Pay and performance are at the forefront of the new contract ratified by majority vote from the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association’s 740-strong members.
The four-year agreement, seen by WBFO, is effective retroactively, starting July 1, 2021 and running through June 2025.
Almost all employees of the Buffalo Police Department are union members, which has historically given the Buffalo PBA a powerful vantage point for contract negotiations with the city.
This time, negotiations between the two parties have been ongoing since 2020, and the union has been operating without a contract since July 1, 2021.
The union vote is one of the final steps toward an active contract, but the agreement will only be fully ratified upon review by the Buffalo Fiscal Authority and approval from the city’s Common Council, according to the agreement draft.
What’s new?
In what will be seen as a win for the Buffalo PBA, the agreement includes a significant pay raise for all members of up to 4% dating back to the contract start date – a move that will likely cost the city millions in taxpayer dollars.
Effective July 1 2021 union members get a raise of 3%. That increases to a 4% pay bump from July 1, 2022 and every July 1 through 2024.
But for the first time, the union has agreed for employees to undergo quarterly evaluations, which could lead to extra training for officers and other sworn members of the BPD.
A residency requirement has also been reinstated. It decrees that members live in the city for seven years, but only applies to those employed after the agreement is fully ratified.
The residency requirement is not completely new – the same seven year mandate was included in an old contract between the union and the city between 2015 and 2019. That mandate expired when the contract ended without another in place, a mechanism known as a sunset clause.
The same applies here, meaning that the seven-year residency requirement is currently only applicable until June 30, 2025 unless a new contract is ready before that date.
If these four-year long negotiations are anything to go by, it seems unlikely that the next transition between contracts will be smooth.
In this case, both entities came to loggerheads and a mediator was brought in to shimmy things along, according Buffalo PBA President, John Evans.
"Any dealings with the city are, I’m not gonna say contentious, but they’re very fragile. You never know when things can break down. And to come this far and get to this point, I'm somewhat encouraged,” Evans said.
“In this instance, we did see some common ground with the city and were able to get a tentative contract put together,” he added.
What else is in the new contract?
Health insurance. Some employees will contribute to health insurance for longer than before. New hires after ratification and approval of the agreement will contribute for 10 years rather than the previously agreed four.
Longevity. The longevity pay rate for employees has increased by $20, and will also be applied retroactively each year from July 1, 2021.
How did the city do in negotiations?
Although the performance evaluations could be seen as a win for the city and a concession for the police union, they are a critical standard for retaining accreditation from the state - a standard required by the city charter. Evaluations are therefore a basic requirement by the terms of the New York State Division of Criminal Justice and must be in place to comply with Buffalo’s local laws.
The residency requirement is flimsy. It could be null and void come July 1, 2025 thanks to the aforementioned sunset clause.
And it looks as though the city conceded in terms of the length of the requirement: in a 2021 resolution submitted by the city to the state, a career-long residency requirement is to be proposed in any contract negotiation between the Buffalo PBA and the city.
Evans says the city did indeed put that on the table, but the union pushed back and won out, securing the seven-year time limit and retaining the sunset clause.
Not to mention that the pay increases for BPD employees will total millions of dollars and is bound to dent the city's budget.
The tentative contract will now be sent to Buffalo’s Common Council to be reviewed.
