Police at YSU will get raises

By Harold Gwin

A reclassification for 10 officers boosts their pay 9 percent over two years.

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State University’s 21-member Fraternal Order of Police union has a new, three-year contract, retroactive to April 1.

The pact provides a 4 percent annual cost-of-living increase for the department’s four dispatchers, but police officers and sergeants will see no cost-of-living increase in the first year but will get a 3 percent increase in the second year and a 4 percent increase in the third.

Both, however, still will see an increase in pay in the first year.

The contract reclassifies all non-probationary officers from the police officer 1 to the police officer 2 category.

The result of the reclassification for the 10 officers involved is a 9 percent increase phased in over the first two years of the contract, according to Jack Fahey, who served as chief negotiator for the university.

He said the change in category is consistent with the majority of police departments at state universities in Ohio. The police officer 1 designation will remain but apply only to new employees serving a probationary period, he said. There are no officers in that category at present.

Under the old agreement, police officer 2 was essentially the rank of sergeant.

The new contract creates the position of sergeant and provides that job with an 11 percent pay differential above the police officer 2 salary scale. The previous differential was 9 percent above police officer 1. The department has seven sergeants.

Members of the union will now be granted four personal days per year. They had none before, which resulted in a grievance filed against the university because all other union-represented employees on campus had guaranteed personal days in their contracts, Fahey said. The contract resolves that grievance, he added.

Officers also will see a $100 annual increase in their uniform allowance beginning in the second year of the contract. The current allowance is $1,000 per year.

Current health-care insurance provisions remain the same as the previous contract, with FOP members again contributing to the cost of insurance at the same rate paid by other union-represented university employees, Fahey said.

Employees contribute 1.5 percent of their base salary for family coverage and 0.75 percent for individual coverage.

Fahey said the increases in the contract will cost the university an additional $85,000 annually.

Here is a breakdown of salary schedules for employees of the Youngstown State University Police Department under terms of a new three-year contract.

Dispatcher 1

April 1, 2009: $16.67 per hour minimum, $19.54 per hour maximum.

April 1, 2010: $17.34 minimum, $20.32 maximum.

April 1, 2011: $18.03 minimum, $21.14 maximum.

Dispatcher 2

April 1, 2009: $18.03 minimum, $21.65 maximum.

April 1, 2010: $18.75 minimum, $22.52 maximum.

April 1, 2011: $19.51 minimum, $23.42 maximum.

Police officer 1

April 1, 2009: $17.61 minimum, $22.21 maximum.

April 1, 2010: $18.14 minimum, $22.88 maximum.

April 1, 2011: $18.86 minimum, $23.79 maximum.

Police officer 2

April 1, 2009: $18.67 minimum, $23.54 maximum.

April 1, 2011: $19.79 minimum, $24.96 maximum.

April 1, 2011: $20.58 minimum, $25.96 maximum.

Sergeant

April 1, 2009: $20.31 minimum, $26.14 maximum.

April 1, 2010: $21.53 minimum, $27.70 maximum.

April 1, 2011: $22.40 minimum, $28.81 maximum.

Source: Youngstown State University