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Ranking police officers union will receive a 1 percent raise this year
Pay for ranking officers will be retroactive to Jan. 1
YOUNGSTOWN
The members of the city’s ranking police officers union will receive a 1 percent raise, retroactive to Jan. 1. The board of control Thursday approved the raise.
The union’s contract, approved in 2017, called for no salary increases in the first two years and a clause to reopen the deal in the final year to determine if the city could afford a raise.
The city gave other unions 1 percent raises this year so it was agreed to give the 43-member ranking police officers union the same, retroactive to Jan. 1, said Kyle Miasek, interim finance director and a board of control member.
The union’s members will soon get lump-sum payments for back pay and then going forward the 1 percent increase will be included in their pay checks the rest of the year. The contact expires Dec. 31. The 1 percent salary increase will cost the city about $28,500.
Before the raise, the base annual salary for union members ranged from $62,133 for an entry-level detective sergeant to $86,495 for a captain with at least three years’ experience.
Union members received no salary increases from the city in 2016, 2017 and 2018, Miasek said, and 1 percent raises this year and will receive 1.5 percent in 2020.
In June 2017, the ranking officers union approved the three-year deal even though only six of its then-42 members voted to ratify it. Only 25 members voted at the time with 19 against it. Because there weren’t enough no votes, the contract went into effect.
Under state law, at least 60 percent of a union’s membership must vote to reject a fact-finder’s recommendation. In the case of the city’s ranking officers, that would a minimum of 26 no votes.
The city will start negotiating a new contract soon with the union, Miasek said.
The city had a binding arbitration meeting Wednesday with the police patrol officers, Miasek said, with a decision expected in 30 days.
A fact finder earlier this year called for raises for the patrol union members of 1.25 percent, retroactive to Dec. 1, 2018, and 1 percent annual raises each on Dec. 1 this year and Dec. 1, 2020.
The city rejected the contract not because of the raises, but over a provision that would add $246,216 in additional costs in December 2020.
That provision eliminated three of the 12 steps patrol officers currently have to attain to get to the top of the pay scale resulting in officers automatically moving up three steps. An officer currently with six years’ experience is paid $38,813 annually. On Dec. 1, 2020, under the fact-finder’s recommendation, an officer with six years’ experience would have received $48,984 annually.