Pasco police agree to contract

PASCO -- More than 2 1/2 years of negotiations have produced a contract that gives Pasco police officers five retroactive pay increases and a new work schedule that officers say will put more cops on the street at peak times.

But with the new contract already scheduled to expire Dec. 31, negotiations are expected to start on the next three-year contract in just a few weeks.

The new agreement adds about $450,000 to the city's annual police department expenses, according to information provided to the city council, which approved the 2008-10 contract on Monday.

It includes five retroactive pay increases -- four 1.5 percent increases for 2008 and 2009 and a 2 percent increase as of Jan. 1.

And it allows a two-year trial of a new 10-hour, 40-minute workday that begins Aug. 23.

What that means for the public is more officers will be on the streets during times that typically have the highest need, said Pasco Police Capt. Mike Aldridge.

For the patrol officers, it means they will work 15 days during a 28-day period, as compared with 20 days during the same period under the old eight-hour schedule.

Scott Warren, Pasco detective and union president, said the new shift is a compromise of the union's goal to have 12-hour shifts.

Pasco has been one of few law enforcement agencies to use eight-hour shifts, Warren said. Kennewick, Richland and Benton County have 12-hour shifts.

The longer shifts will provide an overlap of time where the previous shift still is working, where the eight-hour shifts don't, Warren said. He said the shift change also should help improve camaraderie because officers within a squad will have the same schedules.

The department will continue to have three shifts daily and two squads per shift, Aldridge said.

But the 45 officers assigned to patrol won't work the five days on, two off schedule they do now. Instead, they will work a 28-day cycle of five days on, four off, five on, four off, five on and five off.

Although officers still will work 160 hours in the 28 days, those work days are compressed from 20 to 15, Aldridge said.

The two-year trial will allow the department to see if the new schedule is cost-effective, he said.

The city and union will have to sign an agreement to continue the schedule or officers will revert to the eight-hour workdays, said Stan Strebel, deputy city manager.

Warren said the agreement came on the "eve of arbitration." The city and union had picked an arbitrator and set dates.

The last three-year contract also took nearly 2 1/2 years for an agreement to be reached, he said.

Strebel said the city will determine each officer's back pay. The city has anticipated the expense and set aside money for it each year.

Lynne Jackson, Pasco human resources manager, said Pasco's police salaries are near the middle of the cities Pasco uses as comparison. The city compares itself with Kennewick, Richland, Walla Walla, Pullman, Longview, Bremerton, Mount Vernon and Wenatchee.

But Warren said the union and city have differing views on what cities should be used to compare with Pasco. He said the union has been trying to get improved benefits for Pasco officers to keep the department competitive within the Tri-Cities.

In the past six years, the city has lost two detectives to Richland because they wanted Richland's better benefits, he said.

Warren said he expects negotiations for the 2011-13 police contract to begin in several weeks.

-- Kristi Pihl: 582-1512; kpihl@tricityherald.com