Naperville police sergeants get 3.5 percent raises

Naperville police sergeants will get raises of at least 3.5 percent under a new one-year contract approved by the city council.

The deal comes just two weeks after the city laid off 20 employees due to budget constraints.

"For the individuals who were laid off, they have done nothing wrong," City Manager Doug Krieger said Wednesday. "In a post-RIF (reduction in force) environment it is still critical to reward your employees for a job well done and this is consistent with that philosophy."

He said the increases are generally consistent with raises given nonunion employees during the same time period.

Contract negotiations have been going on for about six months and the pact is retroactive to May 1, 2008. It expires April 30, putting it in line with the contract expiration for most patrol officers.

Twenty-six sergeants will receive the pay bump. The 3.5 percent does not include step increases some sergeants are eligible for annually. Naperville sergeants go through four steps on the city's wage scale ranging from $85,184 to $95,360, not including overtime pay.

The city's labor attorney, Dwight Pancottine, said 19 of the 26 sergeants are already at the top step and therefore don't receive step increases.

Some sergeants at the top are eligible for "experience pay," a sum of $1,500 a year for those with 10 to 14 years on the job or $2,500 for those with 15 or more years.

The pay increases in the new contract will cost the city a total of $128,719, including the step increases.

Joseph Mazzone, attorney for the union, said the group asked for 3.6 percent increases because it was the amount another of the city's unions received. But last month, the sergeants union voted "nearly unanimously" in favor of the deal.

"All we're trying to do is to get a new president in place and see what the economy does ... and this was the easiest way to resolve it," Mazzone said.

The council approved the contract 7-2. Mayor George Pradel and councilmen Joe Dunn, Kenn Miller, Doug Krause, John Rosanova, James Boyajian and Robert Fieseler voted in favor of it Tuesday while Richard Furstenau and Grant Wehrli were opposed.

Furstenau said he was not in favor of pay increases due to the city's current financial difficulties.

But Fieseler said Wednesday freezing pay increases is highly unlikely because if the two sides can't agree, they go to binding arbitration in which both the city and union put forth an offer and an arbitrator chooses one or the other based on past increases and comparable cities.

"So proposing a pay increase offer of zero will mean that the police could (and probably will) propose something like 4 percent, which will probably be the arbitrator's choice," he said via e-mail.

Arbitration was not necessary in this latest round of negotiations.

But the next round of talks is on the horizon. Mazzone expects the ink will barely be dry on this deal before the union notifies the city it wants to open talks for the next contract. Negotiations with the Fraternal Order of Police likely will begin within the next couple months as well.

"It's going to be the most difficult contract negotiation the city has ever had with any of its unions and I would hope that we would be able to come to some reasonable conclusions to this that is equitable for the employees but at the same time shows great restraint for taxpayer for condition we're in," Furstenau said.

Krieger agreed the city's budget constraints could affect the talks.

"The economic climate for a municipality, the ability to pay, is one of the many factors in determining the wage component and obviously in the current economic times that would apply some downward pressure," he said.