Eastpointe

City gets savings in arbitration with police unions

By Sara Kandel
C & G Staff Writer

EASTPOINTE — The city of Eastpointe will be saving thousands in public safety costs throughout the next five years, after arbitration with both police unions came to a conclusion this month.

City Manager Steve Duchane estimated a total savings of at least $650,000 from arbitration awards with the command officers union and the patrol officers union. That number could creep even higher, though, in the coming months as some officers may decide to retire before the new contract goes into effect.

“It’s a long- and short-term benefit for the city,” he said. “Included also in the award is a new tier of benefits for new hires. They are going into a different pension plan with much lower costs.

“If some of the officers leave prior to the contract, we will be able to replace them at an even lower cost. As some of them are close to retirement and want to retain the benefits of their current contract, we expect to see some retirements and will support it.”

Arbitration between the city and the two unions began earlier this summer after almost two years of attempting to negotiate contracts. Their previous contracts had expired in June 2010.

It took the three-man arbitration panel less than two months to come to a decision. They cited Public Act 312, which gives priority in such situations to the financial ability of the municipality, and favored the city in their award.

“Changes were made to health care, retirement and bonus pay that will have a direct material impact on the fiscal health of the city,” Duchane said. “And … there is an additional reduction in salary of 2.5 percent and the elimination of longevity through the balance of the contract.”

Because of a “me too” clause in the command officers employment agreement, the wage reduction and longevity freeze agreed on by the patrol officers union will be applied to command officer contracts, as well.

Cuts were made in other areas, as well. Paid holidays will decrease from 14 to 10, and the city will no longer reimburse for the costs of tuition and books.

The cuts didn’t come as a surprise for Tom Ostrowski, president of the command officers union.

“This is nothing new,” he said. “Throughout the course of negotiations, we had a feeling that the city wanted us to be as cost effective as possible. Our goal was just to limit the take-aways. However, understanding the financial situation of the city, we knew this was coming.”

Rather than taking more drastic wage cuts, Ostrowski negotiated for command officers having to pay into their pension. “At least we are paying for ourselves then, and the city is saving money,” he said. This will be the first time since 1987 that patrol and command officers in Eastpointe will be required to pay into their pensions.

“The award was all for the city, but we did give them a bump in death benefits,” Duchane said. “It wasn’t much, but it was all we could do.”

Under the new contract, death benefits will increase from $5,000 to $10,000 for retirees and from $30,000 to $50,000 for active employees.

They city insurance policy will cover those costs, though, so while it does give a little something back to the officers, it doesn’t put the city at further economic risk.

The arbitration award is a step toward Duchane’s five-year plan for fiscal sustainability in the city, but he explained it’s not the type of step the city can really celebrate.

“This isn’t one of those things that you go and cheer the victory of — it’s something we had to do,” he said. “It’s necessary for the long-term survival of the city, but it’s money coming out of somebody’s pocket, and I don’t necessarily feel good about that.”

Duchane added that the other plus side was that with this cost savings, there wouldn’t be a need for layoffs or additional department cutbacks in the foreseeable future.

“Unless things got drastically worse very quickly, it’s not something I see happening,” he said. “With economic conditions where they are right now, with these savings, I don’t see any officer layoffs in the future.”
 

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Sara Kandel at skandel@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1030.