Springfield Council OKs police pay raises; aims to address recruitment, retention problems

Springfield Police officers will get a 21% raise over four years after city council approval Tuesday while backers think it will help address a recruitment and retention crisis that has troubled the department.

The contract is good through 2026 because officers have been working under the terms of the previous contract for two years.

The 12-hour workday officers have been putting in was not addressed in the contract. The long days were deemed "an operational and financial necessity," said David Amerson, a staff attorney for the Police Benevolent & Protective Association Unit 5.

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Nine council members voted for the contract with Ward 3 Ald. Roy Williams Jr. voting "present."

Mayor Misty Buscher supported the contract but said things turned "political" when former Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin addressed the council about several consent agenda items, including an ordinance authorizing a supplemental appropriation for $2.37 million from an unappropriated fund balance.

McMenamin, who was term-limited in the April election, also took umbrage with the allotted time he was given to address the council, threatening to take up the issue with the state's inspector general.

The meeting also included an impassioned plea from Ward 1 Ald. Chuck Redpath Sr. for city council members to "show your guts" and vote for the raise.

"The number one issue in this city is safety and these people lay their lives on the line every day," Redpath said.

Amerson likened the police contract to a contract recently given to workers of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31. That was also a four-year deal at 17.95%.

"It was the obvious thing to do. It was the right thing to do," Amerson insisted. "People around here understand there's a recruitment crisis across all the public sector and this is the way the employers are responding to it."

The bump only puts Springfield in the middle of pay ranges for departments across the state, he added.

New officers will earn $78,800 annually. Officers coming to Springfield laterally would get up to five years, meaning a starting salary would be $94,500.

Amerson added it is the first pay raise officers have had since March 1, 2021, when salaries went up 1.75%.

He also pointed out it is the first time in the last three contract cycles that the union has signed a deal without going to arbitration.

Buscher said the city has to stay relevant with pay. The money to pay the salaries could come from a corporate fund surplus, she added.

"We're losing officers to the Illinois State Police and other communities, so we really have to look at our retention and work on retaining our officers that we spend money on training," the mayor said. "If we make them part of our police family, we care about them, so we want to retain them and want to recruit new (officers) and we want to fully staff our police department."

In a survey of officers likely to leave the department, pay was the number one reason.

SPD employs 217 officers but has a budget for 270 officers.

The 12-hour work day has been "deeply unpopular with most officers," and is "a safety issue," Amerson said.

"It's something we're trying to get away from, but we're not there yet," he added. "Hopefully, this is a first step in actually recruiting and retaining people so we can have enough officers to step back from that."

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Springfield Police get a four-year contract and a pay bump