HOWELL – Representatives of the Howell Policemen’s Benevolent Association (PBA) have asked the Township Council to withdraw its petition seeking arbitration as the two sides attempt to hammer out a new deal.
Ryan Hurley, a state delegate for Howell PBA Local 228, and Chris Nagy, president of Local 228, addressed the governing body on Aug. 15.
“We feel as if we have been trying to negotiate with the town and we were not really fairly looked at when we came to negotiations. We are going on a year now, without a contract since January, and now we are under the gun for arbitration,” Nagy said.
“I am here on behalf of my membership to ask you to withdraw your petition for arbitration. Let’s get back to the table where we can actually talk and discuss whatever it is we are at an impasse with, because it seems there is a lack of communication on both sides here and maybe if we communicate a little better we can get this resolved,” he said.
Nagy said having a third party involved in “our business” will not help the township or the PBA members, most of whom live in Howell.
“So I am asking you to please withdraw your petition for arbitration because it is not going to do the members of the Howell Police Department any good,” he said.
Nagy and Hurley are negotiating a new contract on behalf of the patrolmen and detectives who are employed in the police department. The union’s members are working under the terms of a contract that expired on Dec. 31, 2016.
“All we are asking for is a fair negotiation and if there was miscommunication along the way or a lack of communication, so be it. It is nothing we cannot get over and discuss civilly like men and women, like adults.
“To have this turned over to the state and just hand it off, we feel like that is just throwing a responsibility into the wind and you are not taking care of the responsibility,” Hurley told council members.
Mayor Theresa Berger said she could not discuss the matter. She told Hurley and Nagy the governing body would forward their request to Howell’s legal counsel.
In a subsequent interview, Hurley said the first official negotiation session took place in September 2016 when the PBA representatives met with Township Manager Jeff Mayfield and Howell’s director of law. He said the PBA had two proposals regarding a new agreement.
“One proposal was made very simple. We were asking for a 1 percent raise and slight language changes to different areas of the contract,” Hurley said
The first proposal was the “easy one,” according to Hurley, who said a one-year contract with a 1 percent raise would give both sides an extra year to enter more in-depth contract negotiations going forward.
“We came into it pretty open and we thought what we were doing was the best for the township and for the PBA,” Hurley said, adding that the union’s initial proposal was rejected by Howell’s representatives because it was only for one year.
He said the second proposal that was presented by the PBA was much more in-depth. Hurley said both sides left the Sept. 28 meeting on good terms.
The next meeting was held on Oct. 12.
“The township manager went over certain ideas he had that he would like to see happen in the contract and then he went over what the police chief would have liked. The chief (Andrew Kudrick) put in a couple of ideas,” Hurley said.
Hurley said the PBA representatives felt like a lot had been accomplished in terms of changes in the language of the contract, but he said the sides could not come to an agreement on terms of pay for the officers or on scheduling.
“We have a good schedule and our schedule works very well. One thing (the township) wants to do is take our schedule away from us and implement a schedule the township administration feels is more appropriate,” Hurley said.
According to Hurley, the union has not received a proposal regarding the schedule the township administration would want the officers to work.
“None of our membership wants to change. We have had our schedule for about 19 years,” he said, adding that officers generally work four 10-hour days each week with three days off.
“All the bugs are ironed out of that schedule and it works flawlessly. It did not work when the township allowed our work force to drop 25 percent.
“We went from having just shy of 100 officers … to (about 75 officers) and that is when the department started to see some overtime issues and some scheduling issues because we did not have enough officers, but we made it work.
“So this is what they seem to be hanging their hat on, that our schedule has created overtime in the past so they want to move to a different schedule they feel will save money.
“However, they can not provide any proof of actual savings and they have not given us any information about what that schedule would be or what the technicalities of that schedule would be,” Hurley said.
Hurley said he considers the biggest sticking point in the negotiations to be the officers’ pay.
“It is really not even a raise. I would just consider it something to keep up with inflation. We asked for 1 percent to begin with and we got shot down. That was a little absurd when there are towns around here settling contracts now for 3 percent per year,” he said.
“The town is looking for us to give several key parts of our contract, what was agreed upon to work here, back to them and then they will give us a raise. We have even asked to maintain the contract we have had … and we were told no,” Hurley said.
The starting salary for a Howell patrolman is about $35,000. Officers are designated as being in a probationary period after they complete their training at the police academy and are paid about $41,000. Following the probationary period there are 13 annual salary steps to reach top pay for a patrolman, which is $119,592.
The PBA received a contract proposal from the township on May 30.
“It was not a proposal, it was flat out an intimidation tactic. It basically opened up the door that they wanted our healthcare, our schedule, they wanted to set it up so that if we use any sick time during a month … we would not be able to make any overtime until we worked regular days again to replenish our sick days. There were some absurd requests in there,” Hurley said.
In July, the PBA was notified the township had filed for arbitration. Another PBA proposal was rejected in August, he said.
Despite the negotiations going the way they have, Hurley said that speaking as a taxpayer, he believes Mayfield, the township manager, has done “the absolute best he could for his job as a representative of the council.”
Mayfield retired several years ago as a captain in the Howell Police Department before coming to work for the township.