Salem council OKs pay deal for cops
By LARRY SHIELDS, Salem News staff writerSALEM - City council accepted a fact finders ruling for police that a calls for a 2.75 percent wage increase for each of the next three years for the department.
Police officers have been without a contract since June and Councilman Justin Palmer said the police union, which represents about 26 officers, is set to meet today on whether to accept the new agreement. Last month, the city agreed to a factfinder ruling for firefighters with a three-percent wage in each of the next three years and a concession in insurance coverage.
The non-bargaining wage ordinance received its second reading with a 4-2 vote with amendments making the the raises retroactive to Jan. 1 rather than July 1, 2008 and deleting the deputy service safety director's $704.57 monthly pay from the package.
The ordinance includes all seasonal and non-represented employees.
Council also passed the 85-15 percent general fund/capital improvement tax split with a 6-0 vote. Councilwoman Rita Joseph O'Leary was excused from the meeting. Palmer said the split was necessary to meet the financial needs for the year-end until next April.
He said council was not taking the move "lightly."
In other business, Council President Tod Mumpire cast a tie-breaking vote on a measure to reduce the sanitary sewer user amount by $15.34 in 2009.
Utilities Committee Chairman Dennis Groves sponsored the legislation that ended in a tie 3-3 vote with Councilmen Earl A. Schory II, Clyde Brown and Justin Palmer voting no and Groves and Councilwoman Mary Ann Dzuracky and Councilman Dave Nestic approving it.
Afterward Palmer, who chairs the Finance Committee, said he understood the importance of the ordinance but was concerned with a potentially large multi-million dollar investment the city will be forced to make to comply with the
Ohio Environmental Protection Agency regarding its phosphorus discharges from the wastewater treatment plant.
The user amount reduction amounts to about $80,000 citywide and Utilities Commission Chairman Geoff Goll said the issues with the EPA were considered when the commission approved the one-time measure.
Also, council approved an ordinance authorizing the mayor to file an application for participation for a lead elimination grant through the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development for lead control in lead-based paints in city houses.
The legislation recognizes there are houses that may be hazardous due to lead-based paints. The application is to participate in Operation LEAP to eliminate lead in housing units involving low to very low income families with children under six years of age.
In other business, resident Patty Colian told council she had a problem with the way park commissioners and Parks Director Steve Faber have been treated by Brown's Rules and Ordinance Committee which has been looking into the lease of a house at 712 Sunset Blvd.
The house is parks department property and inside Waterworth Memorial Park. It has been rented to a city employee since 1997. Brown has held two committee meetings charging a city employee has been shown favoritism. He has wanted to get inside the house, which he has repeatedly said has not been inspected.
Last month, the tenant, Ron Maniscalco advised he would be leaving at year end, but Brown has insisted on viewing the inside. But at a Nov. 11 committee meeting, Faber said that after consulting with the law director and commissioners, there would be no inspection until it was vacated.
The next day, Brown sent a letter to Service/Safety Director Steve Andres "demanding" to see the house before his next committee meeting set for next week.
Andres said with the tenant moving out he didn't see any sense in it and Brown took issue with Andres' use of the word "demanding" saying he didn't "demand" but asked and Andes replied that he had the letter.
Colian said there was a lot of work that had been done to the house at Maniscalco's expense and her brother helped him. She said the money he paid is more than what he's been paid in rent, adding it would have cost $10,000 to $15,000 to do the work.
Colian asked how it wound up on the Rules and Ordinance Committee instead of the Parks Committee chaired by Schory and Brown said it was because it originated with him looking into it.
Colian said it should have gone to Schory's committee and added that Faber and the commissioners, by way of all the bad publicity, were "getting the short end of the stick."
She said people won't vote for the next park levy.
"They think they're hiding something."
Also, resident Donald Baker questioned where the money from the citywide auction was going. He focused on the leaf vacs that were sold.
"Why wasn't the money used for a new leaf vac?" Baker asked. Andres said the leaf vacs were worn out adding it was a mistake to buy them in the first place.
"The guys hated the to use them," he said, adding he didn't want to throw good money after bad.
He said the future of Salem, and other cities, was in composting.
Nestic said he didn't want people to think they were wasting money.
"I've never lived in a city that collects leaves," he said and commended the past leadership "for what it's done in the past 40 years with a one percent income tax.
He said there was a lot going on behind the scenes. "It's wrong to put that impression out there that it's being wasted."
Larry Shields can be reached at lshields@salemnews.net
