Friday, March 17, 2006
The pact calls for the cops to pay a contribution toward health care.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- The 43 members of the township police patrol union will get 4 percent pay raises in each year of a three-year pact approved this week.
Trustees Robyn Gallitto, chairwoman, and Elaine Mancini voted in favor of the contract with Kathy Miller opposed. The union previously passed the agreement 22-20, with one member absent.
The pact, which runs from Jan. 1 this year through Dec. 31, 2008, was the subject of an executive session at the conclusion of trustees' regular meeting Monday, but the panel didn't vote on it. "We thought we had more time," Miller said.
But then trustees learned they were up against a time line and had to make a decision by midnight Wednesday and called for an emergency meeting.
That's because what the union had voted upon was effectively a counterproposal from the township, officials said. Although trustees took no formal action on the initial tentative agreement, there was a consensus to make one change in a counteroffer to the union.
That change, dealing with the percentages for the newly created step increases for senior patrol officers, constituted a counterproposal.
"We would have been a lot happier if it had been resolved in a timely fashion," said Michael Mullins, a detective who served as a union representative during the negotiations. The Ohio Patrolmen's Benevolent Association represents the officers.
Key provision
Mancini said she voted in favor of the pact because it represented wins and losses on some issues for both the union and the township.
"We got our co-pay for hospitalization, and that was key," she said. "It's our goal to get it with all of the unions."
The most recent contracts with police dispatchers and the road department also include co-pays, and department heads and other nonunion personnel are also contributing toward their health-care costs.
The police contract calls for co-payments of 5 percent this year, 7.5 percent in 2007 and 10 percent in 2008.
"If we would have rejected it, it would have gone to fact-finding, and the last time we went to fact-finding, [the fact-finder] overlooked everything that we were asking for," Mancini said.
Gallitto added, "Fact-finding could have resulted in higher costs to the township."
Miller said she voted against the proposal because she doubts the township's ability to pay for it. She also was concerned about the inclusion of items that hadn't been negotiated in previous agreements, pointing to creation of the new steps for senior police officers.
She acknowledged that a fact-finder may have decided against the township on other issues. "I was willing to take that chance," she said.
Potential savings
Curt Seditz, township administrator, also pointed to potential savings with the new accumulated-time policy and sick-time buyback plan.
Under previous contracts, officers could use accumulated time, accrued on an hour-for-hour basis, as long as they gave at least 72 hours' notice. That sometimes caused the township to call out an officer on overtime to meet minimum manning requirements, he said.
With less notice, the township could refuse it if it necessitated overtime or a call-out, Seditz said.
The new contract language eliminates the 72-hour provision, allowing the township to reject an officer's request to use accumulated time if granting it would affect response time.
Because that change also is expected to cut overtime, Seditz projected an annual savings to the township of $25,000 to $27,000 annually.
With the sick time buyback, officers with a certain number of accumulated sick hours can sell them back to the township at a 50 percent rate. For 100 sick hours, for example, the township would pay at the rate of 50 hours. "That also reduces the township's long-term severance costs," Seditz said.