Police union chief upbeat on prospects for pact

By Ed Runyan

A firefighters union official said elected officials in Warren also should take a pay cut.

WARREN — The head of the union representing 23 ranking officers in the Warren Police Department says he believes negotiations in coming days will produce a 2010 contract, even though the city has filed a notice with the Warren Civil Service Commission threatening to lay off one officer.

Police Capt. Timothy Roberts said his bargaining unit is among two smaller units that are still not under contract, but he believes that is because the city needed to negotiate with the larger groups first.

In addition to the 23 captains, lieutenants and sergeants, the city still is negotiating with the so-called Policies and Procedures bargaining unit, which represents 22 middle managers throughout the city.

The city’s four other unions — representing about 350 employees — agreed to wage freezes and health-care concessions for 2010 to avert layoffs in their departments. These included police, firefighters, police dispatchers and laborers and clerical workers.

Gary Cicero, Warren personnel director, said the city is required to notify the civil-service commission whenever there is a chance that layoffs may occur.

Safety-Service Director Doug Franklin notified the commission Wednesday that the city could still need to lay off “a few” employees in the next two months.

The ranking police officers need to agree to about $50,000 worth of concessions to offset the increase in their 2010 health-care bill, Cicero said.

Each bargaining unit has had the flexibility to offset their health-care increase in a couple of ways, such as health-care co-pays and other changes in benefits and work rules, Cicero said.

For example, the union representing laborers agreed to higher prescription-drug co-pays, while police dispatchers allowed the city to hire part-time workers to lower costs, Cicero said.

Meanwhile, firefighters union president Marc Titus says it’s true that elected Warren officials will get no pay increase in 2010, and a few did give back their 2.5 percent pay increase in 2009, but that is still not the same as taking pay cuts in 2009 and 2010 as he and other union members did.

Titus said he believes elected officials in the city need to “lead by example” by taking the same cuts that union members did.

Auditor David Griffing said city council members Fiore Dipolito and Al Novak gave back their 2.5 percent cost-of-living increase in 2009, as did Mayor Michael O’Brien and Griffing.

No Warren official will get a cost-of-living increase in 2010 because the Social Security Administration said the Consumer Price Index had not increased from the third quarter of 2008 to the third quarter of 2009, Griffing said.

Last January, O’Brien gave back his 2009 cost-of-living increase and an additional 5 percent for a total of $4,389. His salary in 2010 is $87,789.

Other Warren officials in 2010 will make the following: president of council, $11,779; city council members, $11,109; auditor, $80,745; deputy auditor, $63,021; safety-service director, $82,825; law director, $86,825; deputy law director, $67,634; assistant law director, $64,259; and treasurer, $10,327.

runyan@vindy.com