By Deidre Williams
The Buffalo News
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Now that an arbitrator has ruled Buffalo has to pay about $13 million in retroactive pay and salary increases to Buffalo police over two years, the city and the police union are looking for a fresh start for negotiations for a new contract.
The city’s police contract expired in June 2019. The only issue presented to the arbitration panel to decide was whether wage rates for members of the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association should be increased.
After analyzing factors, including the city’s ability to pay and the impact the wages have on the interests and welfare of the public, the Interest Arbitration Panel ruled on July 5 the city must pay $8.9 million in back pay for fiscal year 2019-2020 — an increase of 3% in salaries — and $4.2 million in pay increases for 2020-2021 at a 3.25% increase.
The award covers about 850 officers and retirees, said police union President John Evans.
The city set aside about 2% of police wages in anticipation of the ruling. The balance will come out of the general fund, said city Finance Commissioner Delano Dowell.
“In the arbitration ruling you’ll see in there they noted the $161 million in state aid that the city received. They noted $331 million that the city received in ARP funds; they noted increase in sales tax. ... They looked at fiscal year 2022 actual dollars,” said Dowell during the Common Council’s finance committee meeting Tuesday.
The city can use “lost revenue” funds from the American Rescue Plan but will not at this time, he added. The city received $331 million in that pot of federal Covid stimulus money.
“We have general fund money,” Delano said. “We did receive $2.1 million in casino funds that weren’t budgeted for so we have the option to either use the casino money that wasn’t budgeted for the first quarter from January to March — and then we also receive another payment from the Senecas for their second quarter (payment) so we have the option to either use general fund money or we can use ‘lost revenue’ funds from ARP.”
The city’s Law Department and the Police Benevolent Association started contract negotiations late last month for fiscal years ending in 2022 and 2023, city officials said. Both sides hope they can come to an agreement without mediation or arbitration.
“We don’t relish going to arbitration as you don’t have any control of the outcome,” Evans said. The recent award doesn’t go far enough, he said.
“Normally we would be happy, but seeing that inflation chewed up all of this award, we weren’t able to make any headway financially. That being said, the hope is we can come to an agreement for a deal moving forward,” he said.
“The city and PBA are in early talks and so we’re hopeful that those will come up to an agreement so that it doesn’t go to an arbiter, but we don’t know how it’s going to turn out,” said University Common Council Member Rasheed N.C. Wyatt during Tuesday’s meeting. “There’s already been some talks so we’re hopeful that it’ll go a little smoother and they don’t end up going to this arbitration.”
Looking forward, Common Council members hope some of the changes they want — like a residency requirement for officers — will be included in the new contract, Niagara Council Member David Rivera said Tuesday. Many residents and some Council members feel police officers should live in the city.
“It’s good for the city,” Rivera said. “Now they’re entering into a new contract (talks) and hopefully they’ll sit down together, and we can come to an agreement that not only includes perhaps pay increases but other issues such as residency so, there are a number of issues that we have to put on the table. We have to work with the union to get them to support some of the asks that the city has. But that’s part of negotiations and hopefully these negotiations start up on the right foot where we don’t have to go into mediation and then arbitration.”
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