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News
Vote on Oswego Police pact pending : News : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisVote on Oswego Police pact pending
| Contract grants 7.5 percent in wage hikes over four years
| by John Etheredge
| 2/11/2010
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The Oswego Village Board is expected to vote next week on a new four-year contract with the department's patrol officers.
Karl Ottosen, an attorney for the village, told board members last week that the village's negotiating team and representatives of the Metropolitan Alliance of Police (MAP), the union representing the department's 38 sworn patrol officers, had reached an agreement on the contract with the assistance of a federal mediator.
Ottosen said he was told the officers voted unanimously to approve the contract, which grants them a total of 7.5 percent in wage increases over the four-year life of the contract.
The board will hold a special meeting next Tuesday, Feb. 16 at 6 p.m. at village hall to consider and vote on the contract.
Ottosen said copies of the contract would be sent to board members for their review well in advance of the Feb. 16 special meeting.
According to contract terms, the officers will see a 2.75 percent wage hike effective May 1 and the start of the village's next fiscal year. The following year, the officers will not receive any increase. In the third year of the contract, salaries will increase 2.25 percent and then 2.5 in the contract's final year.
Village President Brian LeClercq asked Police Chief Dwight Baird to notify the village's patrol officers that the board appreciates their service and willingness to come to an agreement on the new contract.
"These are tough economic times and we appreciate that they (the officers) understand that and are willing to cooperate with us," LeClercq said.
Ottosen thanked the attorneys for MAP for the professionalism they displayed throughout the negotiating process.
"We went in with a goal of maintaining that (professional) relationship and I think we were successful in doing so," he said.
Assisting in the negotiations on behalf of the village were Baird, Village Administrator Gary Adams and Ann Spears, the village's director of human resources.
Referring to the village's staff members, Ottosen told the board, "I just think that you should know that the (negotiating) team did an excellent job on your behalf and you had an excellent staff supporting you."
Ottosen said the negotiations were slow to start early last year, but picked-up momentum in June.
"While it took a while to get to June, the bargaining was about a seven month process. We got it accomplished and I do believe well under budget, but more importantly without going to arbitration," he said.
Ottosen added that an attorney for MAP told him it was the first contract settled by the union at mediation.
"I've had lot of them settled at mediation," Ottosen said. "But in this case the federal mediator did an excellent job in getting us to come together."
Baird said he is pleased with how the negotiations went and the contract.
"We did change a few things, but we've really put in to writing some of the practices that have gone on here," he said. "There were also a few changes to some operational stuff, but for the most part it mostly just puts everything into writing."
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