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State contract decision may spark police exodus
Man - this would SUCK! How would you feel if you get a raise - then a year later - you have to give it back. I think Police services in this city will go downhill.
State contract decision may spark police exodus
The Associated Press
GRAND ISLAND NE -- The city could be facing a crisis in its police department if the Nebraska Supreme Court lets stand an employment contract that not only lowers officers' pay and benefits, but could require them to repay raises they received last year.
Thirty-five of Grand Island's 71 police officers already have applied for jobs elsewhere, The Grand Island Independent reported in its Sunday editions.
The threatened exodus comes after the state's Commission on Industrial Relations recently ordered a new contract for Grand Island police that resulted in 17 officers and one sergeant taking direct pay cuts, higher out-of-pocket health care coverage costs for officers and their families, and a new pay scale that takes longer to climb.
``We could see 20 to 30 officers and their families leave Grand Island,'' Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 24 President Jarret Daugherty said.
The Commission on Industrial Relations sets so-called comparability standards by comparing wages paid in Nebraska communities to those paid in other communities of similar size and service rates for similar work.
The commission's order for Grand Island police came this year after the police union and city of Grand Island were unable to negotiate terms of new police contract.
The police union had lobbied to have Grand Island's law enforcement salaries and benefits compared to those in communities such as Bellevue and the Iowa cities of Ames, Fort Dodge, and Council Bluffs. But the commission instead compared Grand Island police -- who serve a city of about 43,000 -- to police in Fremont, Hastings, Kearney, North Platte and Norfolk, ordering Grand Island's salary and benefits to be set at the midpoint of the salary and benefits in those towns.
Not only did that lower pay and benefits for Grand Island police, the new contract is retroactive to last year, meaning salary raises paid out to police last year were declared void.
Grand Island Human Resources director Brenda Sutherland said the city is now busy calculating the pay and benefits officers received in 2001 that the commission deemed they weren't entitled to. She intends to present that amount to the city council in November.
It could mean officers being asked to pay back the city.
``If they tell me I owe them money for last year, I'm gone,'' Daugherty said. ``I'll pay with a legal battle, but I'm gone, and I think a large number feel that way.''
State contract decision may spark police exodus
The Associated Press
GRAND ISLAND NE -- The city could be facing a crisis in its police department if the Nebraska Supreme Court lets stand an employment contract that not only lowers officers' pay and benefits, but could require them to repay raises they received last year.
Thirty-five of Grand Island's 71 police officers already have applied for jobs elsewhere, The Grand Island Independent reported in its Sunday editions.
The threatened exodus comes after the state's Commission on Industrial Relations recently ordered a new contract for Grand Island police that resulted in 17 officers and one sergeant taking direct pay cuts, higher out-of-pocket health care coverage costs for officers and their families, and a new pay scale that takes longer to climb.
``We could see 20 to 30 officers and their families leave Grand Island,'' Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 24 President Jarret Daugherty said.
The Commission on Industrial Relations sets so-called comparability standards by comparing wages paid in Nebraska communities to those paid in other communities of similar size and service rates for similar work.
The commission's order for Grand Island police came this year after the police union and city of Grand Island were unable to negotiate terms of new police contract.
The police union had lobbied to have Grand Island's law enforcement salaries and benefits compared to those in communities such as Bellevue and the Iowa cities of Ames, Fort Dodge, and Council Bluffs. But the commission instead compared Grand Island police -- who serve a city of about 43,000 -- to police in Fremont, Hastings, Kearney, North Platte and Norfolk, ordering Grand Island's salary and benefits to be set at the midpoint of the salary and benefits in those towns.
Not only did that lower pay and benefits for Grand Island police, the new contract is retroactive to last year, meaning salary raises paid out to police last year were declared void.
Grand Island Human Resources director Brenda Sutherland said the city is now busy calculating the pay and benefits officers received in 2001 that the commission deemed they weren't entitled to. She intends to present that amount to the city council in November.
It could mean officers being asked to pay back the city.
``If they tell me I owe them money for last year, I'm gone,'' Daugherty said. ``I'll pay with a legal battle, but I'm gone, and I think a large number feel that way.''
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