Why don't Columbia city leaders understand that it would benefit everyone if they communicated with employee unions regularly. Apparently the police chief and the city manager have not talked with the police association about using money saved from overtime to hire more officers. Yet they say it won't work. They should sit down to bargain in good faith with their officers. Overtime may not be the entire answer, but if they listened to the association, they might find that it is part of the solution.
City staff still plans to pitch tax increase for hiring cops.
By ANDREW DENNEY and ALAN BURDZIAK
Thursday, August 15, 2013 at 2:00 pm
Dale Roberts, the association's president, said yesterday the group isn't lobbying to eliminate police overtime completely, but a "tremendous cut" would be beneficial to officers who are stretched thin.
"The department has to have flexibility to have some overtime," Roberts said. He added that he has not discussed his pitch with Burton or City Manager Mike Matthes yet, but he has spoken with Burton before about overtime.
"We talked about looking at overtime as a measure as another way to demonstrate the need for officers," Roberts said. "That was the extent of it."
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/local/overtime-is-not-answer-official-says/article_5574ca4c-05d0-11e3-a888-10604b9ffe60.html
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