Wash. Police Chief: New Contract's Salary Hike, Pay Raises 'Transformational'

BELLEVILLE, IL—Belleville Police Chief Bill Clay calls the new police union contract for his officers "transformational."

The contract includes a 28% jump in starting salary for officers and a series of pay raises over an eight-year period; loosens the residency requirements to let people live 45 miles away from the city to include candidates from Missouri; and asks senior officers to work overtime duties so younger officers don't have to handle all of it.

Clay said the city needed a new strategy to recruit and retain officers to battle a staffing shortage caused by the "demonizing" of the law-enforcement profession that had been building and then culminated with the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020.

The city currently has 64 officers, and Clay hopes to get that up to 72 this year. The goal is to get the staff up to 78 or 80, but that's not expected to happen in one year.

Belleville has been "like all the other law enforcement agencies across the country experiencing a very difficult time as far as getting people to come work for them," Clay said.

"Law enforcement nationwide has suffered greatly from all the backlash we've seen from the political rhetoric, the movements that really culminated I think with the George Floyd incident and then there was like a pile-on," he said.

"While I can understand politicians wanting to take action to address what they see as a problem in law enforcement or what's being presented as such, you have to think about what the message is you're sending because it's not robots," Clay said. "These are people, they're smart people. And if you are demonizing, generalizing a whole profession, that's going to have some very drastic effects. And it has had those effects."

The pay increases, new residency rules and modification in the way overtime duties are assigned are some of the changes in a 55-page contract that replaces the last contract, which was approved in 2016 and had expired in 2019.

City officials and the police union signed the newest contract last month.

One change that Clay said the city will not do is modify the standards for someone to be hired. He said he'd rather have lower staff numbers with qualified officers than higher numbers with people who aren't qualified.

"You want them to carry weapons and do these types of things and make these life or death decisions so you can't lower the bar," Clay said.

Mayor Patty Gregory issued a statement about the new contract saying, "It was difficult at times, but there was a great deal of team effort and collaboration" to get the deal approved. She praised all of the city employees, union members and the City Council for their work on getting the contract ratified.

Clay said he told city leaders, "We need a transformational contract to make us a viable, sustainable police department."

Clay said about 75% of the Fraternal Order of Police union members supported the contract, which covers duties for patrol officers and sergeants.

Gregory said the contract ensures "that the Belleville Police Department remains highly competitive, attracts quality candidates and is sustainable well into the future."

Salary increases

The starting pay for a Belleville police officer on the night shift will be $71,270 starting on May 1, according to the new union contract unanimously approved by the City Council.

That's up 28% from the previous contract when the starting salary was $55,549 for a night shift.

Clay said Belleville will not have the highest salaries compared to some departments, but the new contract makes the city more competitive.

The new contract also calls for eight pay raises, with three retroactive pay raises to be given to officers in a lump sum and five new raises going forward.

Here is the schedule of the retroactive pay raises:

2% for May 1, 2019
2% for May 1, 2020
3% for May 1, 2021

Here is the schedule of future pay raises:

2% for May 1, 2022
3% for May 1, 2023
2% for May 1, 2024
2% for May 1, 2025
4% for May 1, 2026

City Finance Director Jamie Maitret said the city had been saving funds for the retroactive pay raises.

"It seems like a lot all at once but the fact of the matter is we've been budgeting these raises," she said. "That money just carries over each year when it doesn't get settled."

For more information about Belleville salaries and salaries for government employees across the metro-east, go to the News-Democrat's Public Pay Database at bnd.com.

Residency rule for police officers

Clay said he first learned of hiring officers from other states when he visited Moline, Illinois, to check out that department's new headquarters. The Moline Police Department would hire officers who lived in Iowa.

That's a lot different than the mid-1990s when Clay was hired in Belleville and became the city's first Black police officer. At that time, officers were required to live in the city.

Clay's glad he can now hire officers who live in St. Louis County and city.

Indeed, the department has already received applications from Missouri residents since Belleville's new contract with the 45-mile rule was signed last month.

Capt. Todd Keilbach said a little over 100 people applied by the city's deadline for applications earlier this month.

Thirteen of these candidates have already passed the police academy and work for other agencies. They are considered "lateral" candidates.

Other candidates would have to be hired and then take the 14-week police academy course at Southwestern Illinois College beginning in May.

Overtime changes

Clay said the new contract changes the way overtime is assigned because the recently hired officers had to work all the overtime shifts because the previous contract based those assignments on seniority.

"And so the young folks get worn out," Clay said. "They leave."

The new overtime system starts in May.

"Everybody has to carry their load," Clay said.

Clay said stress and frustration levels can rise if someone has to work too many hours.

"Then you've got problems," he said. "And they're not talking to people in a nice way."

"They need their time off," he said of the younger officers who had been getting the bulk of the overtime duties. "They need to recharge their batteries."

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