Posted by Hal Dardick and John Byrne at 10:17 a.m.; last updated at 11:18 a.m. with Mayor Daley quotes
Rank-and-file Chicago police officers will get a raise that is significantly less than the one Mayor Richard Daley pulled off the negotiating table last year under an arbitrator’s decision released this morning, a source familiar with the decision said.
The raises average 2 percent a year
for five years. That’s less than the 3.2 percent a year for five years that Mayor Richard Daley pulled off the negotiating table in March 2009. That offer had been on the table for a year, but the
Fraternal Order of Police was trying to get more. FOP President Mark Donahue declined to comment, saying he would speak at a 3 p.m. news conference.
Paying police less will save city taxpayers money during a recession-driven budget crunch, so the arbitrator’s ruling represents a win for City Hall.
Today, Daley told police officers to blame their union representatives.
"I ask all the police officials, all their families, ‘Don’t blame me,’ " Daley said, turning toward the police on duty at O’Hare International Airport, where the mayor spoke at an unrelated event. "It was not me. It was your union officials that decided that. Because like anything else, I have to be the whipping boy on a lot of issues. But I stood tall, 16 percent, and if I agreed I would have to pay 16 percent. I would have to find that. I would have to find that. That’s my responsibility. That’s not them."
Police
have been working without a contract since the end of June 2007. The
matter went to an independent arbitrator last year after negotiations
broke down.
Under the new deal, officers will get retroactive raises of 6.5 percent, and the rest will be paid going forward.
Although the arbitration technically only applies to rank-and-file
officers, lieutenants and captains will get the same raise because of
clauses in their recently-approved contracts.
Daley said the city will find the money to pay for the raises, just
as they would have had the arbitrator awarded a higher amount. "That’s
my word," Daley said during a news conference about a program to train
airport employees to aid disabled travelers.
City Hall has set
aside $70 million to cover the costs of the decision and a similar one
expected for the city’s firefighters, said Laurence Msall, president of
the Civic Federation, a government budget watchdog.
Ald. Robert Fioretti, 2nd, said he expected the council to approve the deal, but he said paying for it may involve borrowing.
Back pay to June 2007 will cost the city about $160 million, said Fioretti, after attending a City Hall briefing on the decision. It will cost the city another $210 million during the remaining portion of the contract period, he said.
Absent the recession, however, it would have been far worse, he said. “This is the smallest wage increase they’ve had in history in a five-year period,” he said. The next lowest was between 1983 and 1988, when the total raises equaled 17.5 percent.
The city still doesn’t know the results of arbitration for a new firefighters’ contract, which could cost the city another $40 million, he added. And if the city loses a case related to firefighters’ hiring tests before the U.S. Supreme Court, it could be held liable for between $20 million and $100 million in damages, he added.
The arbitrator’s decision is binding on the police union. The City Council, however, must approve it by a three-fifths vote for it to become effective.
If the council were to reject it, it would be returned to the arbitrator, with the city paying the costs. A final decision could be appealed, but only on limited grounds, according to a spokeswoman for the city Law Department.
Officials
with both Mayor Richard Daley’s administration and the Fraternal Order
of Police are scheduled to brief reporters later today.
Police
got raises of about 4 percent a year as a result of an arbitration
announced in late February 2005. The four-year contract stretched back
to July 2003 and saw police union members chip in more to cover health
care.