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EAST LIVERPOOL -- City officials hope emergency changes to the police labor contract may help attract the right candidates.
During Tuesday's meeting of East Liverpool council's Finance Committee, members unanimously agreed to recommend amending a 2017 agreement setting the starting pay scale and tiers for patrol officers.
The contract was set to expire March 31, 2020, but the pandemic extended negotiations.
City Safety-Service Director David Dawson said that labor negotiations for the contract were postponed until May.
The city's Civil Service Commission wants to offer another entry-level patrolman's test soon. The administration wants the change in place before the testing.
The ordinance keeps the upper three tiers of compensation for patrol officer, but eliminates the two lesser paid tiers (fourth or fifth class patrol officer), as agreed upon through a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the patrolmen's union, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 29.
According to the 2017 police contract in East Liverpool, non-certified officers (those who had failed to complete successfully their Ohio Peace Officer Basic Training Academy) only earned $10.80 per hour. Certified officers then earned between $15.04 (fifth class patrol officer) and $23.10 (senior patrol officer) based on their years of service.
There is no mention made regarding a change for the non-certified officers. However, the MOU would increase the starting wage for certified officers from $15.04 per hour to $18.47 for new hires, eliminating the first two lesser tiers of fourth and fifth class patrol officer, effective Tuesday, March 30, 2021, which was the date of the Finance Committee meeting.
"Officers that are currently at the fourth or fifth class patrol officer pay rates will remain at those pay rates until a new officer is hired after March 30, 2021. In the vent that a new officer is hired, officers that are at the Fourth or Fifth Class Patrol Officer pay rates will be 'moved up' and will receive the pay rate of a third class patrol officer," the document reads.
Councilman Fred Rayl, who chairs the Finance Committee, said that the increase is much needed. "I believe it is imperative that we increase the starting wage," he added.
Councilman Ray Perorazio inquired about inclusion of a residency clause in the tweaked document.
Both Police Chief John Lane and Dawson didn't think residency would be beneficial. Last exam, only six applied for test with five electing to take it. "The starting wage for surrounding departments is so much higher than East Liverpool," the safety-service director explained.
For example, a Liverpool Township entry-level police officer was paid $20.88 per hour without union representation as of March 27. In Chester, W.Va., where like Liverpool Township all officers have to be certified, the salary is $37,950 annually with benefits.
The city of Salem, which has 23 full-time officers, start their entry-level, probationary patrolmen at $18.55 per hour.
East Liverpool Chief Lane told Perorazio, "We want the best people you can find. We are competing with townships around us (for police officers)."
While Perorazio said that he understood that, he doesn't see how someone who lives in Columbiana "is much good to us, but we will talk about that later."
The Finance Committee also agreed to pass the legislation onto council as a whole at their meeting Monday and also three other pieces of legislation, dealing with rock salt purchase through the Ohio Department of Transportation's Cooperative Purchasing Program, a Community Development Grant, and payment of invoices from Sundance, which provides the police department with its software system, and two invoices from East Liverpool City Hospital just now received from 2018 and 2019.
Council as a whole next meets at 6 p.m. Monday in council chambers at city hall.