Final vote delayed on police pact

The six members of the Omaha City Council hung together Tuesday to unanimously approve changes to the mayor’s proposed police contract.

However, they turned down three additional contract proposals from council members Franklin Thompson and Jean Stothert. They also postponed a vote on the contract to April 27.

The proposed changes to Mayor Jim Suttle’s police contract were unveiled Monday by all six council members.

The changes would require police to put more of their paychecks into the troubled police and fire pension fund.

They would revise the way pensions are calculated; one provision would calculate new recruits’ pensions on base pay only.

And the proposed five-year contract would become a three-year deal, with wage increases only in the last year.

Suttle has said he has no objections to the council’s changes, so long as they are fair and legal.

He said the contract his administration negotiated begins to shore up the long-term pension fund shortfall estimated at $500 million.

Suttle also says the deal would end pension spiking, a practice that has allowed some police officers to boost their pension payments while working extra hours during their final years on the force.

Council members on Tuesday acknowledged that the contract ends spiking. But they say their additional proposals put the burden of past spiking on police, not taxpayers.

Suttle spokesman Ron Gerard said the mayor was “very pleased the council finally realizes that this contract ends spiking.”

Thompson’s and Stothert’s ideas to further amend the deal included a higher retirement age and lowering the maximum retirement benefit.

“I know I’m fighting an uphill battle,” Thompson said.

The council rejected those proposals on a 4-2 vote.

Councilmen Pete Festersen and Chris Jerram said they felt the council should focus on the changes the group as a whole had decided on.

By postponing the final vote, the council is giving the union and the city about seven weeks to go back to the negotiating table to discuss the changes.

Several council members have said they hope to be included in those talks.

Officer Aaron Hanson is president of the Omaha police union, which ratified the contract that Suttle negotiated.

Hanson said after the meeting that he was looking forward to “sitting across the table from the council members” so that “both sides’ concerns and viewpoints are discussed and respected.”

The delayed vote also means a new council member will likely have a say in the final contract.

The council is looking for a replacement for Chuck Sigerson, who resigned last month. That person could be selected April 13.

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