will cost the state more than $30 million a year, the state Department of Personnel Administration said Tuesday.

By law, salaries for the 6,400 officers are tied to what is paid to local police in Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego and San Francisco, said department spokeswoman Lynelle Jolley.

CHP salaries currently are in line with police in those cities, so the officers will get no increases to their base salaries this year, Jolley said. But they will likely see raises in future years as local police salaries increase.

Officers now earn a base salary of $60,432 to $73,464, not including overtime, seniority pay, fitness pay or educational incentives. Jolley could not immediately say what a typical officer earns each year.

The new contract requires the officers to start paying into their pension system to fund retirement benefits. Their salaries are increasing about 8 percent to compensate for that contribution, which had been waived in previous contracts, but there will be no net pay increase because the money will be immediately deducted, Jolley said.

The new contract also boosts their uniform allowance from $540 to $920, and gives them a new $25 per month uniform cleaning allowance.

They also get a stipend equal to 3.5 percent of their salary to pay for off-the-clock activities like putting on protective gear and inspecting weapons and vehicles, as required by a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the department said.

In addition, the salary differential for officers working the night shift and benefits for officers who suffer serious injuries will increase, and officers who recruit others to join the CHP will get extra leave time.

The agreement must still be approved by the state Legislature and union members.

New union pacts are 'precedent setting'

The police and fire union contracts will call for employees to pay part of their health-insurance premiums.

From the Providence Journal, August 3, 2006

EAST PROVIDENCE -- New contracts were signed yesterday with the local police and fire unions as well as the association representing East Providence's department leaders.

The agreements, which city officials call "precedent setting," require these employees to pay a portion of their health insurance premiums. The pact also says the employees will pay more toward their premiums each year - $520 the first year, $624 the next and so on --through the end of the contract in fiscal year 2009.

Having the employees pay part of their health-care premiums is retroactive to Nov. 1, 2005.

In exchange, the employees will receive a 3.5-percent increase for this year. Salary increases for futures years will be negotiated annually.

Previously, the city paid the entire health-insurance premium.

"They really stepped up to the plate and they didn't have to," Mayor Joseph Larisa Jr. said.

The union presidents at yesterday's signing ceremony said they weren't forced into this agreement. They said they understood the city's "exceeding difficult local budgetary constraints."

Larisa said he believes other city employees, not including School Department employees, will likely fall in line with this change in the near future.

The teachers' contract doesn't expire until 2008. Representatives from the local teachers union, through a previous letter to school officials, have already stated they are not interested in discussing paying any part of their health-care premiums.

Councilman Peter Midgley hopes the "precedent setting" contracts will encourage the teachers union to come to the bargaining table.

"The teachers," he said, "they don't have to, but maybe they should [reopen negotiations now.] We're not trying to beat them over the head with it. We just want them to open their eyes."

"They haven't agreed to reopen anything," School Committee Chairman Antone Gouveia Jr. said at a joint budget work session yesterday morning before the signing ceremony. "Now that this is signed, I will be asking them formerly. Hopefully, there will be some movement information with our negotiating teams [even though the contract isn't up]."

Yet, city officials said the previous police and fire contract wasn't up either. It didn't expire until the end of October.

"It has taken an entire year to get to this point," said City Councilman Patrick Caine, who represented the council in the recent negotiations. "We presented this [last] September. Persistence works."

Said Gouveia, "There is no question in anyone's mind that the next contract will have a co-share of some kind. How much is the question. I applaud what the council has done. We're going to do everything we can to get them on board."

Yet, he also said there are other aspects of the teacher contract - minimum retirement age and step increases - that could save equal, if not more, money for taxpayers. The contract will be looked at thoroughly during the next negotiations, he assured the council.

Added Larisa: "We got the co-share [with the police and fire unions] because the council had political will. Keep the pressure up even though the contract's in place. Keep beating the drums so the taxpayers know we're trying."

Belleair Beach police ask city to dump their department

From the Belleair Bee, August 3, 2006

BELLEAIR BEACH – Local police say the city can’t afford a police department and should ask voters to dissolve the city’s police department.

Police Chief Earnest Armistead said a letter signed by all of the city’s six full-time officers was the result of a near-impasse in negotiations between the city and the police officer’s union, the Fraternal Order of Police.

City Manager Reid Silverboard said Aug. 1 that 96 percent of a new contract has been agreed to, but that salaries remained a serious issue.

In their letter, the police officers claim to be the lowest paid officers in Pinellas County. One officer, Vito Calderone, raised this issue at last month’s City Council meeting, saying that in addition to struggling to pay their bills, officers felt little job security with recurring suggestions that the city should consider abolishing the local department and contract for police services from the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office.

This issue has arisen repeatedly, but has been rejected by city voters amid data showing it would cost the city more to use the Sheriff’s Office.

Armistead said that none of his officers can afford to live in Belleair Beach because of home costs. He said one officer recently told him their pay wasn’t enough to pay their rent.

At a special meeting of the City Council Aug. 1, Armistead pressed the council for a budget increase to give his officers a raise. He noted that the part-time officers save the city money. He would otherwise need to use overtime for full-time officers or hire more part-time officers, who are paid $11.25 an hour, in order to cover full shifts.

Full-time officers now earn a starting salary of $28,000, a pay level he said makes it more attractive to trained officers to seek work elsewhere. He said only three of his six full-time officers have worked in the city more than five years.

Last month Mayor Rudy Davis suggested officers should be willing to work for less in Belleair Beach because there was less violent crime than in other jurisdictions. Calderone countered that the lower crime rate was the result of the police department’s efforts, rather than the city’s lack of “back alleys” drug dealing and dark, dangerous industrial areas.

Data released two weeks ago by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement showed Belleair Beach has one of the lowest crime rates in the county. There were 25 crimes reported in the city during 2005, according to the data, the fewest among the county’s 24 municipalities.

Of the 25 crimes, five were burglaries, 19 larcenies and one car theft.

The city’s police department Web site reported that in the first six months of 2006 police had investigated two assaults, seven burglaries, two car burglaries, four thefts, 16 motor vehicle crashes. In addition, city officers had issued 426 traffic citations, 93 parking citations and 162 city code violations and made 19 arrests.

In their letter to the council, the police officers said, “Pinellas County is an area that has seen an enormous rise in the cost of living as has all of the Tampa Bay area.

“Electric billings have increased recently due to rising fuel costs, as well has housing costs have increased dramatically and continue to skyrocket at an alarming pace.

“Belleair Beach police officers firmly believe that their current salary, along with the currently offered cost-of-living and merit raises is not acceptable for the escalated cost of living in Pinellas County.”

The officers note, in the letter, that Davis and other city council members had endorsed Silverboard’s recent application for a better-paying job in Dunedin. Silverboard withdrew his name from consideration for that position, however, just days before that city’s governing body was scheduled to vote for a new city manager.

BACK ISSUES OF THE JOURNAL

Copyright ã POLICEPAY.NET, Inc. 2006 All Rights Reserved

The POLICEPAY Journal

Published by:

POLICEPAY.NET, Inc.

211 North Robinson Ave, Suite 350

Oklahoma City, OK 73102

(405) 234-2235

www.policepay.net