Police contract draws fire

Amid heavy criticism from a group of businessmen and women, the newly negotiated police contract was put before a city board Thursday.

The Omaha Personnel Board said it will make a decision on the contract at its next meeting Feb. 25.

The board appeared to question some of the criticism aimed at the contract by the Omaha Alliance for the Private Sector.

The board is not the final word on the police contract. It also must be approved, or rejected, by the City Council.

“I do not want to be a part of a group who is not looking at the full picture, and not receiving the full story, before going further,” said Deborah Keating, a Personnel Board member.

The Omaha business group, which has about 20 members, has been taking aim at the city's police and fire contracts. The fire contract is still being negotiated.

The group has urged Mayor Jim Suttle to scuttle negotiations for both contracts and hire an outside negotiator to represent the city.

Suttle has rejected the request, saying he has faith in his team of negotiators.

One of the group's biggest criticisms has to do with the physical size of the contracts.

Dave Nabity, a spokesman for the group, placed several contracts on the table Thursday before the Personnel Board. He then told the board that there is something wrong when Omaha's police contract is 135 pages, while Des Moines' police contract is only 28 pages and the police contract in St. Paul, Minn., is 34 pages.

“The devil is in the details,” said Nabity.

He later noted, however, that the Omaha police contract may differ from those contracts because it contains the entire wording of the Police Department's pension and health care plans.

Other cities' police contracts, such as Des Moines', do not.

Nabity also later acknowledged — under questioning — that the Omaha police contract included about 30 pages of exhibits that the other contracts did not.

Still, Nabity said, the Omaha police contract contains about 100 pages if all the extra pages are excluded.

The size argument, however, didn't appear to carry much weight.

“Just because a contract is larger than something, that doesn't make it worse,” said Jane Alseth, chairwoman of the Personnel Board.

Nabity and the business group also objected to several provisions in the new contract, including those that would allow current police officers to retire at age 45 and incoming police officers to retire at age 50.

He said he looked and could find no other city that allowed police to retire so young. He also said that was unheard of in the business world.

“Where would you get that in the private sector?” asked Nabity.

Aaron Hanson, head of the police union, said Nabity appeared not to have checked with the cities that are used as comparable examples when the Nebraska Commission of Industrial Relations reviews the union's contract. The commission compares the city's contract with seven other comparable cities that are selected based on population and other factors.

Denver's minimum retirement age is 50, and Cincinnati's is 48, said Hanson.

Both cities are used by the Commission of Industrial Relations as comparison cities with Omaha.

Nabity also criticized a requirement that the city pay the salary for a police union representative.

Tom Marfisi, the city's labor negotiator, responded that he, too, had objected to that requirement, but he said the city was overruled by the commission.

“I have to live in the state of Nebraska, under the laws of Nebraska,” Marfisi said.

Contact the writer:

444-1309, robynn.tysver@owh.com

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