City staff, police compromise on holiday pay

The council was set vote to on a bill, unpopular with most members of the Springfield Police Department, that would have changed the way officers could accumulate continuous holiday pay hours to cash out at retirement.

But hours before the meeting, the Springfield Police Officers Association and the city agreed on a compromise.

The agreement, which was added to the agenda item as an amendment and approved by council, allows current officers to keep hours they accumulated before Jan. 1 of this year, to be paid out at retirement. The hours will be paid at the officer’s base rate of pay as of Jan. 1.

The number of hours that each officer can receive payment for is now capped at either twice what the officers can accumulate in one year – 144 hours for jobs with eight-hour days and 180 hours for jobs with 10-hour days – or their level as of Jan. 1, whichever is higher.

In exchange for relinquishing the ability to accumulate more holiday hours in the future, the officers will receive a 2 percent pay raise across the board. That raise will first show up in the officers’ July 28 paychecks.

Assistant City Manager Bob Cumley, who spent most of the Memorial Day weekend in negotiations with SPOA leaders, said the final agreement is beneficial to both sides.

“Basically the goal of the city was to offer a pay increase and in some way deal with the unfunded liability of the accumulated holidays,” he said. “The goal of the SPOA, in my mind, was to get a pay increase and to retain the hours that the officers have accumulated.”

The amendment passed SPOA membership by an 80/20 margin, according to SPOA President Allen Neal.

“It’s been a hard issue for our department, and it’s not unanimous in our vote. Everyone is not pleased, but it’s a compromise that will deal with the majority of our members,” Neal said at the meeting.

Members of council said they were happy a compromise could be reached.

“I want to commend staff and SPOA for finally coming to the table and trying to work out something that was agreeable for everybody,” said Councilman Denny Whayne. “I told SPOA members the last time I met with them, ‘If you don’t come to the table, you don’t get nothing to eat.’”

Also on the agenda:

• Council approved a $238.2 million city budget for fiscal year 2005–06. That’s up 8.5 percent over the 2004–05 adopted budget.

• Council heard proposals for major intersection improvement projects, which would utilize funds from the city’s eighth-cent transportation sales tax. There are four proposed projects: the James River Freeway and Glenstone Avenue intersection; the National Avenue and Chestnut Expressway intersection; the Primrose Street and Glenstone intersection; and improvements to Glenstone between Interstate 44 and Valley Water Mill Road. The projects would use almost $7.8 million in city tax funds. The state would fund $9.2 million, and the county would kick in $1.5 million. The projects will be voted on June 13.