City’s Police Officers Reject Contract Offer
The police officers union this week rejected the city’s “last, best and final offer” of a new contract, turning down a proposal that would have included a 5.63% raise.
“We are at an impasse,” City Manager Kevin J. Murphy said.
City officials said the police union turned down the pact, which the two sides have been working on since September 1995, because it would reduce overtime pay.
Dennis Danner, administrative services director, said the city’s cost for overtime and other compensation pay for employees has risen in the past few years.
In 1995, the city paid $735,227 in so-called “flex leave” pay, which includes overtime. Most of that went to police officers, he said. That figure dropped to $598,229 for 1996 but was still a strain on the city’s budget, he said.
The police officers union is the only one with which the city has failed to reach a contract agreement. Others, including the police management union, accepted terms that included raises but put restrictions on additional pay.
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