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POLICEPAY.NET
NEGOTIATION TRAINING JANUARY 18-19 -
JULY 26-27 - Santa Fe, NM (click here for information)
Raises in the future
for first responders
From the Times, December 5, 2006
Michael Fredieu
also works two jobs other than his one with the Fire Department, one at the
jail and another with a private ambulance service in At impasse, Sturbridge police seek mediation in contract talks
Mayor creates police bureau, plans to promote 5 patrol
officers
From the Mayor
Don Williamson on Friday said he has restructured the police command to
include a "Citizen Services Bureau" with the newly created
positions of a major and four inspectors. The inspectors
will answer directly to the major, who will effectively be the deputy of
acting police Chief Gary Hagler. But
rather than promote from current supervisors, Williamson said he is staffing
the new roles with five patrol officers. Williamson
said the officers have not yet been told they are being promoted but said
they include a woman and four black men. The
lack of black officers in command positions at the department has drawn
criticism from the city's Afro-American Police League. When
asked why he chose four blacks and a woman for promotion to the new
positions, Williamson said his choices were "the best-qualified people I
have." Under
the new structure, inspectors would spend their entire shift in a police car
and would focus on patrols from noon until the overnight hours. One inspector
will oversee services provided by the detective bureau and the mini stations.
The
move will make the city's police command structure available to the public
around the clock, Williamson said. Because
Williamson is unhappy with the performance of the city's current command
staff, the four inspectors will outrank all of the department's captains,
lieutenants and sergeants. The
head of the city's sergeants union declined comment on the mayor's criticisms
and the plan. "It's
pretty interesting," said sergeant's union President Richard
Hetherington, adding the moves may violate the city's union contracts. Hagler did not attend Williamson's announcement of the
changes and could not be reached for comment. The
move is the latest in a series of attempts Williamson has made to reshape the
city's police department. Williamson
has already increased the number of single-officer patrols and created a
"fourth shift" that patrols from 7 p.m. until 4 a.m. and targets
higher crime areas. Cops Nab Pay
Boost From City From the The
city will pick up the first 5 percent of increases to health-care costs each
year, leaving the 62 members of the Gilroy Police Officer's Association to
pay any additional costs. Police officers with families enrolled in basic
health and dental plans will pay $61 a month in 2007 (based on projected cost
increases), whereas under the current package the officers would pay nothing.
The new contract is not yet finalized. Under the current union agreement, the
starting salary for a new police officer is $66,305 a year. Getting
the city's three labor unions to pick up a share of health care costs has
been a top priority for city officials. "Every
year we didn't know what was going to happen with these double digit
increases (in health care costs)," said LeeAnn
McPhillips, Gilroy's human resources director and a
member of the city's bargaining team. "Now we have a controlled amount
of 5 percent that the health care contribution can go up and we can factor
that into the budget. Our numbers our known." In
exchange for the cap on health care contributions, the city agreed to
increase annual uniform allowances by $300 or more (depending on the type of
officer) and establish a program that rewards veteran officers for providing
specialized services, such as fire-arms training or serving on the SWAT team.
The Masters Officer program provides a 5 percent salary bump to officers who
perform nine years of such specialized service. Overall,
the new contract will cost the city an additional $830,000 annually, McPhillips estimated. "It's
not the worst that we've done, it's not the best that we've done," said
Police Detective Frank Bozzo, the union's chief
negotiator. "These things have to be gauged on economics and timing and
the community. Overall, I think we got a fair shake." Both
sides characterized the negotiations as "positive" despite a
month-long breakdown in talks. The police union declared impasse in
negotiations Sept. 19 over what Bozzo described as
disagreement on the "totality of all the issues." The
breakdown came a few days before an outside arbitrator awarded firefighters a
10 percent wage increase, capping a bitter year of wrangling between City
Hall and the fire union. Disagreements between the sides grew so bitter that
Mayor Al Pinheiro led a council effort to uproot
binding arbitration through the ballot box. The move fizzled amid union
threats of political retribution in the run-up to the 2005 council election. The
arbitration process slowed police union negotiations, which began in April,
but ultimately helped police forge a contract with City Hall. "I
think mostly it answered some questions from the POA perspective," Bozzo said. "Certain areas we were going in we
wanted to make sure we were within reason and standards, and fire arbitration
helped clear a lot of that up." Police
returned to the bargaining table in late October after a one-month impasse.
Two weeks later, the sides reached final agreement on the major contractual
issues. Mayor
Al Pinheiro said the city would have liked to see
smaller pay increases, but it was not prepared to go through another round of
arbitration over "1 or 2 percentage points." "Under
the circumstances, we did the best we can with the negotiations," he
said. "We tried to do all we could not to have to go to arbitration and
end up spending more money as we did with fire. I believe at the end it was a
win-win for both sides." The
police contract retroactively covers the period from July 2006 through June
2009. It applies to sergeants, corporals, officers, and multi-service
officers who transport prisoners to and from county jail. It does not cover
the department's chief, assistant chief or three captains. City Hall will
begin a new round of contract negotiations with the fire union in August. CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS POLICEPAY provides
complete contract negotiations for your bargaining unit. We will:
Our fee will be a fixed
amount that is agreed to up front. The
fee will include all costs, even travel and hotels. There will be no surprises. We offer options with no up front
payment. You can make equal monthly
payments. If your contract is 36
months, you will make 36 monthly payments. During the term of the
contract, we will:
If we are not able to
reach an agreement with your city, we will provide arbitration services at no
additional cost. We intend to get an
agreement. Our approach to contract
negotiations is different than what you are probably used to. We engage in non-confrontational
negotiations that rely on developing relationships. However, we do not use so called “win-win”
negotiation. It’s a loser for
you. There will be no unfair labor
practice complaints filed by us or lawsuits and grievances. If that is what you are wanting you need to
call the usual knucklehead lawyers that have been screwing up police
negotiations for years. Intimidation
and blustering are not in our arsenal. If you prefer to
negotiate yourself we can provide any of the services listed above, with the
same payment plans, only at lower rate.
If this is the way you want to go, you need to attend one of our
negotiation seminars. The upcoming
seminars are listed on our website. For more information,
give us a call at (405) 234-2235, or contact POLICEPAY.NET Your
Ultimate Solution For Contract Negotiations |
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