Alachua police strike deal with City

With less than three months remaining in the current fiscal year, officers at the Alachua Police Department (APD) approved a bargaining unit agreement with the City.

The vote came Wednesday evening with the vast majority of the department’s more than 20 officers casting ballots in approval of the agreement.  Only one officer is reported to have voted against the measure.

As members of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), officers at the Alachua Police Department had been seeking pay raises.  Union negotiations seemed to reach a standstill several months ago with little chance of an agreement in sight.

A recent move by Florida Governor Rick Scott, in which he increased the amount employees would be required to contribute into the Florida Retirement System (FRS), appears to have broken the stalemate.

Scott ordered that employees, whether of the State or of city, county or other agency participating in the FRS, must now contribute 3 percent of their pay toward the pension plan.  Meanwhile, he also reduced, by a greater amount, the percentage of an employee’s pay that the State, city, county or other participating agency must pay.

In light of the changes, City of Alachua Commissioners, like other boards in the area, authorized an across-the-board pay increase of 3.1 percent to nearly all city workers to offset the employee’s increased contribution requirements.  But APD officers were left out of that move because wages and salaries for officers are managed through the FOP union contract with the City.

The increase did, however, open the doors for a concession by the City, which agreed to provide that same 3.1 percent employee offset increase to officers under the terms of the contract up for consideration.

Other changes to the agreement include increasing the starting pay and maximum pay for officers’ salaries, and providing the option for officers to take their patrol car home up to 20 miles outside of the city limits, at the discretion of the chief of police.  Also included are minor changes in the way sick leave hours are accrued and calculated.  As with general City employees, educational assistance for officers is also suspended for the current fiscal year.

Officers reportedly ratified the agreement Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons.  The city commission is scheduled to hold a special meeting Thursday to approve the agreement as well.

If approved, the agreement would run through September 30, 2011.

City and union officials are expected to begin negotiations in August for the 2011/12 fiscal year, said Grafton Wilson, the city’s Compliance and Risk Management director.