City of Lawrence police and fire contracts were introduced to the Lawrence Common Council Sept. 18, and, if approved, will provide guaranteed annual pay raises and a revised vacation accrual process.
Initially, Council President Betty Robinson (D-at-large) said she would call for a vote on the contracts that night without referring them to a committee for review, but three council members — Tyrell Giles (D-District 1), Rick Wells (D-District 2) and Liza Chavis (D-at-large) — strongly objected.
Chavis said voting without a committee review would be an unprecedented step.
“This is a major contract that needs to be considered along with the budget because it has budget impacts,” she said, noting that Sept. 18 was the first opportunity for the council to receive any information about either contract. “The administration and police and fire have had months to discuss this contract and to negotiate, and to rob any council member of the opportunity of a meeting is just — it shouldn’t be stood for, and no one should expect us to do that after allowing everyone to have time to have dialogue. I hope that my fellow councilors have not colluded to make a decision to support this without giving every single councilor and your constituents the opportunity to even hear what’s in it.”
Robinson, who was newly elected in November, thanked the three members — who all served previous terms — for providing that background information. She referred both contracts to a Committee of the Whole for review.
Chief of Staff Zach Brown and representatives from the police and fire unions answered some questions about the contracts that night. Brown said raises included in both are meant to help with recruitment and retention.
“We in the (Mayor Deb) Whitfield administration believe this contract makes positive progress toward remedying this problem in our city and it sets us on a trajectory where we will be able to continue to retain our officers and keep a level of staffing in Lawrence that will serve our city well,” he said of the police contract, specifically. “This contract grants a pay raise of 5 percent in 2025 with successive 3 percent pay raises in 2026, 2027 and 2028 to our officers in the Lawrence Police Department.”
The change in vacation policy would provide annual vacation time at the start of a calendar year, rather than vacation building up throughout the year. It also would allow unused leave to roll over rather than the current practice of “use it or lose it.”
The fire department contract’s provisions for salary and vacation mirror those of the police contract.
Giles expressed concern about the potential financial liability from the proposed vacation policy change, stating that the city got rid of rollover leave about five years ago because of the large payouts when someone resigned or retired.
An attorney who assisted the city with negotiations said that to reduce that liability, both sides agreed that police and fire personnel could choose to convert some of their vacation into a retirement plan payment, rather than letting it continue to accumulate. However, he said, personnel wouldn’t be required to convert accrued time, so large vacation payouts could still occur.
Giles asked for more specific financial information related to the contracts. Controller Humphrey Nagila said his office did make a financial projection out to 2028, but he didn’t bring it to present to the council that night.
The council met as a Committee of the Whole Sept. 24 and approved a favorable recommendation for its next meeting, set for 6:30 p.m. Oct. 7 at Lawrence Government Center, 9001 E. 59th St. Meetings are livestreamed on the city’s Facebook page, facebook.com/cityoflawrencein and YouTube channel, youtube.com/@visitlawrenceindiana.
