Like the firefighters union the day before, the police union offered Mayor Lenny Curry’s team a counter proposal on wages and pension that greatly differed from what was initially offered.
On one key point, the police union received the same resounding answer as its public safety brethren: A “no thanks” to putting new employees into the Florida Retirement System.
Curry and the city, said lead negotiator Michael Mattimore, are committed to a defined-contribution plan for new hires. There is “no interest” in the FRS, which would take control of the plan from the city and place it in the hands of the Legislature, he said.
Steve Zona, head of the local Fraternal Order of Police chapter, said the state system was a “way forward” for the city and the union.
One that would take the two sides away from the bargaining table and negotiating benefits every few years — another point the union advocates — and instead place employees into one of the better-run systems in the country.
It also would keep police officers in a defined-benefit pension plan, which Zona throughout Wednesday’s discussions said was still the market for public safety officials.
“Pensions for officers are not dinosaurs,” said Zona. “They are not archaic.”
The “dinosaur” language has been used by Curry several times to describe defined-benefit plans he said are not sustainable and the need for plans that resemble 401(k)-style contribution plans.
There were no further discussions on what could happen on the pension side of the issue.
However, there was some back-and-forth on the wages side.
The police union’s counter to Curry’s original size and schedule of wage increases was much higher and looked to the past.
The union requested a 3 percent raise in the current year that’s retroactive to Oct. 1, 2014. Curry’s offer didn’t consider the past two years, Zona said, and union membership “can’t forget” that point at the table.
Members didn’t get raises those years or several years prior.
From there, the union sought a 10 percent pay raise for employees for fiscal years 2018-20.
Additionally, it seeks to essentially undo the negotiated pension benefits from the first wave of reform brokered in 2015. Some of those dealt with rates for Cost of Living Adjustments and the Deferred Retirement Option Plan.
Curry didn’t alter those in his proposal.
Zona said the package would bring the salaries and benefits of the workforce back to where it needs to be while also making the force a little more competitive in the marketplace.
The union showed a PowerPoint presentation identifying a litany of statistics it says show it isn’t competitive. That starts with salaries, where the union said the Jacksonville force is 42 percent below the average of other departments in the state.
Zona also pointed to a study released Monday by a group of civic and business leaders that showed many of the same issues and facts.
Sheriff Mike Williams’ commissioned task force on police resources showed Jacksonville police officers’ starting salaries of $36,240 were well below peer cities of Tampa ($47,320), Orlando ($46,631) and Miami ($50,490), to name a few.
The city did make a counter on wages during Wednesday’s talks.
It offered the same 2 percent one-time lump sum bonus in the current year to employees, while providing a 7 percent raise next year and 3.5 percent raises the following two years.
Curry’s initial offer was the lump sum, followed by raises of 5 percent, 4 percent and a 3.5 percent in the following years.
The city also offered a financial model the union requested of what officers under the proposed plan would make upon retirement. But as one union official said, there was “a lot wrong” with the proposal.
For instance, it calculated officers in 30 years at the lower end having quadrupled their salaries, while higher end officers would be making seven times what they currently make.
The city couldn’t talk details about the model, which led to frustration from the FOP and questions that will be answered when the two sides sit down again for the next bargaining session.
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