Wilmette and its unionized police officers have approved a three-year contract giving patrol officers a raise of 2.75 percent retroactive to Jan. 1, another .25 percent on July 1 and 2.5 percent pay hikes in each of the final two years of the pact.
The contract, which runs until Dec. 31, 2018, eliminates a medical leave buy-back program that can be used as supplemental retirement for any officers hired after the start of this year. It also increases evidence technicians’ annual stipend from $500 to $750, and clarifies aspects of patrol officers’ 12-hour shift and time off operations.
Village trustees approved the contract without comment as part of the consent agenda at their Feb. 23 meeting. However, village and union officials said this week they were pleased with both the agreement and the negotiations that led up to it.
The new contract was the result of several cooperative bargaining sessions, Assistant Village Manager Michael Braiman said.
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“The village appreciates the strong working relationship it has with members of the police union,” he said, adding that the two sides have a long history of working together to reach agreements “that are fair and reasonable to both parties.”
Gus Horemis, business agent for Teamsters Local 700, which has represented Wilmette’s unionized police officers since 1973, said in a Feb. 23 email that the bargaining committee “felt we reached a fair agreement with the village, and we are pleased with the overall contract and the manner in which negotiations took place.”
Braiman said the village’s $64.4 million 2016 budget, approved last November, anticipated and included most of the 2016 pay raise, as well as the evidence technicians’ stipend increase. The quarter percent July raise will be covered by other personnel savings, according to Braiman’s written report to trustees.
The police union operates under the same two-tier salary system that has covered Wilmette’s non-union employees since 2011. In negotiations for their last contract, Local 700 accepted the two-tier system for officers hired after Jan. 1, 2013.
Both union and non-union village employees have access to the sick time buy-back program, properly known as the Section 105 Medical Savings Account Plan. It annually costs the village roughly $250,000, Braiman said. As of this year, and with the signing of the police contract, the program will not be available to any employees hired after Jan. 1; the only department where new hires will still have access to the program is for union-represented firefighters, Braiman said.
The last contract ended Dec. 31, 2015. Talks between Wilmette and the local began in mid-October of last year, shortly before Wilmette approved a three-year contract with its firefighters. Braiman said the sides agreed to bring in a mediator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, but needed only one mediation session early this year before reaching a tentative agreement.
The police contract covers 33 uniformed patrol officers below the level of sergeant who make up the majority of a department of about 48 sworn and unsworn employees, Braiman said last year. Local members ratified the contract on Feb. 9 before it went to the village board, Teamsters communications director Mindy Golub said in an email.
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