The City Council unanimously approved a new contract with Tacoma’s police union Tuesday and accepted a package of concessions aimed to help spare more than 50 officers from a first wave of layoffs amid a city budget crisis.
But even while accepting the deal and praising the union’s good faith bargaining, council members cautioned that Tacoma’s public safety workers aren’t yet out of the woods.
“This is not the end of the story,” Councilman Jake Fey said. “This is an important first step, (but) we are still substantially out of balance.”
Facing an estimated $16 million shortfall in its 2011-12 general fund, the city already is bracing for a second round of cuts that could jeopardize even more police and fire jobs.
For now, the new three-year contract with Tacoma Police Union Local 6 stipulates to a 3.6 percent cost-of-living pay raise for more than 330 rank-and-file officers in 2012.
But as part of concessions to avoid a first round of layoffs, the union’s officers will defer those raises until 2013.
Under contract terms, union members also are eligible for an additional raise of up to 5 percent in both 2013 and 2014, said John Dryer, the city’s labor relations manager.
Those prospective raises are calculated by applying the latest Consumer Price Index data to police wages to determine whether Tacoma’s officers are paid above those in Bellevue, Everett, Kent, Spokane and Vancouver. Using the same formula, Tacoma officers netted no COLA raises in either 2010 or 2011, Dryer noted.
Excluding overtime pay and benefits, base wages for Tacoma’s rank-and-file officers’ union now range from $53,082 for an entry-level patrol officer to $88,733 for a top-rung sergeant.
Delaying the police raises in 2012 will save the city about $1.2 million, according to city budget officials. When combined with other union concessions to deferred compensation benefits and retroactive pay, the city will collectively save about $1.5 million in 2012, union officials say.
The union’s concessions also come with a condition: Should the city lay off even a single officer by year’s end, Tacoma immediately must pay the postponed raises to all of the union’s 330-plus members.
The condition is “not intended to take away the city’s tool of making layoffs,” Christopher Tracy, the union’s vice president, said earlier Tuesday. “It’s intended as a safeguard to ensure that the city will have a conversation with us before moving ahead to make any (police layoffs).”
The deal also stipulates that if any police layoffs are forthcoming as part of more budget cuts, the city must immediately negotiate with the union about ways to avoid the job cuts or mitigate their impacts.
The prospect of more city layoffs is almost certain, and cuts to public safety may be unavoidable, city officials have said. When first proposing budget cuts last year, Interim City Manager Rey Arellano said dozens of police and fire jobs would be targeted if a second wave of cuts was necessary.
Mayor Marilyn Strickland added Tuesday that public safety makes up about 70 percent of the city’s strapped general fund.
“We have some hard decisions to make,” she said.
Earlier Tuesday, Arellano told the council the city is preparing for a second round of cuts to close what’s now conservatively estimated to be a $33 million general fund shortfall through year’s end.
A first round of cuts made earlier this month collectively saved about $17 million through layoffs, pay cuts, retirements, reassignments and council-backed “revenue enhancements,” which included increasing some city fines and fees.
The initial cuts also included eliminating 16 open fire and 11 open police positions created by recent retirements and resignations.
“So, I think it needs to be recognized there has been some reduction in (police and fire) service already,” Councilman Marty Campbell said.
Even with the cuts made so far, a projected $16 million budget gap remains. Taking too long to close it could exponentially increase a potential shortfall in the 2013-14 budget, officials said.
The city now tentatively plans to make a second wave of cuts by March 31, Arellano said.
Arellano’s latest accounting of budget savings doesn’t include anticipated savings from police concessions or potential ones that could come from the fire union.
Seeking to avert 44 proposed firefighter layoffs, Tacoma’s fire union is set to vote on its own proposed concessions package later this week.
Last month, amid an outcry that public safety layoffs would put the city at risk, the council agreed to postpone 100 police and fire layoffs for up to 30 days, giving the unions time to negotiate concessions.
If the police concessions hold through year’s end, this year will mark the third consecutive year Tacoma’s officers have received no cost-of-living pay hikes. The last COLA raise – a 6.2 percent hike – came in 2009. Officers have continued to receive annual city STEP increases based on tenure.
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