The city has until Oct. 22 to reach an agreement with the police union before a fact-finding report it received last week becomes public.
“I am going to make every effort that’s humanly possible to resolve this contract,” said Mayor Bruce Chuluda.
The city and the police union have been unable to reach a contract agreement for approximately three years. The city has wanted police to pay a portion of the cost of their health insurance. In exchange, the police union has asked to get back into the Maine State Retirement System – something the city has said it can’t afford.
The city received the fact-finding report last Thursday, Sept. 22. The report becomes public 30 days after the city and the police union receive it, if they do not resolve the contract dispute, according to City Administrator Jerre Bryant.
The city’s administration updated city councilors on the progress of the negotiations at the City Council meeting Monday night in executive session.
City Council President Jim Violette said he didn’t expect the council to give the administration any guidance on how to resolve the contract. He said he felt that should be the role of the administration.
“We were told a year and a half ago we’ve got to stay out of this,” said Violette. The city’s legal council told councilors it was inappropriate for them to get involved after some of them had tried to intervene to resolve the situation, according to Violette.
Chuluda said, in updating the council, he merely wanted to keep the council apprised of the details of the ongoing negotiations, as he has all along.
In other news, City Councilors adopted an emergency leave policy Monday night that has been critized by police and firefighters because it required them to use vacation time to respond to disasters. City councilors also adopted Monday an additional disaster relief deployment policy, which was proposed by the administration for the first time this week.
Bryant said the city adopted the first policy quickly after Hurricane Katrina struck. However, he said the second policy had been tailored for emergency personnel responding to disasters.
The new policy covering disaster relief will need to be approved on a second reading at the next City Council meeting.
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