Brockville Police Association President Tom Nappo responds to Brockville Mayor David Hendersons guest column in yesterdays R&T: Citizens of the City of Brockville an open letter from the Brockville Police Association . Unfortunately due to recent comments attributed to Mayor Henderson, the Brockville Police Association feels compelled to respond. The mayor has recently claimed that cost saving measures for the Brockville Police Service are not on hold and in fact a number of them have been implemented now. Having been a member on the Police Services Cost Savings Committee (representing the Associations interests), I helped create /identify the various areas in which significant savings could be achieved. Not one of these items have been implemented , maybe the mayor could list these items he is referring to? The cost savings are centered around restructuring, which can only be achieved through retirements and attrition. Until the OPP costing issue is resolved no member of the service will be leaving, as they would be giving up potential buyouts, increase of salary, and better benefits. This makes it impossible to implement the cost savings measures. The mayor who is also a member of the Police Services Board is well aware of this. So rather than use this year long moratorium (pertaining to OPP costing ) to allow the cost savings plan to be fully implemented , he has chosen to direct his energies towards leading the community into a year long state of limbo. The Brockville Police Association voluntarily accepted a negotiated 2 yr wage freeze. How many other police services within the province of Ontario did so? One! The Board was happy with the wage freeze as it would give them 2 years to get their house in order. Recently while sitting in on the Fire Arbitration hearing the litigator for the City commented about how the Brockville Police Association should be applauded for recognizing the economic landscape when they agreed to the 2 year wage freeze yet the mayor dismisses the wage freeze and continues to state how bad the deal was for the City. My job as President of the Brockville Police Association along with the negotiating committee is to look out for the best interests of the Association and its members and to negotiate a fair settlement. In order to reach the culmination of a deal, the Association takes into consideration numerous factors when determining what to seek and what to be prepared to give up during negotiations. We define the difference between wants and needs, we also understand and respect the economic state of the community and region as well as other police comparators. After taking all of those factors into consideration, past history has clearly shown we are almost always able to agree to a freely negotiated contract with the Board which is satisfactory to both sides. The Board when negotiating a contract has the best interest of the city and its citizens. If the deal they accepted was as bad as the mayor has repeatedly stated, then the Board more specifically the Chair of the Police Services Board should take full responsibility for dropping the ball and saddling the city with a bad contract. Who was that chair when that contract was negotiated? None other then Mayor Henderson. There have been numerous calls for the Brockville Police Service to locate and implement cost saving measures. With the Associations help significant potential savings were identified. With the timely moratorium what better opportunity than to allow the Service to actually implement it. I fail to see how choosing to remain in limbo rather than exploring possible significant savings in the meantime is for the betterment of the city and its citizens. Tom Nappo President Brockville Police Association
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 02:11:07 +0000
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