Mayor: Union given every opportunity

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Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams

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Youngstown finance director David Bozanich

By David Skolnick

Four ranking officers signed up for the early retirement offer so far.

YOUNGSTOWN — Mayor Jay Williams said his administration is “trying to give every opportunity” to its police patrol union to reduce costs before laying off officers.

But with no negotiations in more than a month and no plans to get together, the mayor says there’s only so long the city can wait.

How long?

Williams won’t give a date yet, but layoff notices to patrol officers won’t go out until after July 2. That’s the deadline for ranking police officers to apply for the city’s early-retirement buyout, an effort to reduce the department’s numbers without layoffs.

“We won’t wait indefinitely,” Williams said.

The city administration struck a deal May 19 with the Youngstown Police Ranking Officers union to pay each member taking the deal a year’s base salary paid evenly over five years. The union represents the department’s 64 detective sergeants, sergeants, lieutenants and captains.

As part of the deal, the ranking-officers union can be reduced to 50 members.

City administrators have said the deal would work only if “enough” officers accepted the offer. They have declined to say how many is “enough.”

To date, four ranking officers have signed up for the offer. Three other ranking officers are expected to take the deal, said city Finance Director David Bozanich.

The officers have until July 2 to submit paperwork accepting the early-retirement offer.

“We want it to be a benefit financially to the city,” Williams said. “We want the numbers to make sense.”

The city doesn’t plan to replace the officers who leave the department.

The city cut $665,000 from the police department’s payroll budget this year. That is equivalent to 22 to 26 officers losing their jobs.

The Youngstown Police Association, which represents the department’s 115 patrol officers, rejected a buyout offer May 22 that also would pay each member taking the deal a year’s base salary paid over five years. The union didn’t accept the offer because it included a reduction in the entry-level salary for an officer and increased the number of years — from 5 to 10 — that it would take for a new patrolman to reach the top of the pay scale, about $52,500, said Edward Colon, the union president.

The union and the administration haven’t met since the deal was rejected.

“We’ve asked them to come back to the table and discuss something mutually beneficial,” Williams said.

But unless a buyout deal similar to the one given the ranking officers is offered, without the lower starting pay and additional salary levels, there’s no reason to talk, Colon said.

“If YPA hasn’t come to the table [to negotiate] by July 2 that indicates to me they’re not interested,” Williams said. “They need to come to the table by then. We need to meet very soon.”

Also, the city’s finances aren’t getting any better.

The city’s income-tax collection so far this year is about $275,000 less than projected, Bozanich said.

skolnick@vindy.com