City and labor officials are keeping mum for now about the details of concessions offered by Tacoma’s police union this week as a way to avoid at least 56 police layoffs the city proposed to deal with its budget crisis.
John Dryer, the city’s labor relations manager, said late Tuesday: “We haven’t signed anything.”
And Terry Krause, president of Tacoma’s Police Union, said Wednesday: “It’s just a tentative agreement at this point. We’ve passed it on our end, but the city still needs to pass it on their end. I can’t speak to it until it’s done.”
But unofficially, some details began trickling out Wednesday. Sources told The News Tribune the concessions are largely based on reductions of city contributions to police officers’ deferred compensation benefits.
They also include union members’ deferring cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) and associated retroactive pay for 2012. The concessions do not include reductions to current wages, the sources said.
Late Monday, Krause said, an “overwhelming” majority of the 340-plus member police union approved the proposed concessions as part of a vote on a new three-year contract.
The contract is tentatively set to go before the City Council for authorization Tuesday. But the union’s budget concessions won’t be part of those public considerations. They’re spelled out in a separate document.
“They don’t have to be approved by council,” city spokesman Rob McNair-Huff said of the concessions. “Obviously, council is discussing them, but there’s not a formal action that they have to take.”
Rather, the decision falls to Interim City Manager Rey Arellano. And until he formally strikes a deal, the details can remain private under safeguards provided for ongoing labor negotiations, city officials said.
Dryer noted Tuesday that he plans to publicly discuss the details before Arellano formally makes his decision – but not before the city’s fire union votes on concessions similar to those approved by the police union, he said.
The fire union, which is set to take its vote Jan. 26 and 27, deserves an opportunity to consider the proposal “before they read about it in the newspaper,” Dryer said.
As with the police, the fire union’s bargaining team announced last week it had identified potential savings that could spare at least 44 city fire jobs also targeted for layoffs, but declined to give details.
Last month, Arellano proposed layoffs of 100 police and fire positions as part of a first round of cuts meant to close about $22 million of a projected $31 million budget gap. The City Council later agreed to give the police and fire unions time to negotiate possible concessions.
Meantime, the city moved ahead with other cuts, including some pay reductions and mandatory furloughs for nonunion workers. The city also laid off, demoted and transferred some 60 other non-public-safety employees.
Even if Arellano agrees to the proposed concessions, police and fire employees aren’t out of the woods. Their concessions address only layoffs in a first round of proposed cuts. With the latest projections showing the city’s budget shortfall is now about $32 million – even bigger than initially projected – city officials say a second round of layoffs is almost certain.
Lewis Kamb: 253-597-8542
lewis.kamb@thenewstribune.com
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