Rockville Police concerned about wage scale ahead of tonight's compensation meeting

The Mayor and Council are scheduled to meet tonight at 7:00 PM at City Hall to discuss the city's Compensation and Classification Study. But the Rockville Police union, FOP Lodge 117, is already concerned about the city's failure to offer what other jurisdictions provide their officers.

Lodge 117's president, Michelle Milne, appeared during the Community Forum at Monday night's Mayor and Council meeting, expressing concern that she might not have an opportunity to speak tonight.

Milne said officers are particularly concerned about two issues. First, the city does not offer a salary step scale, making it difficult for officers to forecast their income, she said. A corporal assigned to the department's Criminal Investigations Unit, Milne said that shortcoming is "unheard of in a department in this area." 

Noting that the physical demands of police work limit the productive earning years an officer can serve, Milne said, "I might be able to work for 25-30 years, and that’s kind of pushing it. I can’t get into a foot pursuit at 55 or 60." She argued that the department will have a hard time attracting and retaining officers without a step scale, like "all of the other departments around us are getting."

Another area of dispute is in-grade seniority. Milne, who said she has been with the department nearly a decade, said that the city's current system can leave officers with varying lengths of service time making similar salaries.

Mayor Bridget Donnell Newton instructed city staff to add a Community Forum to the agenda for tonight's meeting, which will allow anyone to address the Mayor and Council. Call 240-314-8280 by 4:00 PM today, or use the sign-up sheet before the start of the meeting.

ROCKVILLE POLICE FORMALLY REQUEST MAYOR AND COUNCIL GRANT COLLECTIVE BARGAINING RIGHTS

Jan Seilhamer, president of the union representing Rockville's city police officers, formally requested the mayor and council grant officers collective bargaining rights, at Monday evening's regular council meeting.

A few weeks ago, Seilhamer testified that the city's continued failure to reinstate salary step increases had left police force morale "at an all-time low." At that time, she presented the report of a forensic accountant, who concluded the city could afford to resume step increases immediately.

With no progress since that Community Forum appearance, Seilhamer returned with a formal petition requesting the mayor and council amend the city's charter to give police officers collective bargaining rights. Seilhamer said the city's public works employees already have such rights, which would include non-binding arbitration.

After outlining many months of delays and poor communication with the city, Seilhamer said the union has recently learned that its previous requests to the mayor and council were never even delivered to those elected officials by city staff. She also cited the city's own employee policy, which states on page 14, that step increases are to be based on "employee performance and availability of funding." Since the former has been outstanding, and the latter proven to be true, Seilhamer said it is clear that "the city is not bargaining in good faith."

The police union, FOP Lodge 117, has retained a lawyer, Pat McAndrew. McAndrew also spoke at Monday night's meeting, and presented a draft charter amendment. "The system in place now is broken," McAndrew concluded. Noting that Bowie, Frederick and Greenbelt are among nearby cities that have granted collective bargaining rights to their police officers, McAndrew asked the mayor and council to  “recognize what the officers in the Rockvile police department contribute to this community.”

ROCKVILLE CITY POLICE UNION SAYS FORCE'S "MORALE IS AT AN ALL-TIME LOW"

The union that represents Rockville's police officers is asking the Mayor and Council to reverse cutbacks in officers' compensation, now that the recession is over. Officer Jan Seilhamer, who is the union's president (and an Army veteran of Operation Desert Storm), said "morale is at an all-time low within the police department," due to the reductions.

Speaking at the last council meeting, Seilhamer argued that the city can easily afford to restore step increases to officers, as jurisdictions with worse economies have already done so. A forensic accountant the Rockville Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 117 hired to review the city's finances concluded the city is in "excellent financial health," Seilhamer noted.

Given that context, Seilhamer said, officers see "a mayor and council who do not value our contributions and sacrifices. We have sacrificed time with our families, we have sacrificed our bodies for this city."

A one-time FY-2015 bonus is "unacceptable," Seilhamer said, especially when officers may be ordered to contribute more to their retirement plans, to boot.

Seilhamer pointed to the amount of the city's surplus being spent on capital improvement projects in the budget as evidence of misplaced priorities. "When are you going to make the people who help make this city so great a priority?" she asked.

The mayor and council did not publicly respond to the issue in their Response to Community Forum directly following Seilhamer's testimony.