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Interview Listen
to David Kallas
Executive Director of The Las Vegas Police Protective Association in an
interview with POLICEPAY Journal Editor, Matt Barnard about the recent vote
by the Fiscal Affairs Committee
CONTRACT
CONFLICT: Police file new complaint The
Las Vegas Police Protective Association has lodged a second complaint against
Clark County, claiming commissioners violated the Nevada open meeting law in
their discussions about the officers' proposed contract. The
complaint, dated Tuesday and filed with the attorney general's office, claims
commissioners acted outside a public forum when they took a poll to determine
the board's position on the four-year contract for roughly 2,200
rank-and-file Metropolitan Police Department officers. No
more than three members of the seven-member commission are allowed to convene
to discuss public business when the item has not been placed on an agenda. As
a result of the poll, the complaint says, commissioners learned Tom Collins
was the only board member who supported the contract. On
Oct. 18, commissioners voted to remove Collins from the Fiscal Affairs
Committee, the body that typically approves police salaries. On Oct. 24, the
committee rejected the contract in a 3-2 vote. The
complaint asks the attorney general to void both the vote to remove Collins
from the committee and the committee's vote on the contract. "Substantial
facts exist to conclude that the decision reached by the Clark County
Commission to publicly oppose the Collective Bargaining Agreement ... was in
violation of the open meeting law." Listed
in the complaint are a series of 11 newspaper articles published between Oct.
6 and Oct. 24 that include county officials saying six of the seven
commissioners oppose the police deal. Prior
to the vote to oust Collins, "members of the County Commission engaged
in a series of meetings and/or telephone calls in an effort to discern the
commissions' collective position," the complaint says. It
notes that Commissioner Myrna Williams was not in the office for three weeks
prior to the Oct. 18 meeting and therefore her position was solicited via
phone or e-mail. "That
is not true," Williams said of the allegations. She
said she was never contacted about the police contract while she was at home.
She said she was involved in closed-door sessions when commissioners let
their positions be known. When
reached by telephone on Wednesday afternoon, Detective David Kallas, executive director of the Police Protection
Association, said he was unable to respond to questions. Clark
County Manager Thom Reilly said the entire commission's position on the
contract was clear in two separate meetings where police union members were
present. "You
can't conveniently leave off a couple dates," Reilly said. "It's a
little disingenuous." Reilly
said that during a closed-door session Sept. 6, all seven commissioners
discussed their position on the contract with representatives of the police
union. "Everyone
but Tom Collins expressed concerns about going forward with the
contract," said Reilly, who also participated in the meeting.
"Commissioner Collins expressed a comfort level." On
Sept. 20, during a regularly scheduled commission meeting, the board voted to
help fund legal representation for the fact-finding and arbitration process. "How
do they form a basis saying they polled each other; the closed-door session
alone would have allowed for discussion," Reilly said. "On Sept.
20, we obtained legal representation. It was clear the only one who felt
comfortable going forward was Tom Collins, Everyone else thought we were
going to fact finding." On
Tuesday, the Police Protective Association filed a lawsuit against six
commissioners, Reilly, the Police Department and Clark County. Collins was
not named in the lawsuit. It seeks a judicial determination that the $52
million, four-year contract is "valid and executory." The
lawsuit says state law requires only the union, as the employee organization,
and the police department, the government employer, to agree on the contract.
The law does not indicate the Fiscal Affairs Committee must approve the
agreement. The
lawsuit further alleged that six commissioners and Reilly acted "with
actual malice, fraud and/or oppression" when they opted to remove
Collins from the committee. The
proposal called for police officers to receive a 3.5 percent cost-of-living
raise in the contract's first year. They would get 4.5 percent cost-of-living
raises in the second year and again in the third, and a 4.25 percent raise in
the fourth year. In
addition, about two-thirds of the officers are entitled to receive 4 percent
"merit" or "step" raises.
Officers receive step raises annually for their first 10 years on the
department. In their 11th year, they receive a longevity check for 5 percent
of their annual salary. The longevity check then increases by a half-percent
in each subsequent year. Police
and union leaders have said it is unfair to mention step raises in the
context of the contract, since they weren't at issue in the contract talks. When
the cost-of-living increase is added to the step or longevity increase, the
raise amounts to about 10 percent annually, or more than 40 percent over four
years. Last
year, the average gross salary for an officer below the rank of sergeant, the
group covered by the contract, was $70,560. That is below the average income
of officers in Henderson ($71,604) but above those in North Las Vegas
($67,818), a Review-Journal analysis shows. Budget contains raises,
fee increase
From
the Advocate, November 3, 2005 In
all, Mayor-President Kip Holden's proposed budget is a 5.5 percent increase
from the current $560 million-plus budget. The
spending plan includes $4.5 million to bring city police pay to a level
comparable to other cities of similar size, said Holden's chief
administrative officer, Walter Monsour, who
presented the budget. "Public
safety is a top priority of this administration, and with added demands on
our Baton Rouge Police Department in the post-Katrina environment, it is
necessary to maintain competitive salaries for police officers and assure the
successful recruitment of top quality professionals to the force," Monsour told the council. The
average police officer will receive an 11.5-percent increase under the
proposed budget. Higher ranks will receive an even-higher increase, with
captains and majors receiving a 17-percent increase. Monsour said the proposed budget also includes the
addition of 20 police officers. Councilman
Mickey Skyring applauded the police pay raise,
saying that was an important part of his campaign last fall for his District
12 council seat. "Out
of 1,000 people that I talked to during the campaign, I think I only had one
who voiced any objection to a police pay raise," Skyring
said. Holden
also made police pay a major issue in his campaign that unseated former
Mayor-President Bobby Simpson last fall. The
most-controversial part of the new budget may be a proposed $3.60-per-month
increase in the monthly garbage fee for single-family households. The
proposal would increase the monthly fee for curbside garbage, recycling and
trash collection from $8.40 to $12 per month. In
a telephone interview Wednesday, Holden said the proposed $3.60 garbage fee
increase is the first step in correcting a situation that he and the council
inherited from previous administrations. The
$8.40 month fee for curbside garbage, recycling and trash collection is less
than half of the actual cost of providing those services, Holden said. "Our
garbage fee is lower than the city of Baker, mainly because we've been
subsidizing it," Holden said. Under
Holden's proposed 2006 budget, the city-parish will continue to subsidize
garbage collection with $5.5 million from the general fund and $4.5 million
from the 6.2-mill consolidated garbage service district property tax paid by
residents in the unincorporated areas of the parish. (The cities of Baker and
Zachary have their own garbage collection contracts.) "The
bottom line is that the fee we're collecting is not covering the cost of the
service we're providing. We didn't want to raise the fee at one time to do
that, so we're phasing it in," said Holden, who was on his way to
California on Wednesday to help recruit some possible movie productions to
Baton Rouge. Later
Wednesday, the council's Finance and Executive Committee agreed to hold a
public hearing on the proposed budget at 5 p.m. Tuesday in the council
chambers on the third floor of the Governmental Building, 222 St. Louis St. Monsour said he intends to give a presentation on the
budget prior to public input. Finance
and Executive Committee Chairman Mike Walker said additional hearings will be
scheduled if needed, and the council is scheduled to vote on the budget Dec.
14. Under the city-parish Plan of Government, the council has to amend and
approve the operating budget by Dec. 15. Other
features of Holden's proposed 2006 budget include: A
proposed increase in building permit fees that will add about $250 in fees to
a 2,000-square-foot residential construction project. The measure is expected
to generate about $1 million in additional revenue per year. A
proposed 3-percent across-the-board pay raise for all city-parish employees
in departments other than the Police Department. Total cost of the proposed
raise is $2.3 million. A
projected 3.5 percent increase in sales-and-use tax revenue for 2006. The
current year's budget, prepared by the Simpson administration, had assumed a
1 percent increase in sales tax for this year. For the first seven months of
the year, sales tax revenue had a growth rate of about 6 percent, but
city-parish officials attributed much of that to the American Bowling
Congress that ran from February to July. Without the bowling tournament,
city-parish officials estimate that the increase would have been about 4.5
percent. Sales-tax revenues aren't yet available for periods following
Hurricane Katrina, but Holden said that money will be needed to provide
services for the 50,000-plus evacuees who are expected to remain in the
parish in 2006. A
4-percent increase in sewer fees that was scheduled as part of the
city-parish program to rehabilitate the aging sewer system, control sewer
overflows and provide capacity for growth. The first 4-percent sewer-user fee
increase went into effect in January 2004, and annual 4-percent increases are
scheduled to continue through the life of the program. City-parish officials
submitted a revised version of the sewer improvement plan in August that cut
$100 million from what was originally a $617 million program. A decision is
pending from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency about whether the
proposed changes, which exclude tunnels, are acceptable. Petition seeks vote on
bargaining for police, Teamsters say A
petition seeking to overthrow the Fraternal Order of Police as bargaining
agent for the Metro Police Department was filed yesterday morning, officials
with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said. The
petition contained signatures of nearly 700 Metro officers who want an
election, said Jesse Case, Teamsters spokesman. Ed
Mason, president of the FOP, said last night he had not received notification
that the petition was filed. "Until I do, I can't comment," he
said. Union
officials said Metro has 45 days to conduct an election within the police
department to determine whether the FOP will be decertified. If officers
choose to relieve the group of its power, a second election will be conducted
to elect a new group. The
Teamsters have been involved in an aggressive push since August to bring
about the election. Last year the union narrowly lost an election to become
the representative group for police officers. The FOP got 524 votes of the
1,032 cast, beating the Teamsters by only 16. More
than 1,000 Metro officers are dues-paying FOP members, but more than 300 have
joined the Teamsters. Officials said some officers have withdrawn their ties
to the FOP, while others decided to be members of both groups. Teamster
officials said officers have complained about the FOP in the past year for
not fighting aggressively enough on issues such as better pensions and higher
salaries. "We
expect officers will vote the FOP out as the bargaining agent," Case
said. "The
FOP is a good fraternal organization, but it's been proven time and time
again that even when they try to act like a union, when it comes down to it,
they're just not." Belleville (IL) Police
get 3-year contract From the News-Democrat,
October 28, 2005 BELLEVILLE - The City Council approved a three-year contract with the police union Thursday that relaxes the residency requirement and implements 12-hour shifts. Under
the new contract, police officers will be able to move out of Belleville
after they have been on the force for 20 years. However, they still must live
within St. Clair County. The
union has already ratified the contract. Mayor
Mark Eckert, who supported the current residency resolution 10 years ago,
said he still believes police officers should live in town. But a multitude of
recent legal rulings against cities with residency rules convinced city
leaders they could lose if they went into arbitration. "By
doing nothing, we'll lose residency. By doing this we think we'll save
residency for a long, long time," Eckert said. "We're still going
to have them for 20 years in our neighborhoods, which is so important." Capt.
William Clay said police officers initially wanted to abolish the residency
requirement altogether, but decided to go along with the compromise. "After
20 years, officers are eligible for retirement," Clay said. "So for
those officers who want to get a home or a piece of land somewhere else, they
can." Ward
3 Alderman Ed Hock cast the lone "no" vote against the contract. "I
think now more than ever, residency for the Police Department and the Fire
Department is very important," he said. Health
insurance was another stumbling block that dragged negotiations out for about
six months. Under
the old contract, for seven years former police officers continued to pay the
health insurance rate they were paying at the time of their retirement and
the city paid any annual increase. Now, officers who were hired after Jan. 1,
1990 will no longer be eligible for this benefit. The
other major change is officers will now work 12-hour shifts. Eckert said he
hopes this change will reduce the use of overtime and lead to substantial
savings for the city. Last year alone, the city paid nearly $450,000 in
overtime. Lieutenants also will be required to work on weekends. Officers
will get a 3 percent raise in each year of the contract, which expires in
April 2008. Police counter city's
contract proposal From
the La Crosse Tribune, October 29, 2005 La
Crosse’s police union has agreed to accept no salary increases for next year,
but wants two 3 percent raises in 2007. FOP 'unofficially'
accepts contract From
the Venice Gondolier Sun, October 30, 2005 City
Manager Marty Black confirmed rumors Friday that Venice patrol
officers "unofficially" approved the city's contract offer from May
13. Venice Police Department officers have been working under an expired
contract since October 2004. The city manager declared negotiations at an
impasse July 18. "The
officers have confirmed they are willing to reconsider the May 13 offer from
the city," Black said. "We will be going back to the table to
formally produce that, and would expect them to then ratify that, based on
their informal vote, and to hopefully bring it back to council in December
for approval. "Obviously
it's in everyone's best interest to not go through with impasse. We would be
happy to reach settlement with the officers." Impasse
is a legal term for state laws under which city council can force up to a
one-year contract on officers, with or without union approval. Florida does
not allow unions to strike. Negotiators
with the local Fraternal Order of Police union are not saying whether their
membership would accept the city's contract offer from May 13, despite the
Web site for FOP saying Venice patrol officers held a contract ratification
vote Wednesday. Lead
FOP negotiator Paul Murphy said the vote this week was merely to provide
direction from the membership should the city place the offer back on the
table. The
city's May 13 offer to FOP would pay a first-year police officer $34,800 as
of October 2004. That starting salary would be $35,800 as of October 2005 and
$37,000 as of October 2006. Current
starting salaries, under the expired contract, are $33,322. Also
in the May contract, maximum base salary would be $52,000 by an officer's
sixth year as of October 2004, $53,750 as of the seventh year of work in
October 2005 and $55,750 as of the officer's eighth year in October 2006. Current
maximum base salary, under the expired contract, is $49,249.
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