KS Police, Firefighters Unions Offer Alternatives to Pay Cuts
By India Yarborough
Source The Topeka Capital-Journal, Kan.
The unions representing Topeka's police officers and firefighters have rejected the city's proposal that union members accept a 3% reduction in pay to counter expected revenue shortfalls stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.
In a letter Wednesday to city manager Brent Trout, the Frieden & Forbes attorney representing the unions suggested seven alternative measures for the city to consider before pushing a pay cut on Topeka's public-facing first responders.
Furthermore, the attorney, Matthew Bergmann, wrote that the unions wished to make a plea to Trout to "please, put people first."
"Even in the face of COVID-19, the unions firmly believe that the city should take every step to use idle or available funds to serve its people," Bergmann wrote.
His letter was written on behalf of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 3, the International Association of Firefighters Local No. 83 and six other collective bargaining units representing city workers.
Others represented include Teamsters Local No. 696; two American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees groups; a local teachers union; an environmental trades union; and Kansas Association of Public Employees Local 4565.
In their response to the city's request made earlier this month that union members take a 3% pay cut — as other city workers have already done — the unions suggested the city should explore alternative cost-saving and reallocation measures. The measures the unions suggested relate to retirement and leave credits, vacancy credits, capital improvement fund re-allocations, retirement incentives, health holidays, other potential cost savings within departments, and use of the city's general reserve fund.
For example, the unions projected the city would save more than $433,000 through upcoming FOP and IAFF retirements expected to occur this summer. They also predicted that "health holidays" the city proposed on April 10, which would grant some city workers days off in May or June, could save the city an additional $425,000 per health holiday.
The unions' letter said they welcome the opportunity to discuss cost-savings measures with the city and hope to come to an agreement without cutting members' pay.
City manager Trout said he has received the unions' response and will be reviewing it shortly with his staff. Once that has happened, Trout said, city representatives will meet with union leaders to discuss the proposals.
"Some of those items were items that had been discussed in the past as potential options. Some of them we've already looked at," Trout said. "I would say all of them are reasonable things to consider. ... There are definitely more discussions that need to occur."
Trout doesn't yet know what the timeline for such negotiations might look like but said the goal is ultimately to save Topeka money to counter an expected decrease this year in the city's revenue.
"We still have concerns with where our revenues are going to go," Trout said. "We expect them to be down, so we're going to continue to look at what we need to do in order to make sure that at the end of the year 2020, based on those revenue losses, we've made adjustments in various locations in the budget."
He said Topeka has a long way to go but noted it is a good thing the city is accounting for such losses early in the year.
"We're lucky in a way that it's occurring when it is," he said, "so we have a full year to try and be able to make changes."
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