Police Layoffs

Much has been written at this point about the budget and the need to reduce labor costs. I had truly hoped that all of our bargaining units would agree to reduce costs via compensation instead of layoffs. I'm very thankful that the vast majority of our employees agreed that saving jobs was more important than receiving raises in tough economic times.

Unfortunately, the MPOA doesn't agree with this philosophy. We had attempted to put together a package of cuts that would minimize the impact on each officer. The average officer's take home pay would drop around 3 percent with the proposal that we made. I realize that many of the officers were skeptical that the cut could be so small.

To prove our point, we provided the union with printouts from the payroll system showing the current pay and the proposed pay of each member. It showed that the actual impact per paycheck wasn't much more than $100. I'm hopeful that the MPOA will share this information with their membership. When this information was presented to every other labor group, I believe it ended up being the deciding factor in going along with the cuts.

My door remains open for the moment. I hope the union will reconsider their stance. While I realize that the Cost of Living Adjustments are a big deal to older members looking to maximize their pay prior to retirement, I also think that the community would be better served if we could keep our 12 officers employed. I also know it would better serve the MPOA members now unemployed. While there are some agencies hiring to fill the economic stimulus positions, there are hundreds of officer layoffs underway at nearby agencies. In talking to other City Managers and County Administrators, they've noted it isn't a good time to find work--particularly for those with less than 5 years experience.