Old Brookville details police contract

A new labor contract for Old Brookville police contains several cost-saving measures, including a lower salary for new hires and an option to accept compensation in place of health insurance.

The agreement allows for the rehiring of two laid-off officers and calls for a 9.5 percent base salary increase over five years.

The terms of the Old Brookville Police Benevolent Association collective bargaining agreement were outlined last week in a letter from Mayor Bernard Ryba and the village's police commissioner, Matthew Schamroth, to residents.

"Police services are the single largest item in our Village's annual budget," the pair wrote, "and this agreement will have a favorable long term impact on taxes including future cost savings as current officers retire and new officers are hired."

Under the contract, new hires will get less time off than current officers and hours that qualify for night differential will be cut for all officers. Officials couldn't provide an estimate of the cost savings Tuesday.

The contract is among the first long-term agreements between the North Shore villages served by Old Brookville police since Muttontown voted last year to break with the coalition and form its own department.

Two other five-year agreements were recently approved: a police protection contract, under which Brookville, Upper Brookville, Old Brookville, Mill Neck, Cove Neck and Matinecock agree to share costs and responsibility for the police department, and a lease for the Old Brookville police headquarters on Northern Boulevard.

The labor contract will go into effect in June and last through May 2017. It will cover about 26 PBA members.

Officers Andrew Foley and Robert Alvino, laid off after Muttontown's departure, will be rehired to replace retired officers Charles Clanton and Peter Barbour, according to the Old Brookville letter.

Base salaries will not increase in the first two years of the contract but will rise 2.5 percent in the third and 3.5 percent in each of the fourth and fifth.

The PBA's attorney, East Meadow-based Stephen Mc Quade, said the union worked hard in negotiations.

"It really is a testament to the members of the police department and their camaraderie . . . that they got the deal done in order to ensure that, at the end of the day, all members of the department would have jobs for the next five years," Mc Quade said.

The board of police commissioners' attorney, Melville-based David Cohen, could not be reached for comment.