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Village and police reach deal on four-year contract
After months of tweaking an agreement acceptable to both parties, the Wolverine Lake Village Council and the village’s police command officers have struck a four-year agreement that is retroactive to July 1, 2010 and runs through June 30, 2014.
“It was a lot of house-keeping (and) clean up,” said Ed Sienkiewicz, a village councilman and member of the village’s negotiations committee. “There was a lot of conversation to get the verbiage down, but no stumbling blocks.”
The command officers staff is comprised of Captain John Ellsworth and Sergeant Dave Cunningham.
The duo made concessions on compensation time, which was reduced from 200 hours to 120 hours. They also agreed to change the health insurance opt-out date to Dec. 31 to coincide with the patrol officers’ contract.
“We wanted both groups to have the same date,” said Village Council President John Magee.
Otherwise, the contract is status quo with no additional pay for the duration of the agreement and no changes to holidays or the vacation schedule.
“It gives each some assurance of where we are going,” Magee said. “Though there’s no raise, there’s no cut, either. It gives them some stability for the next four years.”
The contract was structured to mirror the officers’ contract.
“It’s pretty obvious we understand the situation the village is in,” Ellsworth said. “Fund balance is fine, but we make a good living and it’s in the best interest of the village (for us) to not hold them hostage for more money.” Ellsworth said the contract was fair overall.
“We have a good working relationship between us and council — we are satisfied where we are now,” Ellsworth said.
3 Responses to Village and police reach deal on four-year contract
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What a Joke
October 5, 2011 at 10:15 pm
Yeepers…. Village DPW guys (of whom are by far the best, hardest working and least complaining of any other municipality in these parts) get a complete and total slap in the face with a retroactive reduction in pay and benefits, and Captian Do Little and Sgt Crappyham get to keep a “status quo” contract (with a TON of latitude for O.T. and other “perks” the next 4 years.) Yeep.. That split with Walled Lake on shared police services (and quite frankly much better service) keeps looking like one of the greatest of many DUMB DECISIONS made by the village council of idiots these past few years.
Bill is the real Joke
October 6, 2011 at 2:24 pm
Sir, I will agree with you on the part about the DPW being the best in the area… but you again lie to us about their “Pay and benefits”. They too have held status quo for the next 3 years. They didnt have any reduction in pay See the earlier article from August Spinal Column) and the Captain and Sgt. don’t get overtime. Your hate shows thru your posts Bill… now shut up and go away
Donny Hykial
October 8, 2011 at 2:06 am
Yarly budgets of every municipality are made publicly available on line and I strongly encourage every resident to look them up. Await with baited breath comparisons between budgeted and finally disbursed amounts by my community from the past several years in which to make educated decisions as to if we are residents have been scammed by our council if the return of our own police force was a fiscally prudent decision. So far the evidence points to the contrary.