After more than two years of negotiations, the mayor’s office presented collective bargaining agreements for the City’s police and corrections officers Tuesday night and they were granted final approval by the Jacksonville City Council.
Although some Council members said they were frustrated that they were provided the lengthy document at noon on Tuesday, just hours before the Council meeting, they said they were satisfied to end more than two years of negotiations with a savings of about $20.5 million over three years.
“I rise to support the bill. I did vote against the emergency because, frankly, I thought it was disrespectful to give us two or three hours to vote on a decision of this magnitude,” said Council member Ray Holt. “I do support this overall, a $20 million savings is a good deal.”
Council members Holt, John Crescimbeni, Matt Schellenberg and Clay Yarborough voted against approving the ordinance as an emergency, which was necessary to allow the council to vote on approval.
Ordinance 2012-79 was introduced and approved as an emergency amendment addressing the approval of collective bargaining agreements with FOP, Lodge 5-30 bargaining units: 1. police officers through sergeants; 2. police lieutenants through captains; 3. rank and file corrections officers; and 4. supervisor corrections officers.
The City’s Office of General Counsel apologized for not providing the documents sooner to Council members, but Assistant General Counsel Derrel Chatmon said the office worked as quickly as possible to supply the information.
“The FOP didn’t approve the agreement until Jan. 21. People have worked very quickly to get these numbers to the council as fast as possible,” said Chris Hand, the mayor’s chief of staff.
The mayor’s office wanted the contracts approved quickly to avoid delaying the payback that will occur with the new contract.
Police officers and corrections officers agreed to a 3 percent pay cut in the contract. Because it doesn’t take effect for a couple of weeks, they are being paid according to the previous contract.
Once the new contract is in place, the officers will see the 3 percent cut in salary as well as a deduction for the weeks this year that they were paid at the previous rate.
“The longer we let this issue go, the more money the officers would have to pay back. It was important to us to get it done as quick as possible,” said Nelson Cuba, FOP president.
Cuba said he didn’t think there was anything else to review.
“The finance department from the City of Jacksonville, they don’t come to the table and put these numbers together not knowing what these numbers are, so there is nothing else to look over,” said Cuba.
If the Council did not accept the collective bargaining agreements, the negotiating teams from the FOP and the mayor’s office would have to start over.
The approval of the agreements avoided a one-year impasse settlement that would have handed down by the Council if the two sides couldn’t agree. It would have saved the City a maximum of $11 million.
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