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Contract cuts number of top cops in Boardman
By DENISE DICK
A new, three-year contract between the township and its ranking police officers calls for a reduction in the number of positions and no pay raises.
Trustees approved the pact 3-0 this week. The Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, the union representing police supervisors, approved it last week.
“It’s a fair contract based on the economy,” said Trustee Thomas Costello.
Union representatives declined to comment because the contract isn’t official until it’s signed by both sides.
The union is reviewing the contract language before signing the document.
The new contract reduces from 17 to 13 the number of ranking positions — two captains, three lieutenants and eight sergeants. The reduction is being done through attrition.
The department formerly employed two captains, four lieutenants and 11 sergeants.
Costello pointed out that the department has dropped from 63 police officers a few years ago to 47. Officers who have retired or resigned during the last few years haven’t been replaced.
The agreement, which runs from Jan. 1, 2009, to Dec. 31, 2011, doesn’t call for any cost-of-living increases. It does, however, implement a step system within each rank.
Formerly, a sergeant’s hourly pay was the same for entry level as for one with more years of service.
The document lists the rate for an entry-level sergeant at $33.03 hourly. After one year, it increases to $33.33 per hour; after two years, it’s $33.63 per hour, and after three years, it increases to $33.94 per hour.
For lieutenant, the entry pay is $37.33 hourly; after one year, $37.67; after two years, $38.01; and after three years, $38.36.
An entry-level captain’s hourly pay would be $42.18, which would increase to $42.56 after a year, $42.95 after two years and $43.35 after three years.
The township’s 2010 budget is $16,510,785 with the police department allocated $7.2 million, the largest chunk of the general-fund departments.
The township has been without anyone in a captain’s post since Jack Nichols was appointed chief last September. The other slot has been vacant since the May 2008 retirement of Capt. Jerre Patterson.
The new agreement means that two lieutenants will be promoted to the captain positions.
Those promotions as well as the promotions of two sergeants to the lieutenants posts won’t occur until both sides sign the contract.
As part of the agreement, officers promoted will be paid their new rate after the promotions occur, rather than retroactively.