Mayor John Hickenlooper’s administration has asked the unions that represent Denver’s police officers, firefighters and sheriff’s deputies to renegotiate salary contracts and accept a 2 percent salary cut next year.
Kelly Brough, the mayor’s chief of staff, confirmed that she and other administration officials have been meeting with all three unions to come up with ways to close a mushrooming budget gap for next year. She said she asked for the wage concessions during those negotiations.
“We went to the unions and said we want to work with you and spread this out and keep everyone here,” Brough said. “There is nothing harder on a family or community than when people lose their jobs.”
At least one union, the Fraternal Order of Police, which represents sheriff’s deputies, has rejected the offer. That union’s response, articulated in a letter to the membership, has created concern among rookie deputies and recruits that the city will lay them off.
Corrections director Bill Lovingier met with about 50 of the deputies and recruits Thursday morning and tried to calm some of the concern, but those who attended remained nervous.
One deputy who attended said the message was that if the contract doesn’t get renegotiated, then the city will start laying them off.
Lovingier said he was trying to reassure those he called to the meeting that layoffs, although a possibility, were a long way off.
“I assured them that what they were hearing were rumors, and they should sleep well and have a wonderful Christmas,” Lovingier said, although he confirmed that the Fraternal Order of Police and administration were at odds on salary concessions.
Brough said the administration is facing a difficult budget situation for the next two years given the slumping economy.
She said the discussions with the unions are part of a comprehensive approach the administration is crafting. Brough said wages and benefits were negotiated with the three unions when times were more flush. The unions represent employees of departments that take up roughly half the city budget.
“We’re still looking at other ways we could trim our budget, but it’s difficult at this point to find additional opportunities,” she said.
The contract calls for a 4.75 percent wage hike for police officers in 2009, 4.5 percent increase for sheriff’s deputies and 4 percent jump for firefighters.
Brough said the administration will unveil next week more precise dollar figures on the amount of savings it is seeking and some actual cuts. In 2003, when Hickenlooper first took office, the firefighters and sheriff’s deputies agreed to wage concessions while the police declined.
She said she remains “optimistic” that the administration will reach an understanding with the Fraternal Order of Police, which represents the deputies.
This time around, the Police Department seems more willing to negotiate.
“We may be looking at hard times,” said Detective Martin Vigil, the president of the Denver Police Protective Association, which represents officers.
Eric Tate of the Denver Firefighters Local 858, said the union is hiring a consultant to conduct its own analysis of the city’s finances before responding.
Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com
