BATAVIA — The city and Police Benevolent Association have a new union contract ready to take effect April 1.
The City Council approved the three-year pact Monday night during a business meeting. Earlier, during a conference session, City Manager Rachael Tabelski said the primary goal was to equitably pay department members and the road patrol, when compared to similar cities of Batavia’s size.
The agreement includes a 3% salary increase for the first year.
PBA union members approved a tentative agreement Dec. 19. Aside from the first-year salary hike, the second and third years of the pact will each include a 2.5% salary raise. There will be a one-time payment of $1,500 to the PBA members using American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds. The health care premiums for PBA members would go up 15-30%.
“During the preparation for negotiations, we looked at comparable cities and realized that the top pay, in other comparable cities, of road patrol was higher then our top pay. That led us down a path of negotiations to try to rectify that in hopes that it would also lead to more retention within the workforce of the Police Department,” she said. “We’re hopeful that this contract does so.”
Retaining police personnel has been an issue for the city, Tabelski said.
Assistant City Manager Erik Fix went into some of the contract details. He said the contract initially has a one-time salary adjustment that would be followed by the annual raises over the three years.
“PBA came to the table offering to pay more for health care over the life of the contract …” he said. “We agreed to Juneteenth as an added holiday, as it has become a federal holiday as well,” Fix said. “A one-time, $1,500 payment will be made to each PBA member as part of the ARPA funds received by the city. The agreement will cost $107,000 for a one-time bump, using fund balance for the 2023-24 budget.”
The cost of the pay raises will be $68,000 the first year, $59,000 the second and $60,000 the third, he said.
Councilperson-At-Large Bob Bialkowski asked how many holidays the union members will have with Juneteenth added. Juneteenth, which falls on June 19, is a holiday marking the effective end of slavery in the United States.
Police Chief Shawn Heubusch said the total is 13.5 holidays.
“When there’s a paid holiday … you still need people on duty, so how do we cover that?” Bialkowski asked.
Heubusch said one option for officers is to take a cash-out payment for their holidays. They can also use a floating holiday.
“Not everybody is off on Fourth of July. If they want to use July 4, they have to wait for the holiday to pass or use it on a holiday, depending on what their assignment is,” he said. “Some of our Detective Bureau may take July 4 off because we don’t have to backfill for them, but our road patrol, they have to abide by certain rules before they can take that day off.”
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