CHENEY – The city administrator Mark Schuller gave a presentation on the tentative Police Guild contract for 2023.
The previous guild contract expired at the end of 2022 and negotiations for a new contract began in Oct. 2022, according to Cheney Police Guild president David Bailey.
“We came to a tentative agreement with city administration around the first of this year.” Bailey said. “The city council must vote on the acceptance of the contract which is a collective bargaining agreement between the Police Guild and the city.” Bailey said.
If the police guild receives approval of the contract, Bailey feels that it will benefit not only the guild but the city itself.
“Wage negotiations, better benefits, more personnel, things like that, are all part of the contract.” Bailey said.
Bailey has been president of the guild since Sept of 2022, and said that there is a steep learning curve.
“I’ll be honest with you, this is a big ask. There are some definite financial implications involved with this contract.” City administrator Mark Schuller said while presenting opening remarks to the council.
“Due in part to the difficulties in the labor market, demand for police officers without proportional supply has made negotiations important.” Schuller said.
Schuller said that application pools are particularly weak. “We’ve had some turn over in our police department. We’ve lost candidates to larger and smaller departments as we are not very competitive in the wage area.”
Schuller gave as an example the wage differences between Eastern Washington University police and Cheney police.
“For us to lag 7.24% behind EWU in wages for police officers, is troubling.” Schuller said. “Not to disparage the EWU police in any way, but frankly comparing them with us is comparing apples to oranges.”
Priorities for the city concerning this contract include stabilizing staffing, addressing overtime, and improving the culture. The guild’s priorities are similar, and included an emphasis on work/life balance, specialty pay, and physical fitness.
Lucas is a former Cheney Free Press managing editor. He is a nationally published author who contributes regularly to several publications across the country.
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