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Date: 12/12/2023
SPRINGFIELD — A dispute over the police supervisors contract that initially came through the City Council chambers with a roar last month concluded with a whimper at the body’s Dec. 4 meeting.
While Councilor Sean Curran led a furious opposition to the contract when it was presented on Nov. 13, the binding arbitration agreement handed down by the Department of Labor Relations’ Joint Labor-Management Committee ended up receiving the council’s support without pushback.
The terms of the contract call for 3% annual raises, retroactive to July 1, 2020 — a total of roughly $3 million — and include several items that will bring the bargaining unit closer to compliance with the city’s settlement with the Attorney General’s Office following the Department of Justice’s investigation of the department’s defunct narcotics unit.
Among the new policies were a stipulation that the department’s Internal Investigation Unit and Force Investigation Team will record their interviews with police supervisors during their investigations; implementation of a new disciplinary policy and matrix; a field training officer program through which academy graduates would spend 12 weeks with a field training officer and receive daily observation reports; an updated body worn camera policy; and an annual performance evaluation program.
As part of the contract, supervisors will also receive $1,000 stipends for their participation in the field training officer program and performance evaluations.
The contract is valid through the end of June 2024.
Curran’s “major sticking point” in supporting the contract was a policy that was not included in the agreement that would have extended the amount of time in which the city could bring a charge against an officer from 90 to 120 days following an alleged incident. This change would have brought the supervisors’ contract in line with the language found in the patrol officers union contract. He pushed for the matter to be sent to the General Government Committee, asserting that while the contract resulting from the arbitration proceedings between the supervisors union and the city could not be amended, a side arrangement could be made to change the policy.
While Curran’s initial motion to send the matter to committee was defeated, Councilor Tracye Whitfield, who initially supported the contract, reversed course and pitched the motion again and it was approved.
On Dec. 4, Councilor Michael Fenton, chair of the General Government Committee, told the council that the committee met earlier in the day and determined it would bring the issue back to the full body for a vote after hearing testimony from supervisors union representatives and Springfield Director of Human Resources and Labor Relations William Mahoney. He noted the committee made no recommendations on the matter.
Curran was absent from the meeting and council President Jesse Lederman’s call for further comment after Fenton’s report was met with silence. The 11 members present all voted to support the contract.
Separately, the council also agreed to increase the maximum age of special police officers working road details and other special details from 65 to 70. Councilor Lavar Click-Bruce, chair of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, presented the proposal to the committee.
Fenton, a member of the Public Safety Committee, explained that retired officers had previously been allowed to work such details until age 65 thanks to home rule legislation passed a few years ago. The proposal was the result of the committee becoming aware that some of the more active retirees participating in the program were aging out.
Special police officers are compensated not by the city or Police Department but by the entities in need of the details. Fenton used Eversource and the Springfield Water and Sewer Commission as examples.