TENNESSEE – A new Chattanooga Police Department pay plan is close to being finished.
The plan is intended to address longstanding disparities between employees’ salaries. The problems have weakened morale, hurt retention and led to three lawsuits.
Chattanooga’s Office of Human Resources is waiting on the results of a study being conducted for the city of Knoxville. The numbers will help determine whether a recent proposal is competitive with other regional law enforcement agencies.
“I think we’re close to the finish line,” said Chief of Staff Travis McDonough, who has been meeting with union leaders for the past two months on the issue. “If there are small adjustments that need to be made, we’ll do that.”
Under the current proposal, employees’ base salaries would be based on rank and years of service. The proposal would eliminate several officer subranks created by a 2008 career ladder program, but the rank of master patrol officer would remain.
However, about 70 employees are expected to continue earning higher salaries than fellow officers for the foreseeable future. McDonough said pay cuts were off the table to put those outliers in line with the plan.
Mayor Andy Berke, Police Chief Fred Fletcher, McDonough and other city staff recently met with the Fraternal Order of Police’s executive board to discuss the proposal. FOP President Sean O’Brien called Friday’s meeting a “significant stride.” The union was concerned about the number of employees who would still see pay disparities going forward.
“There is no dispute going forward, let’s put it that way,” O’Brien said afterward.
One concern raised in Friday’s meeting is that a future mayor could easily undo the changes. HR will periodically re-evaluate to see if the overall salary structure needs to be shifted upward in the future. The mayor will make an announcement soon with officers and union leaders, McDonough said, and “it will be clear what the expectations are.”
“We’re talking about options,” he said, but stopped short of saying whether the mayor would sign an executive order. “We have an interest, as do the police employees, to see that this plan is followed for years to come.”
Earlier this year, City Hall and unions reached an agreement to overhaul the Chattanooga Fire and Police Pension Fund. Those changes are expected to save the city $5.1 million this year. Some of the savings, at least $950,000, will be used to make pay adjustments for CPD employees.
The outcome is also being watched by other public unions that plan to seek similar reforms. The administration is in preliminary talks with the Chattanooga Fire Fighters Association to resolve disparities in firefighters’ salaries. And members of the Service Employees International Union Local 205 filled the council’s assembly room two weeks ago and asked for higher pay.
Though the SEIU’s concerns stem from a widening gap between workers at the upper and lower ends of the pay scale, the union’s president, Doug Collier, recently pointed to the relationship between Berke and police unions.
“This looks to be a good start in fixing their problem, and I applaud the mayor and the administration and this council for taking that opportunity,” he said.
McDonough said the interest from other unions shows that they understand that the Berke administration is willing to engage and tackle big legacy issues—whether it’s overhauling a pension fund or implementing new pay plans for almost 2,000 employees.
“We welcome that because when somebody stands up and says, ‘We want to engage with the administration,’ I take that as a compliment,” he said. “They know that’s the way we work.”
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