|
Five-year agreement, raises agreed between Depew, police
The Village of Depew and its police union avoided binding arbitration to reach an agreement on a tentative five-year contract, which includes a 3.1 percent annual pay raise but will require future recruits to pay part of their health insurance premiums.
The two sides ended an almost two-year stalemate this week when the village approved the deal during Tuesday's board meeting. Just last week, the Police Benevolent Association and the police department ratified the compromise agreement.
The pay raises for the 30 village police officers, including the chief
and captain, are retroactive to June 1, 2004 with the contract expiring May 31, 2009.
The biggest change to the health care insurance is that new recruits will make contributions to their premiums in the first 10 years: 7.5 percent during the first five and 10 percent during years six through 10.
The board voted 5-0 to adopt the agreement. Trustee Teresa Fusani abstained and Trustee Terrence Mescall was absent. Fusani's husband is on the police force.
"It pleases me that we were able to make this agreement and may now move forward," Village Mayor Joe McIntosh said. "Granted it took a long time and there were certainly some contentious times, but we're just happy that we were able to get together and work that all out."
The agreement, which was slated to be officially signed by McIntosh and the village yesterday, also puts to rest any continued speculation about the police department's future.
Since a stalemate was declared more than one year ago, the village and Erie County held preliminary discussions about a possible police departments' merger, or at least a merger study, with the towns of Lancaster and Cheektowaga.
"Those (merger) rumors didn't get started by me," McIntosh told the Times after the meeting. "I have the utmost respect for our guys. I don't want to see any of them go. When the county executive starts talking, I sometimes get dragged into rumors I really don't need to."
William Curr, president of the PBA, who was on hand for the meeting, thanked the board for its work and credited McIntosh for getting everyone back to the table to talk following the breakdown of negotiations. He said if not for McIntosh's efforts, binding arbitration would have begun in late November.
"Going into binding arbitration is always a crap-shoot for both parties. It's much better to harbor good relationships between the village board and PBA by settling this on our own terms," Curr told the Times after the meeting. "Negotiations stalled but the mayor stepped in and met with some people on our negotiations team and over the course of only two meetings, they were able to come to a basic resolution."
McIntosh said he stands behind his police department and respected their position in the negotiations, which was the reason he returned to the table to make a deal.
The mayor- who cited money issues, especially health insurance, as the biggest hold up and point of contention during the process- said he believes the deal makes sense for both sides.
Village resident Dan Beutler, who works for the county, disagreed with McIntosh. He said the 3.1 percent hike is much more significant than the 2.5 percent raise county employees receive every year and the 2.75 percent given to police in Cheektowaga.
"It seems as though we're putting this village deeper in debt...From my point of view this is an awful lot of money, and that's no offense to the officers, who do a good job," Beutler said.
During an open public forum, the village board also heard suggestions about the application for federal Community Development Block Grant funds on the Lancaster side of the village.
DPW Supervisor John Wojcik suggested the village consider more sewer lining work around North Street and sidewalk renovation at Main Street, Laverack Avenue, Sanilac Street and Calumet Street. McIntosh also said the village would consider suggestions for installing an elevator at the village's food pantry, an idea brought up before but not "score" well at the time.
In order to qualify for the program, Depew's project ideas must meet one of three national objectives: benefit low- and moderate-income persons, aid in the prevention or elimination of slums, or meet other community development needs that have a particular urgency because existing conditions pose a serious immediate threat to the health and welfare of citizens.
Village Clerk Robert Kucewicz pointed out that in previous years, Depew has received "a great deal" of funding for individual sewers, sidewalk and curb projects and a Main Street revitalization plan through this grant. "We've been very fortunate in getting the maximum of $90,000 several times," he said. "There's a scoring system and you need to rank the projects in order of priority. We've been lucky to get funding for two or three projects a year which not many (similar) municipalities
| 
