Council OKs police, fire contracts

Conditions prompt ‘disappointment,’ ‘anger,’ says FOP president

Lorain police and firefighters will get 1 percent pay raises under new work agreements approved by City Council.

However, the leader of Lorain’s police union said the city is falling behind other communities in pay, so Lorain is losing officers to patrol the streets.

City Council on Feb. 19 approved new contracts with the Fraternal Order of Police Lorain Lodge No. 3 and the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 267.

Police officers will get a 1 percent raise for 2018; the union and administration will negotiate this year for the 2019 raise, according to the new contract.

‘Disappointment’

The Council vote caps months of talks that have left the Lorain police rank and file unhappy, said FOP President Kyle Gelenius.

“The overall feeling of my membership is one of

disappointment and, quite frankly, anger over the new contract,” he said. “It’s continuing to set us back in recruiting officers and retaining officers.”

When the police negotiations ground to a halt, the FOP and the city went to fact-finding, Gelenius said. The police officers rejected that report, so the FOP and administration went to binding conciliation to come to terms, he said.

The police department has authorized strength of 113 officers, but the duty roster is dipping into the 90s, Gelenius said. Lorain’s civil service list for officer candidates used to number 200 to 300, but now it does not reach 100, making it difficult to add new patrolmen, he said.

This week, a Lorain officer of less than two years left for Highland Heights; a month before that, another officer left for Whitehall to make $90,000 a year as a patrolman, Gelenius said.

“The patrolmen in Avon and Avon Lake make more than our lieutenants here,” with lower levels of stress and criminal element in those communities, Gelenius said.

If Council and the city administration

continue to ignore the issue, they risk putting Lorain in a situation like other Northeast Ohio communities that cannot keep officers, Gelenius said. Lorain police officers with a sense of duty get punished financially for their work, he said.

The police union and administration will return to the bargaining table to discuss a 2019 wage increase. Gelenius predicted police will not tolerate 1 percent when they must track down heroin dealers, arrest burglars breaking into homes and stealing items to sell for drug money, and put tourniquets on shooting victims.

“If they want to offer us 1 percent, we’re going to be right back in conciliation,” Gelenius said.

Other provisions

Meanwhile, health insurance employee costs for 2018 and 2019 will be greater than those of 2017.

Last year, police paid $154 a month for family coverage and $71 a month for single coverage, with discounts up to $30 if officers got a physical exam and did not smoke.

For 2018 and 2019, police will pay $205 a month for family coverage, $160 a month for employee plus one family member coverage, or $80 for single coverage. Officers must pay for

half the cost of vision coverage and receive no dental coverage, Gelenius said.

In the contract, Lorain police were to receive $500 in 2017, $700 in 2018 and $900 in 2019 for firearms proficiency, Gelenius said.

Legally, the police and City Council did not have to vote on the binding conciliation, Gelenius said. The city administration has stalled the 2017 firearms proficiency payment for two months this year while waiting for a Council vote on the conciliation report, he said.

Firefighters’ contract

As for the firefighters’ contract, the Council action of Feb. 19 was forecasted in November. At that time Council voted to adopt a fact-finder’s report recommending 1 percent raises for 2018 and 2019.

The firefighters’ last union contract expired at the end of 2016. They continued to work under terms of the old contract during negotiations between the union and administration, which came to impasse because of wages.

Before the mediated resolution, the city administration and the firefighters agreed there would be no raise for 2017, IAFF President Bret Brown and Mayor Chase Ritenauer said at the time.