Tacoma police voted Monday night to approve concessions that could save 56 jobs, union president Terry Krause said.
Krause called the margin “overwhelming,” but said Tacoma Police Union Local 6 would not publicly disclose the concessions until they are approved by the Tacoma City Council.
“I’m not sure anybody is ever happy about giving money away,” Krause said of the concessions. “But if we can stop layoffs and keep staffing up, that is good.”
Tacoma Councilman Marty Campbell didn’t want to comment on the vote until he was briefed about the particulars of the concessions this morning.
“I’m glad they are working on it,” Campbell said. “We are all working on it together and we will continue to work on it until we close the budget gap.”
In December, Interim City Manager Rey Arellano proposed laying off 56 police and 44 fire employees as part of a plan to close about $22 million of a projected $31 million budget shortage. A recent outside review of the city’s finances using more recent data projects Tacoma’s budget shortfall at $32 million.
At a City Council meeting last month, the controversial proposal led many fire and police employees and supporters to voice their concerns that such cuts would put the community at risk.
The cuts were delayed for 30 days to give city and union labor negotiators time to find alternatives.
The city moved forward this month with plans for layoffs, retirement, demotions and transfers for more than 60 non-public-safety employees.
Amid ongoing negotiations the number of proposed public safety layoffs has grown to 110, including 60 police and 40 fire.
Krause said Monday that the concessions would cover the entire proposed first round of police layoffs, but it remains uncertain if that is the original 56 or all 60.
The police union’s vote comes less than a week before the Jan. 20 deadline for city officials to notify about prospective layoffs.
The fire union has scheduled votes for Jan. 26-27. Last week, Matt Frank, vice president of Tacoma’s fire union, told The News Tribune his bargaining team had identified savings that could spare the fire jobs the city was targeting for layoffs. He also didn’t give details about the proposed concessions.
Craig Hill: 253-597-8497
craig.hill@thenewstribune.com
Staff writer Lewis Kamb contributed to this report.
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