Glen Cove, police agree on three-year contract

The Glen Cove City Council last week approved an agreement with the city police union that includes 2 percent raises each of the next three years.

The council unanimously approved a memorandum of agreement with the Police Benevolent Association that extends the police contract to 2020. The current five-year contract expires Dec. 31. The police union this month ratified the agreement 49-1, said Glen Cove PBA president Sgt. David Leon.

Mayor Reginald Spinello said before the council vote that the new contract “is a very fair contract to all parties.”

The pay increases between 2013 and 2017 varied between 2 percent and 2.9 percent.
The city agreed to a union request to allow 14 police officers hired since 2013 to receive full pay increases starting in 2018. The union had agreed to a concession in the current contract that those officers receive smaller raises than officers hired before 2013.

Leon said that concession came during difficult financial times for the city.

“It was a necessary concession at the time, and now I feel it should be lifted, and the mayor agreed,” he said.

The new agreement also spreads out termination pay over a two-year period. Retirees will have the option of requesting that payments be made over three years. Currently the city pays retirees in a lump sum. The city requested the change so large termination payouts don’t disproportionately affect a single year’s budget and instead are spread out over multiple years, said city spokeswoman Lisa Travatello.