HOWELL – Township Council members have adopted an amended salary ordinance which sets salary ranges for patrol officers in the Howell Police Department.
Mayor Theresa Berger, Deputy Mayor Thomas Russo, Councilwoman Evelyn O’Donnell and Councilman John Bonevich voted “yes” on a motion to adopt the salary ordinance during a meeting on Feb. 23. Councilwoman Pamela Richmond was absent.
According to the salary ordinance, a probationary officer who is hired in 2021 will be paid about $42,000. An officer in the highest salary range (step 13) would be paid about $140,000 in 2023.
Township Manager Brian Geoghegan said it can take an officer between 14 and 15 years to reach step 13.
“Usually, an officer is hired and is paid at a police academy step, until their graduation from the police academy, most often within the first year. Once they graduate, they go to a probationary step for one year, before entering the ‘step system’ at one year per step.
“If an officer comes to us already trained, they will usually start at the probationary step, skipping the police academy step.
“Occasionally, if an officer transfers to Howell with extensive prior law enforcement experience, the Police Chief will make a recommendation to the township manager to start that officer at a higher step,” Geoghegan said.
PBA Local 228 represents Howell’s patrol officers and recently received a new contract from the Township Council.
PBA President James Alexander said, “Our two primary goals (in seeking a new contract) were to get a fair compensation package and to protect our members’ work environment; just to safeguard some of the contractual rights they have.
“Obviously, everything we asked for we didn’t get, we made some changes to our schedule regarding shift switches … We made changes to some of our leave policies, limiting our leave.
“We made concessions regarding our light duty policy; essentially giving the township or the administration the ability to change an officer’s shift around if they are going to be on light duty,” Alexander said.
Negotiations on a new PBA contract began in late 2019, but were interrupted by the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020. A new contract was ratified by both sides in early 2021.
“I think the process worked the way it was supposed to work. I think it was good faith on both sides and I think we worked out a contract that was beneficial to both sides. I am happy with it and the membership is happy with it as well,” Alexander said.
The pandemic impacted the contract, not just the negotiations. He said Howell’s representatives expressed the financial uncertainty surrounding the pandemic.
“We kind of tailored our compensation package to address some of those needs of the township, so we made some concessions there,” Alexander said.