For the Record

Even as some union and city officials continued to express surprise that the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association and the Bloomberg administration reached a contract settlement in bargaining rather than through arbitration, one ex-police union leader offered the simplest of explanations: the deal made sense.

"I think wisdom prevailed," said Police Pension Fund Chairman Tony Garvey, who stepped into that job a year ago after 15 years as president of the Lieutenants Benevolent Association. "Both sides walked away with their heads held high, and they both did good business."

Mr. Garvey's assessment is significant because he and PBA President Pat Lynch had their share of clashes about bargaining strategy and philosophy over the years. Mr. Garvey was a strong believer in settling contracts through negotiations, while Mr. Lynch's three prior pacts were all achieved through arbitration. The 2005 arbitration award, which funded 5-percent wage hikes for incumbent cops at the expense of those not yet hired, created problems for the leaders of superior officer unions in the NYPD by forcing them to agree to givebacks providing similar savings to the city to obtain the same raises.

This produced more than a bit of grumbling from numerous uniformed union leaders, some of whom claimed that they agreed to defer their own negotiations because Mr. Lynch had assured them that he would not agree to a contract that created a two-tier wage scale. The PBA leader fired back a couple of years ago with a lengthy manifesto in which he accused Mr. Garvey, among other uniformed union leaders, of being too close to the Bloomberg administration and "bargaining by cover" rather than pursuing ambitious goals.

In an Aug. 26 phone interview, Mr. Garvey resisted the chance to suggest that Mr. Lynch had put aside his own lofty salary aspirations in agreeing to pay raises that merely fit a pattern set by the Sergeants Benevolent Association 14 months ago.

"I think the PBA made an assessment that it would be in their members' best interest to make the deal," he said, rather than enduring another arbitration process that — based on past history — might not have produced a contract for another three years.

This deal, Mr. Garvey said, offers decent wage hikes and solid longevity differential increases. It also provides three additional vacation days for new cops starting with their third year on the job, and undoes the biggest piece of damage incurred by incumbent officers under the arbitration award issued in May: the surrender of a vacation day to re-qualify at the NYPD shooting range each year. The tentative pact would have officers re-qualifying on a regular work day, as they did in the past, and those who already used a vacation day for that chore would have it restored.

"I thought it was a smartly crafted deal on behalf of the PBA," Mr. Garvey said. "And they got back the range day, which sat in the throats of the Police Officers."

The PBA had entered this round of bargaining with its usual extensive list of demands, including annual 10-percent pay hikes, differentials of between 10 and 20 percent for cops with college degrees or equivalent work experience, and hazardous duty pay for all its members. It was originally expected to seek arbitration for the sixth time in the past seven contracts. Mr. Garvey noted the worsening city economy and the union's failure to make headway on the college and hazardous duty pay demands in previous arbitrations and said, "At the end of the day they probably realized they would not be able to get these additional items."

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George Martin, the co-captain of the 1986 New York Giants Super Bowl champions who walked cross-country to raise money to assist seriously ill workers who toiled at Ground Zero following 9/11, will be among those honored at the Sergeants Benevolent Association's 101st annual Heroism Awards event Oct. 29 at the New York Hilton.

The union will also posthumously recognize three of its former members: Sgts. Edward Thompson and Michael Ryan and Ret. Sgt. Claire Hanrahan. Cocktails will be served at 6 p.m., with the reception at 7:30.

Tickets are $150, and checks should be made payable to the Sergeants Benevolent Association. For further information, call Colleen Ashton at (212) 343-5642.

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Our warm congratulations to Shalika Hossain of our circulation department, who gave birth to a 5-pound, 11-ounce baby boy, Aamir, Aug. 29 at Long Island College Hospital. He is the third son for her and her husband, Mohammed.