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Sheriff's deputies win pay raises, but lose health care contribution cap
YOUNGSTOWN
A conciliator has made a binding ruling that Mahoning County deputy sheriffs be given 2.5 percent annual pay increases in a three-year labor agreement that began Friday.
However, the conciliator, Harry Graham of Solon, removed the cap on the percentage of their health care premiums the deputies must pay out of their pockets in his June 28 ruling.
The cap for the deputies had been 10 percent until a year ago, when a labor contract re-opener raised it to 15 percent to cope with health care cost inflation.
Audrey Tillis, executive director for the county commissioners, projected the pay raises will cost about $966,670 over the three-year life of the contract. The sheriff’s annual budget is $21.7 million.
“Overall, we feel pretty good about the arbitrator’s decision, simply because the language that he awarded us is very beneficial in allowing us to run the agency the way we feel it needs to be,” said Sheriff Jerry Greene.
“The deputies here do a good job, work hard, and, in my opinion, have been underpaid for a long time,” the sheriff said.
“However, my job as an administrator and a manager is to make sure that we are financially sound,” he added.
The 207 deputies have a range of health care plans available to them.
Greene said his contribution for the family plan he chose rose from $97.37 to $147.85 every two weeks when the change occurred a year ago.
“This is the first time in a very long time in contract negotiations at the sheriff’s office in which the administration was able to get language changed in the collective bargaining agreement to allow the sheriff to better manage and to raise the level of professionalism here,” said Maj. William Cappabianca.
Cappabianca and Deputy John Tkach, Ohio Labor Council representative for Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 141, the union that represents the deputies, said elimination of the cap may result in out-of-pocket health care premium costs that would annihilate the pay increases if health care costs continue to rise.
“There’s not much we can do about it now,” Tkach said of the conciliator’s decision. “We’ve just got to take the decision to heart and work with it, and, hopefully, health care will get straightened out,” he added.
“Hopefully, health care will top out and find some kind of plateau” in cost, he said.
Elimination of the cap will place the county in the same position as private business when it comes to seeking the best health care plan with the most-advantageous rates, Cappabianca said.
The issues of pay and health care, among others, went to binding arbitration when contract talks between the sheriff’s office and FOP reached an impasse June 1.
The pay increase represents a partial victory for the union, which asked initially for 3.5 percent annual pay increases and reduced its demand to 2.5 percent.
The sheriff had offered only 1.5 percent.
Before the first 2.5 percent pay raise took effect Friday, deputies’ pay ranged from $13.63 to $24.75 an hour.
Sergeant’s pay ranged from $27 to $29.26 an hour; lieutenant’s pay from $30.88 to $33.14; and captain’s pay from $35.35 to $37.61.
Cappabianca said he needs to consult with Tillis concerning how the county will pay for the pay increases.
The conciliator’s health care decision was a victory for management, which had asked for no health care contribution cap, and a defeat for the union, which asked for a 10 percent cap.
The sheriff’s office and its deputies have “a fair contract,” said Carol Rimedio-Righetti, chairwoman of the county commissioners.
“We’re going to be fair, not only to ourselves, but to the employees” in resolving the health care issue, she added.
The conciliator increased the number of personal days off from four to five a year and raised the amount of life insurance for deputies from $10,000 to $50,000.
The conciliator ruled for management on other issues, including expediting the employee drug-testing procedure, giving management more flexibility in duty assignments, and reducing the amount of time a deputy can be on light (office) duty after a nonwork-related injury from 40 workdays to 10.
The conciliator also gave management the right to have an employee examined by a physician to determine physical and mental fitness for duty when symptoms of a disability become manifest or job performance declines in terms of productivity or quality of work.