City, Police verbally tussle at City Hall

Another City Council meeting passed without resolution to the city’s salary schedule change for the Springfield Police Department.

City officials are offering a 2.5 percent pay increase in exchange for a cap on holiday pay, which officers receive through retirement payouts. The city’s goal is to repair a Police pension plan facing a deficit.

City Manager Tom Finnie said the issue needs to be addressed now, “while it’s still a problem, before it becomes a full-blown crisis.”

The proposal was tabled until the May 30 meeting, when council will have an opportunity to vote.

More than 100 people attended the meeting, the majority to discuss the Police pay proposal. Many officers were in uniform, supporting the notion that city management is reneging on benefits promised when they were hired.

Officer Bob Baker said the officers had been “deceived and lied to” by city management. Officer Greg McKinney said the city was “changing the rules in midstream.” Cpl. Culley Wilson cited the fact that the officers had not received a pay raise since 2003, adding that the proposed 2.5 percent increase to the pay schedule was not adequate for what the officer would be giving up in return.

Officer Brian DiSylvester read a letter from Springfield Police Officers Association President Allen Neal, who was absent due to a family illness. In the letter, Neal said that the accrued hours were a benefit that had been promised to the officers, and the lack of funding for the benefit was the result of “a failure on the part of the city.”

At the heart of the issue is accumulated continuous operation holiday pay, which city employees get in exchange for working holidays. There currently is no cap on how much comp time can be accumulated and received in the form of a lump sum at retirement.

The city says this could lead to huge problems in the future, not only in lump-sum payouts but also in annual pension payments, which are based on an employee’s salary in his final three years. The increased pension payments, according to Finnie, would require all money allocated for all city employee pay increases for the next three years go to fund the gap in the Police pension fund.

The Police Officers and Firefighters Retirement Plan Review Committee, set up by the city to examine a $3.5 million shortfall for the Police and Fire pension plans, continues its work. Committee chair Evelyn Honea, also assistant city manager, said the holiday hours issue is just part of the bigger problem.

“We’re charged with looking at the funding shortfall for the pension plan, which only causes about 15 percent of the shortfall,” she said. “It just happened to be falling in the same time period, unfortunately.”

Also on the agenda:

• The council was presented with the city budget for the 2005-06 fiscal year. The

proposed budget is $238.3 million, up 8.5 percent from the current year. Council is expected to vote on the budget May 30.

• Chestnut Crossing, the 36-acre proposed retail development at West Bypass and Chestnut Expressway, was amended for a fourth time. As suggested by city staff, the amendment adds a new street through the proposed development, which will connect with the existing Ivy Circle. Also included in the changes is a 50-foot buffer zone between the neighboring residential area and the proposed retail properties. Developer Paul Larino said he would keep all existing trees, except those that are diseased, in place to act as a natural barrier between the two areas.

Council can vote on the amended bill May 30.

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