The practice of superior police officers being compensated nine days pay for every week of vacation came to light last year.
WEST SPRINGFIELD – The city has reached an agreement with the union for superior officers in the Police Department that for the purposes of computing vacation pay a week will be six days rather than nine days, as has been the practice.
“I think that the public and citizens of West Springfield were surprised to know that for years police supervisors were being paid nine days for a week’s vacation,” Mayor Gregory C. Neffinger said in a prepared statement. “This was an issue I knew they wanted me to address. A nine-day week was an enormous expense to the city. My main concern is, and always will be developing responsible fiscal policies for the City of West Springfield.”
The agreement with Local 3655 of the International Brotherhood of Police Supervisors is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2012.
The practice came to light publicly last year when a dispute arose between the city and former Police Chief Thomas Burke in settling up how much he should be compensated for unused vacation time. Dennis Lefebvre, a member of the Public Safety Commission, looked into the situation and found out that the practice was of many years standing, but had not been written down in any police union contracts.
Lefebvre said Thursday that he feels vindicated that the practice has been curtailed. The best he could determine from his investigation was that the practice developed starting in 2001 or 2002, according to the commissioner.
In place of the nine-day vacation week, the 15 superior police officers currently covered by the contract will get annual longevity payments ranging from $1,000 to $4,000 a year depending on the length of their service.
Lefebvre said many of those officers will be retiring soon and that the payments will not be made to future superior officers.
Neither the president nor any other officers of Local 3655 could be reached for comment.
However, Capt. John A. Ferrarini, a member of that collective bargaining group, said, “The union approved it so we must be satisfied with it. We’d rather have the nine days but the mayor negotiated a settlement with us and we accepted it.”