Mayor, Superior Officers reach agreement on contract

Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone and the leadership of the Somerville Police Superior Officers Association today announced the signing of a new two-year labor agreement covering the 28 sergeants, lieutenants and captains of the Somerville Police Department.

‚ÄúThis agreement contains significant wage gains for the superior officers, but it also helps us extend and enhance the professionalism, training and accountability of our police force,‚Äù said Curtatone. ‚ÄúThrough this agreement, the superior officers also recognized the heavy burden that health insurance costs are placing on the city‚Äôs finances.  In exchange for a number of wage and benefit gains, they‚Äôve agreed to have their membership pay another five percent of their health care costs.  In taking this step, the superior officers joined the city‚Äôs non-union employees, the Somerville Municipal Employees Union Unit B, our school custodians and the School Department‚Äôs administrative and paraprofessionals unions in helping the city cope with the soaring cost of health insurance premiums.‚Äù

The new contract calls for a two percent pay increase retroactive to July 1, 2004 and a second two percent pay increase retroactive to July 1, 2005.  In addition, the agreement provides a one percent rank differential pay increase for sergeants, and more flexibility in the ways that superior officers can use vacation and bereavement leave.

In a first for the Somerville Police Department, stipends paid for firearms and specialty equipment and training will be tied to proficiency.  ‚ÄúIn a separate agreement signed earlier this year, the superior officers union made a commitment implementing the reorganization principles laid out by the Police Advisory Committee back in 2005,‚Äù said Curtatone.  ‚ÄúWe‚Äôve already provided the force with all new weapons and with federally-recommended training in emergency response tied to weapons of mass destruction. This agreement ties the amount of the superior officers‚Äô annual firearms stipend to their performance in yearly proficiency tests, and it provides a new annual stipend tied to readiness for WMD incidents.‚Äù

Somerville Police Superior Officers Association members had been working without a contract since June of 2004.

—— George P. Hassett