Bridgeport police contract wins final OK

By Bill Cummings
Staff writer
Updated: 01/07/2009 12:02:59 AM EST

Bridgeport police contract wins final OK - Topix

BRIDGEPORT -- A new police contract that defers raises for two years and contributes $824,000 toward reducing this year's $20 million deficit has won final approval from the City Council.

While the wage pact for the Police Department's 434 officers passed unanimously Monday night, several council members worried the city will face millions in expenses in year three and four of the contract.

The police union narrowly approved the contract last month.

The contract, which avoids threatened police layoffs, calls for no raises in the first two years and 6 and 5 percent raises in the last two years. Those raises add up to $2.5 million over the two-year period.

"I can't vote for a contract that's going to increase taxes without knowing where the money is coming from," said council member James Holloway, D-139, who later voted for the pact. "This is going to kick in and the city is going to have to find the money."

Mayor Bill Finch conceded the pact represents "a bit of a risk, considering the current climate. But I believe we have to preserve public safety. No one knows what's around the corner. But it's a reasoned man's approach to do this."

"Taxpayers fear what year three will bring," added council member Bob Walsh, D-132. "They don't see a plan for how we get to year three and four. I, too, fear what the future will hold."

Finch said his plan is simple. "If it means cutting other parts of the budget to maintain police and fire, I will present a budget that does that," the mayor said.

"We are skating on thin ice and fighting hard not to lose financial control to the state," Finch added, referring to possible imposition of a state financial review board if the city does not end the fiscal year in the black.

The Finch administration has sought to convince municipal unions to give back $4.5 million in scheduled raises or other benefits this year to help close the deficit, and the mayor is about halfway toward meeting his goal. Negotiations are under way with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the city's biggest union, which is being asked for $1.2 million in givebacks.

The city has found about $5.2 million in other savings this fiscal year, and asked the Board of Education to return $7 million. If school officials do not meet that request, the city may be forced to make another round of layoffs.