Vernon Cops, Town Officials Reacting To Contract Arbitration Decision

VERNON, CT — Both the union representing the Vernon Police Department and municipal officials are reacting to an arbitration decision on a new three-year contract for the officers.

The arbitration award was issued on June 21 and police union president Thomas Van Tassel shared details and an accompanying union statement with Patch on July 9. Municipal officials commented Wednesday. The new contract includes wage and equity increases, pension enhancements, additional vacation time and a slight increase to employee contributions for health insurance.

Town officials are reviewing the award and seems it will eventually climb further up the legal ladder.

Here are the highlights of the terms:

• The police were awarded their proposal of 3 percent raises each year, retroactive to July 1, 2022. The town's proposal was 2.25 percent for 22-23; 2.25 percent for 23-24; and 2.75 percent for 24-25.
• Officers at the top steps of the wage tables will also receive a $3,000 equity adjustment.
• Newer officers can earn up to 25 vacation days instead of the 20 they were capped at, but it will not take effect until 2027. Officers hired since 2017 will be able to get paid out for 30 days of accrued sick time when they retire. It was previously zero. The move puts them in the same category as officers hired between 2012 and 2017.
• Officers hired after 2012 can now retire at 25 years service regardless of their age. It was 25 and 50 years old for them perviously. The clause only affects officers hired between the ages of 21 and 24 and has no effect until at least 2037.
• Officers' insurance premium contributions will increase from the current 14 percent to 16 percent in 23-24 and 17 percent in 24-25, which was the town's proposal.

"To our surprise, the council has been left in the dark about all of this which is concerning, especially with the amount of tax payer dollars that the town has spent to fight all of this and clearly intends to continue fighting this even after the award was issued even though their representative on the arbitration panel agreed with all of the decisions that made up the award ."

When contacted by Patch, one Vernon Town Council member politely refused to address that the arbitration award was even brought up in executive session this week at the monthly council meeting.

Here is the statement from the town of Vernon regarding the arbitration award:

"The Vernon Town Council, Mayor Dan Champagne and Town Administration continue to strongly support the men and women of the Vernon Police Department, who protect and serve our community.

"The Town of Vernon is petitioning the Superior Court to review the recent arbitration award, which we believe is legally defective based on the procedure agreed to by the parties at the arbitration.

"The Town has a solid record of working effectively, efficiently and collaboratively with labor unions to negotiate fair and reasonable contracts that balance our fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers with honoring the hard work and dedication of the employees that proudly serve our community. A similar result, unfortunately, was not possible with the police union due to unrealistic demands made by the current union leadership.

"Moving forward, the Town’s focus is on maintaining the integrity of this legal proceeding. We will not respond to any bad-faith commentary. The matter is being handled by special labor counsel."

Here is the full reaction from the police union's negotiating committee:

"The hardworking and dedicated members of the Vernon Police Association are pleased with the recent arbitration award issued by a three member panel of the State Board of Mediation and Arbitration. Although we would have preferred to ratify our contract prior to arbitration, as evidenced by our good-faith efforts, the Town administration’s proposals and tactics throughout negotiations were both insulting and disheartening. Their failure to come to the table with fair and reasonable proposals and participate in a productive manner culminated with them declaring impasse which initiated mandatory interest arbitration. Following the Town’s decision to declare impasse, the members of the Vernon Police Association voted unanimously to proceed with arbitration against the Town.

"The arbitration award was issued on June 21, 2023 and awarded nine of ten outstanding issues to the Association, which included wage and equity increases, pension enhancements, additional vacation time and a slight increase to employee contributions for health insurance. It is important to note that the Town’s highly experienced arbitrator was in agreement on all issues awarded to the Association. We are grateful that the arbitrators agreed with our argument that in order for the Vernon Police Department to stay viable in today’s complex world, it was vital to improve our benefits so that we could retain our experienced officers and recruit qualified future candidates.

"Our success at arguing that the Town administration has engaged in a practice of continually increasing their own benefits while nickel-and-diming their employees was instrumental in obtaining this award. Additionally, the Association presented a plethora of evidence, including from a well-regarded economist, that our proposals could be funded with the money saved by the Town for the past several years on vacant police officer positions that we could not fill."