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Youngstown patrol officers will receive a 1 percent pay increase and a $150 payment in new three-year deal
YOUNGSTOWN
A state conciliator settled a contract between the city and its police patrol-officers union, giving members a 1 percent pay increase and a $150 lump-sum payment. The union president criticized the city’s negotiating tactics.
The three-year contract is retroactive to Dec. 1, 2015, the day after the previous deal expired.
The union initially sought 3 percent annual raises for the life of the contract during nonbinding fact-finding negotiations earlier this year.
But when presenting its case to state conciliator Robert G. Stein of Kent, who made a binding decision, the Youngstown chapter of the Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association backed off and instead asked for a 1 percent raise during the first year of the contract, no raise in the second year and a 1 percent raise in the final year.
The union’s proposal came with some strings, including increasing the starting annual wage for officers from $30,754 to $32,097 starting in 2017 and reducing the number of years an officer needs to get to the top of the pay scale from 12 to nine. The annual salary for those at the top of the pay scale for patrol officers right now is $55,751.
The city offered a 1 percent raise and the $150 payment.
Stein agreed with the city, writing that the facts surrounding Youngstown’s “finances are sobering. The city, according to evidence, has serious structural economic difficulties impacting both the expenditure and revenue side of the ledger, causing expenditures to continue to exceed revenue. It will take time to reverse such a trend, but in the interim, prudent is the watch word.”
When asked to comment on the binding contract, Mike Anderson, head of the union, with about 104 members, said, “It’s a little disheartening, a little upsetting, a little bit of every emotion. My guys’ starting wages are too low. The city has the ability to change that, and they haven’t done it. It shows you the true feelings of this administration, how they feel about their police.”
With the 1 percent raise, the patrol-officers union members have received about 3.5 percent in salary increases dating back to Dec. 1, 2009.
Mayor John A. McNally said, “From a management perspective, we were happy the facilitator ruled for us on wages and health care.”
The patrol officers were the only city government workers with monetary caps on their health care. The union members contribute 10 percent of their monthly health care premiums, but had caps of $100 for single coverage and $200 for family coverage.
Stein sided with the city to eliminate the caps.
The union had agreed to remove the caps, but only “provided [that] wages are adjusted to prevent a substantial loss of income,” according to Stein’s decision.