Will Cop Contract Stop The Bleed?

City officials and top cops grappled with whether raises and predictability will stem a ​“blue exodus” of officers, as a proposed new police union contract advanced to the full Board of Alders for a final vote.

The proposed six-year contract, which Elm City Local members overwhelmingly voted in support of last month after not having a union contract for over three years, was the only item on the agenda for Wednesday night’s Finance Committee meeting, held in the Aldermanic Chambers on the second floor of City Hall.

The alders did not vote on the proposed labor accord, but rather left it in committee, thereby expediting its prospective approval by allowing the full board to discharge it from committee and vote on it at its next meeting. The timeline laid out in state law mandates that the Board of Alders vote on the member-ratified agreement no later than Sep. 27.

During the 90-minute hearing, alders peppered Chief Administrative Officer Sean Matteson, Acting Budget Director Michael Gormany, city human resources manager Stephen Librandi, and labor attorney Floyd Dugas with questions about changes to pay, pensions, and health care included in the proposed agreement.

Click here to download a detailed outline of major changes included in the new contract, which is retroactive to 2016 and runs through 2022. And click here and here for more information about how, if passed, the new union contract will give officers a cumulative 13.5 percent pay increase, present new officers with a minimum retirement age of 52 years old or 25 years of active service, and transition new and current officers alike to a high-deductible health insurance plan and a preventative healthcare program.

At the heart of Wednesday’s committee meeting was a set of questions asked by East Rock/Cedar Hill Alder Anna Festa about the bigger-picture impact that the prospective contract might have upon the police department.

“Will we be able to retain our officers?” she asked.

If this contract is passed, will city police officers stop leaving the department for better paying jobs in the suburbs and at Yale? Will they hold off on retiring soon after vesting for their full pensions? Will new recruits seek out, apply for, and invest themselves in working long-term for the NHPD?

Forty-nine officers retired from the department last year, she pointed out. Matteson and Gormany said that another 24 have retired this year, as well as six in the last week. Will the contract stem what Matteson, quoting a New Haven Register headline, called a ​“blue exodus?”

“There’s nothing in this contract that disincentivizes people” from staying in New Haven, Matteson said. ​“It is a huge step forwards.” But, he admitted, ​“There is no formula here.” All the city can do is try to address as many of the complaints and concerns it has heard from its officers as it can while making sure that the public safe, that officers are healthy and well-trained, and that the department’s budget is under control.

“I do believe this is the best contract possible to do that,” he said.

Matteson singled out the contract’s pay increases as one of the most attractive parts of the contract for prospective and current officers.

The city will pay out a total of $3.9 million in retroactive raises for the past three years since the previous contract expired, he said. That money will be disbursed in three increments between now and 2021; only active members of the department will be eligible to receive that retroactive pay.

For the next three years, the city will pay out a total of over $10 million in wage increases, to be disbursed at the beginning of each fiscal year in July.

The department has had trouble retaining detectives, he said. Under the new contract, anyone who works in the detective bureau for four years will receive a 1.5 percent pay increase, which will hump to a 2.5 percent pay increase upon hitting eight years.

And the city will get rid of the second step in a four-step process for new hires to rise from their base salary to the maximum available to officers of their rank.

Officers coming onto the force, per the new contract, will now start at $48,303 per year as a base annual salary, up fro the current starting rate of $44,400. That will jump to $57,358 their second year on the force. And then to $74,291 a year for their third year.

That’s a competitive wage rate, Matteson said: Bridgeport’s minimum officer pay is $52,061 and maximum officer pay is $68,416; Hartford’s minimum officer pay is $43,465 and maximum officer pay is $71,480; and West Haven’s minimum officer pay is $54,621 and maximum officer pay is $68,910.

The proposed contract also includes measures that limit the number of retirements from the department each year to 20, and that require newly hired officers to reach the age of 52 or to have served 25 years for the department, excluding buyback time for time served in the military, before they can start collecting their pensions.

Newly sworn-in Police Chief Otoniel Reyes said he has already seen the impact of the prospective contract on the department’s rank and file.

Since the agreement was ratified by the police union’s members, he said, there has been ​“almost an immediate change in our department. Officers were ecstatic about the stability of having a contract.”

Some officers who, like Reyes, joined the force two decades ago and are about hit retirement age, told the chief they will stick around for at least another two years if this agreement is passed, he said. Other veteran officers have told him that they left the department ​“because of the financial uncertainty” of not having a contract.

“These veteran officers can’t be easily replaced,” Reyes said.

In the few weeks since the contract has gone public, he said, officers who previously resigned from the force have reached out to him and expressed interest in coming back to New Haven to work for the local PD again.

Florencio Cotto, the police union’s president, doubled down on the positive ripple effect that the prospective contract has had in the department over the past couple weeks.

“Is everyone happy?” he asked. ​“No. We’re realists in that aspect. But will this retain police officers working on behalf of the City of New Haven? Yes, I do believe that. Wholeheartedly, I do. Going forward with the vote of yes will help achieve that goal.”

After the meeting he was asked what part of the contract he thinks will be the most effective at retaining officers. ​“The biggest selling point,” he said, ​“is stability.”