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Sharon officials to seek addition of 3 cops to force
SHARON, Pa. — The city’s police chief and mayor say they plan to ask for three more police officers, possible now because city council passed an ordinance that settles issues with the police pension.
The city and its police union, Fraternal Order of Police Rose of Sharon Lodge 3, were negotiating over changes that the state required because of the city’s switch in January 2008 from a third-class city with an optional charter to a third-class city with home rule.
The changes dealt with pension benefits for survivors of new hires who die, Mayor Bob Lucas said.
Until the issues were officially resolved with the ordinance that passed Thursday, the city could not hire new officers, he said.
A similar ordinance passed for the fire department allows the city to proceed with hiring part-time firefighters, he said.
The police department is down three officers from a complement of 28, said Police Chief Michael Menster.
Besides planning to ask for three officers to fill the complement, he said last week, he has applied for a Community Oriented Policing grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to pay salaries for three more.
That grant would provide just under $600,000, he said .
Menster said a COP program the city had in the 1990s worked, with crime dropping dramatically.
The department identified a high-crime area in the city, which it called Zone 5, then manned a substation there, he said. The substation was on Quinby Street in the Mercer County Housing Authority offices.
Officers on duty there were able to develop a relationship with people in the community, he said. “They had meetings, did crime prevention programs and played basketball with the kids,” he said.
The funding for the program dried up after President Bill Clinton left office, he said, but it’s coming back with federal stimulus funds.
Even though council put the pension issues to rest, another issue over health care for police retirees reared its head at Thursday’s meeting.
FOP attorney Dave Ristvey said the union has filed a grievance over the city’s decision to make retirees contribute to the city’s insurance premium payments.
Ristvey said there was never a discussion in negotiations for the current three-year contract, signed in July 2008 and retroactive to January 2008, about retirees contributing to the premiums. It was understood that current employees, who aren’t on fixed incomes, would contribute, he said.
The mayor insisted the issue was discussed in negotiations.
He said the city is requiring the 13 or 14 people affected to contribute $845 a year, or $65 a month, toward a premium that amounts to $9,600 a year for a couple.