City Council OKs police union deal

Orlando’s new collective bargaining agreement with its police union calls for higher pay for officers while also giving the city more latitude when disciplining an officer who is accused of a repeat offense.

The three-year agreement was unanimously approved by the City Council without discussion Monday and comes about a month after the sides were at odds on starting pay for officers. It applies to the department’s officers and sergeants.

OPD starting salaries are now $48,276, the agreement shows, and will slightly increase to $48,761. The department’s salaries are based on a step system and created two new steps to apply to officers at the highest wages. Officers go up a step on the anniversary of their promotion. Officers in the newly created step 13 will be paid $81,575.14 — the highest for officers below the rank of sergeant.

Next year, each pay grade will go up by an average of 1.5%. Each year of the agreement, those at the highest pay grade receive a 4% bump as a lump sum.

Police Chief Orlando Rolón who said he wasn’t involved in negotiating, said the pay increases will help the agency in recruiting. For example, a new hire with at least two years of experience elsewhere will make an appealing salary at OPD, he said.

“That person is going to start at almost $52,000 per year,” Rolón said. “We think that’s going to help us actually meet our recruitment efforts.”

The contract also revises the

policy for the agency’s progressive discipline, taking in several factors when applying punishments. An officer’s disciplinary history — and whether the offense was considered “intentional and technical or inadvertent” — will be considered along with the officer’s position and other factors.

Those include the officer’s responsibilities, contact with the public and “the effect of the offense upon grievant’s ability to perform at a satisfactory level” and the “notoriety of the offense or its impact upon the reputation of the employer.”

If those factors are met for a similar offense, an officer

could face harsher discipline than normal.

Under the “progressive discipline” policy, a first violation is an oral reprimand, followed by a written censure, a suspension without pay of up to 240 hours, demotion and termination.

“Discipline is not meant to punish people, it’s meant to change behavior,” Rolón said.

The contract also increases the number of random drug and alcohol tests an officer can face from one to two per year.

In addition, certain punishments will remain in an employee’s personnel file longer than the current agreement.

For example, a “sustained” finding, the equivalent of being found guilty, resulting in a suspension of more than 32

hours or demotion, will remain in a personnel file for seven years.

In the prior agreement, such investigations leading to any suspension or demotion would be removed after five years.

Once removed from a personnel file, the investigation is moved to a separate public document called the Internal Affairs disciplinary file.

Shawn Dunlap, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 25 president, couldn’t be reached for comment.