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Matt Barnard, Editor
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www.policepay.net Click on a Headline to skip to
the Article. New rules give more
police, firefighters pay for overtime PA State Police Commissioner Praises Arbitration Panel Decision Chandler, AZ workers
will have representation Allentown Court rejects
appeal of police pact Seattle Police make
concessions, give OK to new contract Fort Wayne Police
contract with city hits snag Louisiana $423 million
shortfall in police retirement For Delaware county
police officers, pay is an issue Look At The Last Issue (12/23/04) POLICEPAY.NET
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Unions to test new voice From The For the first
time in city history,
PA State Police Commissioner Praises Arbitration Panel Decision Thursday December 23 The arbitration
award announced Tuesday provides wage increases of 3 percent in the first
year, 3.5 percent in the second and third years and 4 percent in the fourth
year for the department's enlisted members, who are represented by PSTA. The first-year increase is retroactive to July 1,
when the Commonwealth's most recent contract with the PSTA
expired. Col.
Miller said the award significantly strengthens the Department's disciplinary
rules and processes, in part by establishing a specific list of disciplinary
violations that can result in termination of employment. "More
importantly, arbitrators no longer will be free to reduce the penalties
assigned by the Department in cases of serious misconduct," he said.
"Once an arbitrator determines that a member violated the discipline
standards, the member will be dismissed with no possibility of reinstatement
by the arbitrator." The new
discipline standards will be effective for discipline arising out of conduct
occurring on or after Jan. 1, 2005, according to the arbitration award. "As
commissioner, I have found that virtually every trooper across the
Commonwealth is committed to the Department's core values of honor, service,
integrity, respect, trust, courage and duty. The dedicated men and women of
the Pennsylvania State Police don't want to work with individuals who are not
fully committed to those same values." Col.
Miller thanked the members of the Department's negotiating team on
disciplinary issues, headed by Lt. Col. John R. Brown, Deputy Commissioner of
Professional Responsibility. He also thanked the PSTA's
discipline negotiation team, headed by Cpl. Joseph E. Sarkis,
and the other PSTA representatives. "These
individuals interacted for long hours in an attempt to ensure that the
Department's discipline process is fair and just," Col. Miller said. He
praised members of the arbitration panel for their efforts and extended his
thanks to William C. Nugent of Kroll Associates Inc. for monitoring
discussions between the Department and the PSTA on
disciplinary issues. Gov.
Edward G. Rendell last year appointed Kroll Associates as an independent
monitor to oversee the Department's implementation of recommendations
contained in a Pennsylvania Office of Inspector General report on
disciplinary issues within State Police. New rules give more police,
firefighters pay for overtime
In all, about 147 employees are
affected, said Nancy Olivo, the city’s human
resources director. They are police sergeants and various ranks in Norfolk
Fire-Rescue: lieutenant, captain, fire-paramedic lieutenant, deputy fire
marshal and assistant fire marshal. Previously, they had been deemed management employees
exempt from the overtime requirements outlined in the federal Fair Labor
Standards Act. They had long sought the benefit, and
the city had long denied it. Several years ago, some fire department
employees brought a federal lawsuit challenging the city’s position. They
lost. Last August, however, new federal
overtime regulations went into effect, updating rules that had not changed
much since 1949. The revisions strengthened overtime pay for 6.7 million
American workers, according to the Department of Labor, which noted that
police, firefighters and emergency medical technicians would enjoy stronger
overtime protection. Critics, including the Economic
Policy Institute, warned that the new rules could cost millions of Americans
overtime pay. Workers in some other Hampton Roads
cities are also seeing changes. In In both the police and fire
departments, any supervisors who outrank these first-line positions are
exempt from overtime provisions, Cooke said. James A. Mikell,
president of Norfolk Professional Firefighters Local 68, said the new rules
gave On Tuesday, the City Council passed
an ordinance reclassifying the positions and laying the groundwork for
overtime pay. Olivo said she could not estimate what the overtime might cost the
city. The hours those employees worked had
not been tracked in the past, she said. “Ask me in three months how much it’s
costing,” she said. “We’re happy,” said Michael McKenna,
who heads the local police union. “We fought for this a long time.” Health insurance errors lead
to delay From The Journal Gazette, December 22, 2004 The
City Council put off for three weeks a new four-year contract for The
pact calls for 3 percent raises each of the four years, some changes to retiree
benefits and a discussion forum to promote communication between union
representatives and police administrators. The
contract for members of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, which
represents the department’s rank and file, will carry the officers through
the next mayoral election and the annexation of much of The
delay came after Councilman Don Schmidt, R-2nd, discovered errors in the
amounts officers would pay for health insurance. Officers are supposed to pay
the same as non-union city employees, but the figures did not match. The
delay is mostly a formality, as the Tuesday meeting was only a committee
meeting to give the contract preliminary approval. Final approval could not
come before Jan. 11 anyway. Police
Chief Rusty York said the negotiations and resulting contract went well. “I
thought the whole process was very constructive,” The
Fraternal Order of Police, which represents officers with the rank of
sergeant and higher in the department, will vote on a similar contract at the
end of this month. PBA members
voted 163-16 to approve the contract Dec. 2, union president Hollis Burton
said. About half of the membership voted. The
contract will give officers a 3 percent pay raise and $200 extra for their
annual uniform allowance, a change the union had been pushing for. Officers
currently receive $1,500 a year to defray the cost of maintaining their
uniforms, but that amount had not increased in several contract cycles. Still, Officers
will also see the extra money show up on their paychecks a month earlier than
in previous years. They will receive uniform money in April and October –
times when police normally switch between their summer and winter uniforms, When The
chief or the assistant chief of police, a deputy chief, the PBA president and
a member of the union executive board will sit on the committee. The contract
calls for the labor management committee to meet once a quarter, but Next
year, The
committee will also explore what improvements can be made to three police
outposts and how the During
the last round of negotiations in 2001, both the PBA and the Fraternal Order
of Police were concerned about possible changes in their insurance and insurance
coverage for retirees. Retiree benefits took a high priority for the FOP
again this year, president Jack Woodruff said.
A The unfunded accrued
liability for the Municipal Police Employees' Retirement System, or MPERS, swelled by $44 million this year from $379 million
last year -- and more than doubled from $195 million two years ago. That's the difference
between the money in the fund and the amount needed to pay the anticipated
pensions of its members. MPERS Actuary Charles Hall -- who
calculates risks, premiums and other statistics for the retirement system --
said the increase was expected. Hall said a recent
demographic study established new averages for the life expectancy, salary
growth, disabilities and other characteristics of retirement-system members. That review -- which is
conducted every five years -- found, for example, that retirees and family
members who also receive benefits were living longer than previously thought.
"We did expect the
unfunded liability to increase for that reason and it did," Hall said.
"People are living longer because of improvements in health care." Hall said losses in the
stock market also have added to the funding gap. MPERS
lost $200 million over a two-year period, but has since gained it back. MPERS manages more than $1 billion in
retirement assets for 9,500 full-time police department employees throughout The growing gap means
retirees won't get a cost-of-living increase again next year because of a
state requirement that the system have 95 percent of the money needed to pay
the anticipated pensions of its members. Currently, MPERS
can pay less than 73 percent of the pensions. Hall
said "the gap is so large that we'll never be able to grant a
cost-of-living increase" because of that requirement. For From
the Star Press, December 19, 2004 A Star
Press survey of "If
you're looking at five to six counties in County
police officer Todd Dailey is the chairman of United Auto Workers Local 321. The
union represents county police officers and some other local emergency
services employees. Dailey said the union and Sheridan "are on the same
page." "It's
gotten to the point where the sheriff's office can't attract any significant
number of applicants," Dailey said. "And I'm pretty sure we've got
some officers who have been here up to 10 years that are looking at going
elsewhere. That would be a significant blow." Dailey
said he has serious concerns about what this will mean to the Delaware County
Police Department. "If
you look at all the new subdivisions that are going into unincorporated
areas, the number of persons the sheriff's office is servicing is not
shrinking," he said. Delaware
County Council sets budgets for county departments, including pay for
deputies. But some
council members have not recently shown much inclination to make better pay
available. In a
special council meeting on Nov. 30, only four of seven council members showed
up to hear Dailey and fellow officer David Hanauer
talk about pay for "special teams" - officers with special skills
who fulfill investigatory or rescue roles, like scuba diving. The
officers asked that less than $14,000 be appropriated for retroactive 2004
pay for those special teams. Council
members were unwilling to even make a motion to consider the pay. "It
didn't come on the floor," council member Ron Quakenbush
recalled. "Nobody made a motion to approve or disapprove. It just didn't
get any farther than that." Quakenbush noted that council did approve that special teams
spending in the 2005 budget. Some
people contacted by The Star Press wonder if the fate of the county police
department is really that dire. Bill Engelbrecht, a retired Ontario Systems executive, was on
the Engelbrecht noted that his observations were based solely on the
state of the department prior to his departure from the board more than 10
years ago. As for
difficulty finding patrol officers, Engelbrecht
said, "They could easily fill any opening they had, 10 times over. I
know we didn't have a big turnover. "The
number of complaints was minimal. The guys were content all the time I was on
the merit board." Engelbrecht said that it didn't seem obvious that more patrol
officers were needed. "They
seem to get the job done. If there was crime not being taken care of, you
would want to increase it, but it seems under control." Quakenbush said council members are sympathetic to county police
officers. "We'd
like to give them more money if it was available," Quakenbush
said. "But they're not the lowest paid deputies in the state. "I'm
not saying they don't deserve it. But we have a budget to balance." Seattle Police make concessions,
give OK to new contract From
the Yesterday,
the Seattle Police Officers' Guild and city officials announced that the
1,100 officers in the guild voted to approve the contract. "We're
happy about this," Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis said
yesterday. "I don't think the guild got everything it wanted, but
neither did the city." Chief
Gil Kerlikowske issued a brief statement, saying
the contract "recognized the professionalism of our officers and the
difficult and dangerous job they perform for our community." Sgt.
Kevin Haistings, president of the Seattle Police
Officers' Guild, was guarded in his characterization of the new contract,
saying officers can live with it. "It's
certainly not where we thought we'd be," Haistings
said. "This is a labor town. People know what it's like at the table. It
wasn't all fun and games." The
contract provides for a raise of 9.5 percent over the next four years and
requires police to pay 5 percent of the monthly cost of their health
insurance. Officer accountability was also a bargaining issue, and the
contract now calls for creating a voluntary mediation process for citizen
complaints against officers. "There
are some new things we think are positive for accountability," Ceis said. The contract must still be approved by the City Council. policing" should occupy 40 percent
of a police officer's time. "At full staffing, we could
do that. We can't now," admits Lansdowne. Out on the streets, police are
virtually unanimous in complaining that they lack the time and numbers to do
community policing the way they would like to. Officer after officer
interviewed for this project cited examples of proactive work they could be
doing in neighborhoods if only their numbers permitted more time away from
radio calls. Decades ago, police often
disparaged community policing as "social work." Today there is
near-universal support among police for this widely successful law
enforcement innovation. What's lacking now in Sgt. Wesley Albers, a seasoned SDPD cop with 15 years on the force who is currently
assigned to Southern Division, spoke words echoed by officer after officer on
the subject of community policing. "The essence of community
policing is problem solving. We love the concept but you have to have the
resources. When we are at minimum staffing or near minimum staffing, we can't
do that," Albers says. Exactly how many more police
should be added to It's true, of course, that the
size of the police force isn't the sole determinant of a city's crime rate.
Some experts even assert that there is no provable correlation between crime
rates and the numbers of police. Culture, family structure and stability,
religious faith, demographics, socio-economic conditions, the quality of
education, investment in public services and infrastructure, civic
institutions and strong civic leadership are all key factors in the complex
matrix that determines a city's crime rate. But just as obviously, effective
policing is vital to containing crime. Cops are the front line in the
permanent battle against criminals. Waging that battle successfully requires
a police force that is well trained and equipped, well led, guided by an
effective crime-fighting strategy and large enough for the job at hand. By any measure, Sgt. Albers says he chose to
apply to the San Diego Police Department the day he graduated from college in
The decade of falling crime
rates here from 1992 to 2002, the near-total absence of police corruption and
the internationally recognized innovation of community oriented policing
would appear to vindicate that judgment. But, as noted, there is
consensus on the need for a larger police force. "We need more
people," Albers says flatly. "More police equal more
public safety. Response times are less. We try for two officers per call. At
minimum staffing we can't always do that. At minimum staffing, it can be 20
minutes to your closest cover unit," he adds. "How many cops are
enough?" Albers asks rhetorically. "Who knows? But we do know what
happens when we don't have enough." Officers win 3 years of pay
raises After lengthy negotiations, the
police rank-and-file agree to a 4 percent increase this fiscal year; in the
next two years, they will get 5.5 percent raises. After
almost a year of negotiating, nearly a dozen meetings, and many offers and
counteroffers, a majority of Officers
will receive a 4 percent increase this fiscal year, and a 5.5 percent raise
for each of the ensuing two years, council member Bill Foster said. "I
think all parties are glad to put this behind us," Foster said,
"and now we can look toward a brighter future." Patrol
officers in the Police Benevolent Association voted on the contract Friday,
approving it by a margin of about three to one, said Andy Houston, the city's
director of internal services. Police supervisors, represented by the
Fraternal Order of Police, had already approved roughly the same terms, The
city council signed off on the FOP agreement on Thursday, and is scheduled to
address the PBA contract during their meeting this Thursday, Foster said. He
predicted it would pass with little discussion. Union
leaders could not be reached for comment Friday evening. Police
officers have complained that low pay was contributing to a flood of officers
leaving the department for other agencies, with more than 80 leaving this
year, according to union leaders. City officials said they have tried to
address the problem with a variety of benefits: take-home patrol cars,
interest-free home loans. Currently,
entry level officers in This
year's raise will be retroactive to October, the beginning of the fiscal year
that ends in September. Foster
hopes the new agreement will help keep good officers. "This will keep us
competitive," he said. "As long as we maintain a good competitive
collective bargaining package, we will slow down any exodus." _____________________________________________________ |
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