Naperville cops get hearing before labor board
Naperville’s police union will get its requested hearing before the Illinois Labor Relations Board on charges city officials engaged in bad-faith bargaining during last fall’s contract negotiations.
But by the time the hearing is scheduled, likely in mid-May, the complaint may be moot because city council members may consider rehiring the six officers who were laid off.
The complaint was filed in early November, less than a week after the city unveiled a new three-year contract with the police union and then immediately announced it couldn’t afford it without layoffs.
The layoffs were announced days after the council approved the pact that gave officers raises of 3.3 percent for 2009-10 and 3 percent in both 2010-11 and 2011-12. The deal also included a 50 percent increase in police personnel health insurance premium contributions, to 15 percent from 10 percent of the total premium cost.
Members of the union, which represents 137 Naperville officers, argued the subject of layoffs never came up during negotiations and the final contract agreement was based entirely on the city’s own offer.
Tamara Cummings, general counsel for the union, said the unfair labor practice charge claims the city bargained in bad faith when it waited until after the contract was signed to announce it planned to use layoffs to pay for the negotiated raises. She said the union also believes the layoffs were in retaliation for officers negotiating a fair contract.
“This is a very good thing,” Cummings said Tuesday. “All we’ve wanted is to be able to present our case to the board because we can present evidence to prove the union was double-crossed.”
City Manager Doug Krieger is confident the city has a solid case.
“We are absolutely looking forward to presenting our case and getting the facts out,” Krieger said. “We believe the facts are on our side.”
Cummings said the complaint and hearing may be “a moot point,” however, should the council agree to rehire the laid-off officers in the wake of at least four pending retirements within the department.
Union President Vince Clark said there are four and could be as many as eight retirements and resignations before the end of the month. He admitted to not being privy to how the council would determine the value, but Clark said the openings would “definitely allow the rehiring on a one for one basis.”
“In November the city lowered our sworn staff allotment to 168 and we would hope they would want to keep that number,” Clark said Tuesday. “If that’s what they thought was reasonable and acceptable, they should want to maintain that number and hire back our (laid-off) officers.”
Krieger, noting the 168 figure is a maximum staffing level, said he has been notified of four retirements and police command staff advised him they began developing potential responses to the retirements on Monday.
“It is likely there will be discussion surrounding recalls as one option but we still have a $700,000 budget gap to close,” Krieger said. “You don’t want to speculate and wind up jerking someone around. All decisions will be made in the best interests of our residents and businesses.”
Some council members, however, are in no rush to begin talking about bringing people back.
“The manager has put some information out to us about some folks in the police department retiring, but that’s it,” Councilman Dick Furstenau said. “But I suggest no one get their hopes up because I’m nowhere near ready.”
Councilman Grant Wehrli agreed.
“Any reductions in force the city has made have been in a direct relation to level of service so I would not let someone get false hopes up for any police officers to be led to believe they’re going to be hired again,” he said. “This is about levels of service and the budget dollars it takes.”