By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
The Fraternal Order of Police, NWMO Lodge #3, has unanimously approved the city of St. Joseph's pay plan offer, and will end its protests outside of city hall.
The city is proposing a half-cent sales tax on the November ballot, which will help fund the new pay plan. If the sales tax doesn’t pass, city manager Bryan Carter says the new pay plan still will be in place, and the city will find a way to fund it.
"The salary increases go into effect October 1," Carter said. "We have sufficient funds to implement them for this year. However, if the tax doesn't pass, we'll have to go through a prioritization process to determine how we're going to arrange our services moving forward."
If the half-cent sales tax passes, it would go into effect on January 1st with a projected $5.5 million of annual revenue that would go directly to the St. Joseph Police Department to help fund the agreed-upon pay plan, which includes a $49,000 starting salary for officers, and a three percent annual increase.
The tax includes a 20-year sunset clause. City council will hold a special meeting Friday to approve putting the sales tax on the November ballot.
Carter says a recently completed pay study of all city employees sparked the recent discussions and protests from the Fraternal Order of Police.
"We just completed a pay study for the whole city for all of our employees," he said. "That pay study caused us to initiate discussion with the Fraternal Order of Police on police pay."
"We reached mutual agreement on something that's ultimately going to be good for the community. Law enforcement and public safety is important in St. Joseph and that's what this represents."
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