The Bloomington City Council wants to boost the base salaries for police officers by $5000. The council approved a non-binding resolution calling for the increase during last night’s meeting.
The resolution encourages city administration to renegotiate the collective bargaining agreement with the Fraternal Order of Police starting next month. The current contract expires at the end of 2022. Both city administration and FOP representatives would have to agree to renegotiate for a base pay increase to be reflected in the 2022 budget.
Mayor John Hamilton and police chief Mike Diekhoff did not speak during Wednesday’s meeting but expressed concerns in a joint statement issued prior to the meeting.
“It would be unprecedented to give a raise in base pay outside the normal bargaining cycle and process,” the statement read. “Normal union contract negotiations would begin in early 2022, but we appreciate the urgency and propose that negotiations begin next month.
Instead, the mayor and police chief suggested a one-time, $500,000 increase in American Rescue Plan Act funds to address officer retention and recruitment during 2022.
Councilmembers Dave Rollo, Susan Sandberg, and Ron Smith sponsored the resolution. Smith said ongoing retention issues within BPD must be addressed immediately.
“Turnover and retention rates are the canaries in the coal mine,” Smith said. “Minimum staffing levels is another.”
Smith said 98 officers have left BPD since 2011. 43 percent left for another agency, 22 percent retired, and 20 percent left law enforcement entirely.
Paul Post is president of FOP lodge 88. He said the FOP first raised concerns about staff retention and salary during its 2018 contract negotiations with city administration. Since then, he said the problem has only gotten worse.
“As we face the prospect of large-scale annexation, combined with an already short-staffed department, we are hurting," Post said. "Your officers are tired, their families are tired of the schedule changes, the mandatory overtime, the frustration of seeing no change on the horizon.”
BPD union representative Jeff Rodgers said officers do not enjoy coming to work and morale is low. Rodgers said two officers left for the Westfield Police Department this year, plus two additional officers last year. Another officer is in the process of moving to Fishers.
“So, whether the mayor’s office wants to compare us to that or not, our officers are making that comparison,” Rodgers said.
The city administration said added benefits, like the take home car program, make it difficult to compare police pay. It also said BPD enjoys unlimited sick time.
However, Rodgers said a 2019 study revealed BPD officers use four days of sick time, on average.
“The fact is that the mayor’s office is talking in circles and not listening to the facts because they don’t fit his narrative," he said. "We’ve lost 11 or 12 officers every year he has been in office. No matter what the mayor says, it is obvious we are not retaining officers.”
Much of Wednesday night’s conversation centered around whether the council is overstepping its boundaries by suggesting a salary increase. The consensus is that it is not.
Given the resolution is non-binding, it is only an attempt to get the city administration’s attention and let them know there is still time to renegotiate police pay before the 2022 budget is approved.
“We are not engaged in the collective bargaining process, that is not our job,” councilmember Sandberg said. “Our job is to manage the budget and make sure it’s hitting on all the burners with respect to the basic city services our constituents expect us to supply.”
The council passed the resolution by a 7-1-1 vote. Councilmember Kate Rosenbarger abstained, and councilmember Matt Flaherty voted against the resolution.
This story has been updated to include quotes from Paul Post and Jeff Rodgers.
