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Ranking Youngstown cops favor buyout deal
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Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams
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Edward Colon
In the early retirement deal, officers would get one year’s salary paid equally over five years.
YOUNGSTOWN — City administrators have offered an early retirement buyout proposal to its police patrol officers in an effort to reduce, and possibly eliminate, layoffs at the police department.
The union’s membership will discuss the proposal at a meeting May 21.
Meanwhile, the department’s ranking officers voted Tuesday to accept a buyout deal.
Union leaders with the Youngstown Police Association, which represents about 115 patrol officers, met Tuesday with Mayor Jay Williams and his administration to discuss the proposal for the first time.
“It was OK,” YPA President Edward Colon said of the proposal. “There’s a lot to consider.”
Patrol officers are being offered a buyout equal to one year’s base salary paid in equal amounts over five years.
Colon said he’s pleased with that aspect of the proposal.
The city administration also wants to replace those taking the buyout with new officers, who would be paid an entry-level salary less than what rookies earn now.
It would take more than the current five years’ experience to get to the top of the pay scale.
A rookie officer receives about $37,000 annually in base pay, plus benefits and any overtime worked. After five years, patrol officers earn a base of about $52,000 a year.
Colon and Williams declined to say what the proposed new entry-level salary would be as well as how many years it would take to reach the top of the pay scale under the city administration plan.
Williams described Tuesday’s discussion as a “productive meeting” with the proposal intended to provide “short-term and long-term savings for the city. It’s early in the process.”
The Youngstown Police Ranking Officers union voted Tuesday in favor of an early retirement incentive — one year’s salary paid equally over five years — offered by the city administration.
About half of the union’s 64 members attended the meeting, said Detective Sgt. Charles Guzzy, president of the ranking officers union.
The union represents police sergeants, detective sergeants, lieutenants and captains.
City council approved the offer last week.
There is interest from ranking officers in taking the buyout, but Guzzy declined to say how many until he’s got a firm number.
The city’s 2009 general-fund budget included $860,000 in personnel cuts, including $655,000 from the police department.
That equates to up to 34 city workers, including 22 to 26 police officers, losing their jobs.
Colon questioned the need for an early retirement plan, saying the city should receive enough money through state and federal grants that it doesn’t need to lay off any employees.
Williams said the city needs long-term solutions to its financial problems, such as the police buyout program.
Without addressing long-term issues, the city would face the same financial challenges year after year, he said.
skolnick@vindy.com