BAY CITY, MI — With both sides acknowledging an improved relationship, the unions representing Bay City’s police officers have reached a four-and-a-half-year contract agreement with the city that includes scheduled raises and changes in pension and health benefits.
At its meeting on Monday, June 16, the Bay City Commission voted to approve contracts with the Bay City Police Officers Association and Bay City Command Officers Association by votes of 7-1. Commissioner Elizabeth Peters, 2nd Ward, voted against the contracts, saying the City Commission was kept in the dark on negotiations until it was asked to vote on the proposals.
Commissioner Chad Sibley, 8th Ward, wasn’t present to vote on the contracts.
“Negotiations were very professional and both sides worked together to agree on a contract that’s good for the city and for the union,” said Gregory Talicska, Bay City’s director of Human Resources.
Under terms of the contracts, which are to expire at the end of the 2018 calendar year, 35 police officers and the 11 members of the command staff will receive a 1.5-percent raise in the first year, no raise in the second year and a 2-percent raise in the third and fourth years.
The city is now offering two different health care options — one that comes with higher deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses.
And when it comes to pensions, the city is lowering the pension multiplier from 2.5 percent to 2 percent.
The pension multiplier is used to figure out what percentage of an employees final salary he or she receives at retirement. If a police officer works for 25 years, for instance, the city would multiply the number of years worked by the multiplier — 25 X .02, which results in 50 percent. When that officer retires, his or her pension would equal 50 percent of their final average salary.
But perhaps the biggest win of the contract for both sides is its length.
“That was one of the things that showed both sides — the union and the city — was willing to work on this,” said Dan Kuhn, business agent for the Police Officers Association of Michigan, which represents the officers’ union. “A five-year deal is big nowadays. I do a lot of contracts in many places, and this is really big.”
The last contract was passed in April 2012, after nearly three years of negotiations.
The contract is described as a five-year deal, but due to Public Act 152 — the Public Funded Health Insurance Contribution Act — all contracts need to be lined up with open enrollment, which falls at the beginning of the calendar year, Talicska said.
Commissioner Peters said she is disappointed the City Commission didn’t have an opportunity to be involved from the beginning of negotiations and opted to vote against both contracts.
The City Commission met in executive session Monday to hear for the first time what was included in the contracts.
“To not have any input into what was going to be bargained, or offer what the Commission was looking for, in terms of bargaining — I find that really disturbing,” she said. “We were brought two contracts an hour ago at most, discussed them in closed session and then have to make a decision on that. I think these are really important decisions, especially being that these are five-year deals. I think the Commission deserves and our residents deserve for us to make informed decisions with good information.”
Commissioner Lynn Stamiris, 1st Ward, said he didn’t disagree with Peters, but feared if negotiations were stretched out an extra week that the deal might fall apart.
“I think it’s very important that we keep momentum moving forward and not going back,” he said. “There’s a savings with this five-year deal, and being that it’s five years, it will allow the city to plan better in the future.”
Kuhn says the contract also signals success in Bay City’s Public Safety model, which went into effect July 2013.
“It shows that the city manager, the commission and the administration have bought in on this public safety idea,” Kuhn said. “I’m thrilled that it’s succeeding.”
http://www.mlive.com/news/bay-city/index.ssf/2014/06/bay_city_police_officers_comma.html