St. Charles slapped with unfair labor practices claim

St. Charles taxpayers will have to fork out more cash for another legal battle between the city and its police sergeants.

The Metropolitan Alliance of Police filed an unfair labor practices claim against the city Friday morning. The claim follows the recent announcement of a reorganization of the police department and comes as the city finalizes a new union contract with the police sergeants.

The police department has one chief, two deputy chiefs, nine sergeants and is allowed up to 45 patrol officers. The reorganization would create a structure with one chief, two deputy chiefs, six sergeants, two commanders and up to 45 patrol officers. In addition, there would be a new, civilian financial analyst position that reports to one of the deputy chiefs. In return, one sergeant position is gone and the new union loses about one-third of its members.

The city believes the moves would result in a savings of about $50,000 a year. The immediate net impact of that move might be wiped out in legal fees with the filing of the labor grievance Friday.

Union attorney Joseph Mazzone said the reorganization is a backdoor method to undercutting the very existence of the newly-formed sergeants union. The city fought the formation of the union the entire time.

"We've just ended a long period of negotiations with the city," Mazzone said of the two-year process of creating the sergeants union. "At no time during the course of those negotiations did the city mention this reorganization. There just never has been a good relationship with the city."

Union President Don Shaw, the most senior sergeant on the St. Charles force, said the reorganization is flawed from two angles. Shaw said there is no reason to believe reorganization will save $50,000 because the department is short on patrol officers. The department is authorized for 45 patrol officers and has 41.

"The public safety aspect comes into play where the city is adding an exempt layer of management to the department, and the mayor and city council are ignoring the need for street police officers," Shaw said.

The second flaw is what the union sees as a lie of omission during the negotiation process for the new union contract, Shaw said.

"This is a blatant union-busting strategy and a bold slap in the union's face in light of an arbitration process," Shaw said.

Mazzone said he wasn't sure if anything in the new union contract prevents the city from making a management decision to create the new police structure.

City officials had not seen the legal grievance and would not comment. City Administrator Brian Townsend was out of town and Police Chief Jim Lamkin was on vacation.

Mayor Don DeWitte called the pending reorganization "innovative organizational thinking" by Lamkin.

"He has redistributed the management workload of the organization," DeWitte said. "He has done that while maintaining the level of police presence on the street. He has done it while saving money. Any taxpayer should be pleased with the though process."

DeWitte added that even though the reorganization was not part of the union arbitration process, nothing in the new sergeants' union contract prevents the city from making the proposed changes.

"It is not unusual for departments to re-evaluate their internal structures on a regular basis," DeWitte said. "I happen to think it's an important part of being a department head."