Princeton and its police union reached a three-year contract that provides officers with raises of less than 2 percent and gives the town two concessions that will affect only new hires.
By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Princeton and its police union reached a three-year contract that provides officers with raises of less than 2 percent and gives the town two concessions that will affect only new hires.
Mayor Liz Lempert on Monday joined Municipal Administrator Robert W. Bruschi, who outlined highlights of a deal that is retroactive to Jan.1, 2013. The PBA ratified the agreement — providing raises of 1.75 percent in the first and second years of the contract and 1.9 percent in the third — a few weeks ago, Mr. Bruschi said.
”From my perspective, this is the strongest PBA contract I’ve had in front of me,” Mayor Lempert said.
Important to the town, the contract doubles the time it will take new hires to make their top salary from six years to 12. It also eliminates longevity pay for new hires, a type of bonus based on a percent of an employee’s salary that he or she gets every fifth year of employment.
”The goal going into the agreement was to restructure the contract in such a way that we could begin to see savings — both short term and long term — once we do our first hiring,” Mr. Bruschi said. “We’re anticipating a fairly high turnover within the first few years of consolidation. We actually got a lot of that turnover but not even in the positions that we had thought we were” going to be getting.
Mr. Bruschi called it “huge” that the PBA would agree to double the time it takes new hires to reach their top salary.
”We’re happy with that change,” he said.
PBA President Ben Gering could not be reached for comment Monday.
The department is not hiring anybody new just yet, but Mr. Bruschi said there is the potential the town will have to hire the equivalent of 20 percent of the department in the next three to five years. At the moment, there are 54 total sworn officers in the force.
Mr. Bruschi felt it “hard to say” what the savings will be to the town, since officials do not know how fast they will be hiring people.
The agreement covers all police officers, except Chief David J. Dudeck and Capt. Nicholas K. Sutter. The Princeton Council still needs to approve the contract, a formality that could have happened at council’s meeting on Monday evening.
”If council’s ready to vote on it, we can vote on it,” Mayor Lempert said.
Contract talks between the two sides were going on this year even as the PBA had raised allegations of administrative misconduct against Chief Dudeck, who subsequently took a deal to leave the department in the fall.
Princeton also has to reach agreements with its two other labor unions, the CWA and the Teamsters.