Arbitrator OKs sergeants' contract; St. Charles locks in wage freeze

An arbitrator has signed off on the St. Charles police sergeants' union contract, bringing the last group of city employees into a citywide wage freeze for the current fiscal year.

The city council called for a wage freeze several months ago in approving the 2009-2010 budget in recognition of falling revenues in a down economy. The result is a savings of $1.2 million for the city. The freeze is expected to be revisited before the end of the current fiscal year, which expires in April 2010.

"The city has always believed that a wage freeze for all employees was the logical and appropriate approach given our economic conditions," Mayor Don DeWitte said in a written statement. "It was a fair and reasonable request; one that from the beginning was based on a philosophy of shared sacrifice."

Don Shaw, president of the police sergeants' union, said his fellow sergeants always believed in the wage freeze as being an appropriate budget sacrifice in the current economy. The reason the sergeants' union was the last group to agree to the freeze was solely based on other contract issues, he said. Mainly, the sergeants wanted salaries and future raises that were in line with what the regular patrol officers negotiated in their own contract. But, unlike the patrol officers, the sergeants wanted their disciplinary procedure to remain with the city's board of police and fire commissioners. Discipline for the patrol officers rests mainly with the police chief in their contract.

"We've always wanted to get up to their level of wages and benefits," Shaw said of the two contracts. "That's what the arbitration process enabled us to do."

The citywide wage freeze locks in the sergeants salaries at the level they were as of May 1, 2009, representing a savings of more than $36,000 for the city by not paying out raises the sergeants would have received without the freeze. Every union except the police sergeants received a promise of no layoffs for the current fiscal year in trade for agreeing to the wage freeze. The city did not make that commitment to the police sergeants, but said in a written statement that there are no plans to lay off any police sergeants this fiscal year.