NYPD'S TRICKLE-UP PROBLEM

NYPD'S Trickle-Up Problem

Three years ago in this space, we stated following Mayor Bloomberg's contract agreement with District Council 37 that he was about to discover that, unlike being too rich or too thin, there was such a thing as a wage deal that was too cheap for management's good.

We doubt Mr. Bloomberg shared that sentiment as the savings from the DC 37 deal, and its impact on the contracts for other municipal unions, began accounting for a large share of the budget surpluses that the city has enjoyed since then. But the other side of that glittering coin is that the police union contracts that followed have made it difficult for the NYPD to meet its hiring needs and to fill vacancies in the first-line supervisory rank of Sergeant.

The latter problem became clear with the disclosure last week that the number of Police Officers who took the Feb. 3 promotion exam to Sergeant was slightly more than half those who competed on the one held four years ago. Compounding the problem, preliminary figures show that only 6.5 percent of the candidates passed, compared to 24 percent on the 2003 exam.

The two obvious explanations would be that either the candidates are not as smart or the test this time was harder. A third possibility, which could be closest to the truth, is that, just as fewer eligible cops are choosing to take the promotion test, those who do are not as motivated as candidates in the past.

The major reason, one which was cited by Police Commissioner Ray Kelly last week, was the last Sergeants' Benevolent Association contract, which was profoundly influenced by a June 2005 arbitration award for the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association.

The PBA deal provided two 5-percent raises for incumbent cops, but reduced the cost of the deal to the city by sharply slashing the early rungs on the pay scale for future hires. The SBA secured the same 5-percent raises, but because of a lower attrition rate in the rank than among Police Officers, was forced to make even greater reductions in the pay scale for future promotees to Sergeant.

The result was a new starting salary of $61,093 for Sergeant, just $1,500 above what a veteran Police Officer makes. As SBA President Ed Mullins put it, "You are asking them for greater responsibility, and you're not paying them for it."

Mr. Bloomberg, during the bargaining round that was launched by the April 2004 DC 37 pact, was intent on getting greater productivity from his work force. That posed political risks, however, for PBA President Pat Lynch, who was unwilling to have cops work extra tours to receive added compensation. Instead, he made clear during his arbitration that any offset of the pay raises would have to be accomplished at the expense of future hires.

Mr. Lynch came into office eight years ago promising to run the PBA differently than it had been during the previous two decades, primarily under Phil Caruso. But to ward off heat from a contentious membership that is understandably frustrated by the growing pay gap with suburban police forces and the Port Authority P.D., he opted for the same type of attrition-based contract, colloquially known as "screwing the unborn," that Mr. Caruso negotiated in 1988.

As the subsequent Sergeant bargaining, as well as that of the Detectives' Endowment Association, demonstrated, such contracts don't merely hurt those who haven't yet joined the NYPD. They also infect the career ladder, since union leaders representing higher ranks tend to be loathe to accept smaller raises for incumbents in order to preserve their pay scales.

Mr. Lynch, while short-sighted, was merely acting as most politicians would given similar circumstances. Those who are promoted out of the PBA and suffer the consequences of reduced pay scales in higher ranks won't be around to vote against him, and the fact that he appears likely to be unopposed when nominations for PBA offices are held next month suggests he has taken a course that a majority of his members approve of, however lacking in statesmanship it may be.

The one police union leader who negotiated a deal that offered the city true productivity, rather than merely cheaper costs for future promotees, was Tony Garvey of the Lieutenants' Benevolent Association. He agreed to have new members work 13 additional tours, and to extend by 10 minutes - to 8 hours, 45 minutes - the length of the tours for all his members, in order to preserve the union's pay scale.

One important incentive in the deal that made it palatable to LBA members was a pilot program under which Lieutenants who are platoon commanders in eight designated precincts work 12-hour tours. In return for those extended shifts, they make 60 fewer appearances per year. The prospect that this change will work well enough to have it extended to all commands was a strong inducement for other Lieutenants to accept the small extension in their own shifts as a way of keeping the pay scale intact for future promotees.

Mr. Bloomberg is somewhat constrained in addressing the recruitment problems he is now facing in the ranks below Lieutenant. He, and those who succeed him, are going to have to find new innovations - and hope that the union leaders they are dealing with are as progressive and willing to take a chance as Mr. Garvey - to make headway.

And one lesson that the Mayor and those who follow him should write large is that the money they save from attrition-based contracts is not worth the headaches that inevitably result.