Council approves pact with Toledo command officers

In line with its pledge to reign in labor expenses, Mayor Mike Bells’ administration has secured two concessionary contracts with city unions so far this year, both of which set a precedent by ending government contributions to the employee’s share of pension costs.

On Wednesday, Toledo City Council approved a deal with the 132-member Toledo Police Command Officers Association that eliminates over three years the city’s “pickup” of employee pension contributions, increases their health care premiums and freezes wages in 2012. In return, the members — which include police sergeants, lieutenants and captains — will receive a $1,200 lump sum payment this year and wage increases in 2013 and 2014. The raise will increase the difference between a patrolman’s pay and a sergeant’s pay by 2 percent in 2013 and 3 percent in 2014, which in turn bumps up the lieutenants’ and captains’ pay based on a wage spread that will not change.

The exact amount of the pay increase will depend on an employee’s tenure and the outcome of ongoing negotiations with the city patrolman’s union. Current pay rates for patrolmen stand at just more than $54,000 annually after five years; $67,514 for sergeants; $77,642 for lieutenants, and $87,736 for captains.

Wednesday’s agreement comes on the heels of a similar accord with the 18-member Toledo Fire Chiefs Association, finalized last month. That deal echoes the TPCOA contract by eliminating pension pickups over three years and raising health care premiums, while also providing a $1,500 lump sum payment in both 2012 and 2013 and a 3 percent wage increase in 2014.

“I think we’re right on schedule,” Mayor Bell said Wednesday. “Am I satisfied? We would have liked to have done it sooner, but I think it’s going at the pace that we figured it would.”

The biggest hurdles have yet to come. The city must still secure new contracts with the far-larger unions representing police patrolmen and firefighters. The administration is also locked in a dispute with its biggest union — the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 7, or AFSCME — which represents 759 mostly service workers.

Mayor Bell has made clear that securing concessions from city workers is needed to avoid triggering cuts in services and meet 2012 budgetary goals. Spokesman Jen Sorgenfrei declined to offer an exact amount the administration hopes to save, but said eliminating pension pickups would go a long way toward helping.

But Toledo Firefighters Local 92 vice president Dan Desmond said he disagrees with the city’s assessment of its finances, based on his union’s own analysis of the numbers. For Local 92, which heads to fact finding Thursday with the city, it’s the first time in 15 years that negotiations have reached that point, he said.

“We’ve always been able to negotiate. That isn’t happening this time,” Mr. Desmond said. “The tone is different. The ideology is there.”

The 459-member Toledo Police Patrolman’s Association is also scheduled to go before a fact finder this month. President Dan Wagner did not return calls requesting comment Wednesday.

Meanwhile, AFSCME Local 7 has yet to sign a contract ratified by both sides. The union and the city are at odds over a clause regarding bonus payments to offset an increase in employee pension costs. The dispute hinges on which employees are entitled to receive the $750 payments; the city maintains they are only for employees hired before 2009. Union leaders say all employees are entitled to the $750.

Both sides are set to go before the State Employment Relations Board for a hearing in March. In the meantime, AFSCME employees are working under the new contract terms, which includes medical-benefit and pension contribution increases and freezes wages for two years.

The city is also waiting to finalize a dispute with a second branch of Local 7 that represents 67 communications operators, who rejected a fact finder’s report and must now wait for a decision from a conciliator.

Union president Don Czerniak, while reluctant to talk about the pending contract issues, echoed Mr. Desmond’s surprise that negotiations with dispatchers had reached the fact-finding level.

“We haven’t since I’ve been president had to go to fact finding or conciliation with 911 at all,” Mr. Czerniak said.

Contact Claudia Boyd-Barrett

at: cbarrett@theblade.com

or 419-724-6272.