More Tales From the City
On Friday night, RTV 6’s Jack Rheinhart ran a story on how the pay raise and retro pay offer by the city of Indianapolis to the police department had been taken off the table. I did some follow up on this over the weekend (which I managed to do and stay until 3 a.m. both nights by the way) and here’s what I can tell you.
FOP President Aaron Sullivan says the raise and retro offers were taken off the table late last week. He says the city told him during a negotiation session. He says when the officers voted against the Mayor’s proposal earlier this year, that’s when the city said it was off the table and no longer an option. He says the city then told him the money for their raises had been spent on other public safety measures, such as jail overcrowding. At no time prior, Aaron says, had he ever been formally told the raises and retro pay were non-issues.
I spoke with Deputy Mayor Steve Campbell this weekend also. Steve told me they had communicated with the FOP that the offer for the raise and retro pay was off the table. And the FOP must have misunderstood the city’s position. I did question Steve about the where there the money for the raises went, citing the sewer fund and County Option Income Tax were being used to pay for public safety. Steve told me the money was pulled from across the budget and that City Comptroller Bob Clifford could provide me with more details.
What’s interesting is the officers have been furious, as noted by the postings on Indy Undercover. It’s also noteworthy that as upset as the officers are right now with the city, between 100-150 showed up to help search for a missing child on the east side this weekend. However, the Mayor’s office does have a point when it says the Union voted down the offer back in July, but I do not recall the Mayor ever taking the retro pay issue off the table publicly, saying it was no longer an option.
Steve did also say that in a few days all of this will be Sheriff Frank Anderson’s issue as the new head of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Force.
I would hope the two sides might be able to work something out soon. The City-County Council meets Monday night and will vote on a raise for all countywide officers. And it looks like some action is being planned Monday night by the officers, that while perfectly lawful and in adherence to departmental procedures, could be extremely embarrassing to Indianapolis as the city will have nationwide attention with the Colts playing the Cincinnati Bengals at the RCA Dome for Monday Night Football.
I’ll be watching.
