After months of negotiations between the township and the police patrol, the two sides finally came to an agreement, and the Evesham Township Council voted to ratify the new four-year police patrol contract at the Nov. 12 council meeting.
The new contract spans 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, and has three primary features, according to township manager Tom Czerniecki — salary increases, the consolidation of salary increase step guides for offices hired before the 2008 recession and those hired after, and, most important of all, an agreement for the patrol to move to the township’s self-insurance program.
“Basically, higher copays, higher deductibles, a greater emphasis on proactive management of your benefits package…it really encourages people to use teladoc, to visit urgent care clinics rather than go to emergency rooms and participate in our wellness program,” Czerniecki said.
Mayor Randy Brown also extolled the virtues of having the patrol in the township’s self-insurance program, or gold plan as the township calls it, and said much of the negotiations were ensuring the patrol understands how the gold plan would benefit them and their families.
“The gold plan doesn’t harm their families, it actually helps them by the different things of which the gold plan entails, which is generic prescriptions, urgent care and things that will make life easier for them and even quicker for them,” Brown said.
Regarding the salary increases, Czerniecki said those would start retroactive for 2014 at 1.95 percent, the second year with 1.95 percent, the third year with 1.75 percent and then the fourth year again with 1.95 percent.
Czerniecki said the other feature is consolidating the two salary guides, which he likened to steps, where officers go into the steps system until they reach top grade.
“We have two guides, one for officers hired before the 2008 recession and one guide for those hired after, and we knew it was inevitable that we would have to consolidate those two into one 12-step guide,” Czerniecki said.
Chief of Police Christopher Chew said it took cooperation to get the contract done, and everybody worked as a team.
“It wasn’t easy, but cooler heads prevailed,” Chew said.
Chew also thanked former township manager Bill Cromie and the current township manager for their hard work, and said the contract ratified by council was well earned by the patrol.
“It was well earned by these guys,” Chew said. “Everybody benefited.”
Brown said with the contract expiring in 2014, it wasn’t difficult to reach a new deal.
According to Brown, during negotiations, many of the comments the township received from the patrolmen were the township works hard to give them almost everything possible to protect them when they’re out in public doing their jobs.
“We’ve got a first-place police department,” Brown said. “They know it, they like it, which was probably one of the main reasons why we were able to get a deal done.”
