Departments see 3.5 percent pay increase

by Lauren McDowell
Staff Writer

Athens city police officers and firefighters will see a 3.5 percent increase in their next paychecks following the approval of the departments’ contracts.

Athens City Council last week approved the agreement reached by a city committee and the Ohio Labor Council Inc., a division of the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police that represents police officers and firefighters, said Councilman Dale Tampke, D-at-large.

The agencies contracts are renewed every three years. The negotiations for the most recent agreement were underway at the end of 2001.

The contracts are retroactive to Dec. 16, said Athens Police Department Chief Richard Mayer. Therefore, police officers and firefighters will be paid the extra 3.5 percent for their pay since Dec. 16.

This increase will bump a top patrol officer’s salary from $18.18 per hour to $18.82, and a starting salary from $14.31 an hour to $14.81, Mayer said. The firefighters increases will vary person-to-person based on individual’s salaries. The 24 full-time firefighters each make between $38,000 and $50,000 a year.

The extra money will come from the general fund, Mayor Ric Abel said. The fund, generated by income taxes, increases every year to allow for changes in city officials’ salaries.

The increase is estimated to draw $61,340 per year from the general fund, Abel said.

The money for the 3.5 percent increase will not take any more away from the general fund, as at the beginning of the fiscal year, the auditor’s office releases an estimate of how the income in the city will increase, thus increasing the income tax revenue. The estimate is used in the negotiation process to come up with a fair increase.