YOUNGSTOWN YSU OKs 3-year police contract

A provision concerning domestic partners is in the police agreement.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Youngstown State University trustees ratified a three-year contract, which gives campus police and dispatchers 3 percent annual pay increases and does not require them to contribute toward their health care premiums.
The agreement with the 21 members of the Fraternal Order of Police is retroactive to April 1.
Before the March 31 expiration of the previous agreement, hourly pay ranges for police dispatchers were from $13.40 to $17.39, for police officers from $14.72 to $18.55, and for sergeants from $15.71 to $20.
Leave provision
Also included in the FOP contract is a provision that members will be entitled to family and medical leave to care for ailing domestic partners, whether or not they are married to them, but this provision does not call for the university to pay for health care for domestic partners outside of marriage.
A domestic partner is "a person who, according to the employee's affidavit, has shared a committed, on-going domestic relationship with the employee for not less than the continuous preceding 12 months." The domestic partners provision is the same as one in contracts the university negotiated last year with faculty and classified employees.
Professional staff
Trustees also ratified a memorandum of understanding with the 120-member Association of Professional and Administrative Staff, which raises compensation by varying amounts retroactive to July 1, 2002, in a variety of job classifications that Buck Consultants of Cleveland found to be underpaid relative to similar institutions.
APAS and the university are negotiating toward a new contract to replace the one that will expire June 30, 2003.