The city has reached agreements with its police and fire unions, according to government officials.
Mayor Jose “Joey” Torres’ administration provided copies of the contracts to the city council’s finance committee and the council president.
The full council will hold a discussion on the contracts prior to taking action sometime within this month, said officials.
Details of the contract have not been made public.
Kenneth Morris, chairman of the finance committee, said there are a number of contracts before the council. The rank and file police officers and the senior officers have different contracts while rank and file firefighters have separate contracts from high ranking fire officials, he said on Friday evening.
Morris said the contracts with fire and police have been expired for some years. However, the retroactive pay for workers does not go back to the expiration year, he said. He said the annual pay increases in the contract are within the allowable 2-percent.
“I can’t discuss it until it’s settled,” said Jerry Behnke, president of the Paterson Firefighters Association, when asked about the details of the contract the city negotiated with his union.
Alex Cruz, president the Policemen’s Benevolent Association (PBA) Local 1, did not return a call for comment.
Under the memorandum of understanding with the state the city must obtain approval from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) before executing the agreements. It’s not clear if the state has approved the contract.
http://patersontimes.com/2016/06/14/paterson-reaches-agreements-with-police-fire-unions/