Newtown Police Contract Nearing to Finalized Deal With Township

NEWTOWN SQUARE–On behalf of the , Det. Joseph Vandegrift stood before the March 14 to "speed up the process" of finalizing their 2009-2011 police contract with the township.

According to Vandegrift, officers have been without a signed contract for six years now but the negotiation process for the current contract began in 2009.

"We're very frustrated because we're two-and-a-half years into a three-year contract that has not been signed yet," said Vandegrift.

In addition, Vandegrift said the officers have not seen a raise in 14 months now and in 2010 and 2011 a pay raise freeze was implemented.

In November 2010, Vandegrift said the police department went before the board to discuss their police contract and were "assured that they were a matter of days away from it being settled, or so we were under the impression," said Vandegrift.

The department was approached by Supervisor Joseph Catania and Blue Cross Blue Shield for an alternative medical plan to accept higher co-pays. The police department has accepted to pay higher co-pays to possibly a $10/20 plan. Their current co-pay is a $5/10 plan. The township could see a possible savings of $115,000 from this change alone.

"We are the only employees in the township that pay for medical at this time," said Vandegrift. "We were willing to do this as a sign of good faith, if it was going to help facilitate the contract. I know everyone's having trouble across the country money-wise and $115,000 is a benefit to the township."

Vandegrift said the department was more than willing to accept this if it would mean it would help facilitate the process for a signed contract.

During the negotiation process, Vandegrift said police were told by the township that they would be able to fill their vacancies on the force. The department lost three officers in two years.

One was replaced in December of last year while another officer retired due to disability. Vandegrift said police believed another hire was to be made in January but now mid-March, the department is still down one officer.

"We were told we would be funded the second part of the year," said Vandegrift about hiring another officer. "And we're coming up to the second part of the year now."

Supervisor Dr. Ross Lambert placed a motion to start the process of the hiring of a new officer.

"June 30 is the second half of the year and to hire someone, it takes several months to hire that person so the process should start now," said Lambert on his decision. "I would like to start the officer as soon as possible. I don't think it's fair to the department or the township to be down a police officer."

According to Township Manager Jim Sheldrake, in comparison to other townships with the same number of people, Newtown's police department is not over staffed and it is "definitely not under staffed."

Catania seconded Lambert's motion and said his decision from the beginning was not to expand the police force than it already was (a total of 16 officers) without a study or to decrease the force without a study.

"We're not building an empire," said Catania. "We're just replacing what's lost already and I don't see anything wrong with that."

Chairman George Wood disagreed and believed to hire another officer would mean another increase to the town's budget.

"The budget we now have is a 9 percent increase and to add another police officer is going to be beyond for this year," said Wood. "Sometimes you have to cut personnel and that's a place that we could do it and, quite frankly, we haven't suffered as a result of it either economically or safety-wise."

Vice Chairwoman Linda Houldin abstained her vote asking for further research but later changed her mind and voted with Lambert and Catania, passing the motion 3-1 to start the process of hiring a new officer.

Although he didn't go into specifics of the deal, Vandegrift said an offer was extended by the township after Monday night's meeting in which a pay raise was honored by the township and is currently "ironing out the wording" of the contract.

"We just want to work with the township and if this is willing, we can get this settled soon," said Vandegrift hopeful.