Youngstown council OKs pact with ranking-officers union

By David Skolnick

YOUNGSTOWN — City council approved a three-year contract with the police ranking-officers union that includes no increase in their base pay as well as reductions in various financial perks members receive.

“It breaks new ground,” Mayor Jay Williams said of the contract unanimously approved Wednesday by city council. “It’s a step in the right direction.”

The contract provides some job security for members of the Youngstown Police Ranking Officers Unit in troubled financial times for the city.

The contract includes a provision that the city won’t lay off any of the union’s members unless the state puts Youngstown in fiscal emergency.

Reductions in the union’s membership could occur only through retirements, resignations, or firings for just cause.

About a dozen ranking officers are expected to retire by next year through a special pension program offered by the state.

City administrators are working on the 2010 general-fund budget that has a deficit of about $3 million to $3.5 million.

The work on the budget will continue through this weekend and be presented Monday to city council’s finance committee for discussion.

Layoffs are “not an option the administration is pursuing at this point,” Williams said.

The 2008 and 2009 budgets included recommendations for layoffs. But there was only one round of layoffs in the city in the past two years.

The city laid off 18 workers, including eight part-timers, in September 2009.

The city administration’s original plan for 2009 was to lay off about 30 to 38 workers, most of them from the police department.

None of the 18 people who lost their jobs last year came from the police department.

But nine ranking police officers and 30 firefighters took early-retirement/resignation buyouts in the past two years.

The contract council approved for ranking police officers calls for no increase in annual base pay.

Also, rather than pay promoted officers the current wage scale for positions, they will have to work three full years at the new rank to reach the job’s current annual salary.

Union members also agreed to give up a $1,050 uniform allowance during the first year of the contract.

The union also agreed to small reductions for special pays for longevity and hazardous duty and bonuses for having higher-education degrees.

skolnick@vindy.com