On Monday night, the state-appointed Board of Police Commissioners proposed significant pay increases for high-ranking officers: 16 percent for lieutenants, 18 percent for captains, 20 percent for majors, and 22 percent for lieutenant colonels.
The Police Board is expected to vote on the raises today—and if recent history is any precedent, Mayor Cara Spencer will be the lone “no” vote.
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But if the proposal moves forward, it’s the city’s firefighters who will end up the real winners. That’s because of the city’s pay parity rules, which require that any raise given to police officers be matched for the firefighters.
According to City Budget Director Paul Payne, a larger share of the fire department falls into the ranks that would benefit from the proposed increases. The SLMPD has about 1,100 uniformed officer positions budgeted, including roughly 1,025 probationary officers, officers, and sergeants—positions that would not be eligible for the proposed double-digit raises. By contrast, only about 448 of the fire department’s 586 positions are in those rank-and-file categories, meaning a much larger share of firefighters would receive the big pay bumps.
“It’s actually a bigger dollar amount on fire than it would be for police,” Payne said.
One example shows why. The SLMPD is budgeted for 55 lieutenants who, under the Police Board’s newly proposed plan, would each get a 16 percent raise. Under the parity rules, however, any raise for police lieutenants must be matched by an equivalent raise for fire captains. There are 114 fire captains.
Payne said the city had already budgeted a 7 percent raise next year for both police officers and firefighters thanks to the Police Board acting against the mayor’s wishes to offer them. For the Fire Department, that was expected to cost about $4.4 million. But if the proposed double-digit raises for police command staff take effect—triggering corresponding raises on the fire side—that figure would climb to just under $5.9 million.
“The minimum salary for a fire captain is going to be something like $102,000,” said Payne. “These guys make overtime. Who making over $100,000 gets overtime?”
The proposed raises are also throwing a wrench in the city’s budget process, says Alderman Rasheen Aldridge, who chairs the aldermanic Budget and Public Employees Committee. Aldridge said that after the Police Board’s surprise announcement Monday night, he had to cancel a vote on the budget that had been scheduled for Thursday. Because if these raises are approved, money will have to be moved around.
“In my opinion, I say leave the police budget the way it is, and let them figure out how they’re going to pay for [the raises]. But we can’t do that with the fire department. We have to figure out with the parity how we will pay for it with the fire department,” he says.
There are also long-term implications. For instance, pension obligations would rise significantly because annual pension payments are based on an officer’s salary during the final two years before retirement. If the raises take effect, an officer in the command staff who retires in two years would receive a substantially larger pension for the rest of their lives than that same officer if he retired today.
Board President Chris Saracino has said the raises are necessary for officer retention. “The success of any police department depends on its people. We cannot afford to lose experienced leaders at a time when departments across the country are competing for the same talent,” he said in a statement Monday. “This proposal is about investing in our people, strengthening our leadership ranks, and ensuring SLMPD remains competitive for years to come.”
