Lexington’s police union still undecided about whether to challenge mayor on use of cruisers
By Beth Musgrave, Lexington Herald-Leader | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
Gray made the change by executive order on Friday after a week of back-and-forth between the city and the police union over the use of police cars.
Members of some of the city's unions have questioned if Gray had the authority to make a significant change to the collective bargaining agreement -- even one that benefits police officers -- by executive order.
Det.
"Both the city and the FOP must agree to the terms of any change in benefits covered under the contract," Rothermund said last week. "The mayor does not possess the authority to unilaterally alter the contract."
City officials maintain that Gray has the authority to make the change but declined to provide any additional information to back up that claim -- including prior court decisions.
There appears to be no precedent.
"To my knowledge, the city has not previously issued an executive order related to a union contract," said
Straub then referred to comments made last week by
Capt.
Bartley said that in his memory, no mayor has ever tried to make a material change to a collective bargaining agreement by executive order. During Mayor
"More people is not an emergency," Bartley said.
In addition to police and fire, the city also has a collective bargaining agreement with the city's corrections officers. Officials with that union could not be reached for comment.
Gray's executive order does not cite an emergency. It does say that the city has had an unusual uptick in crime this summer. Gray has said that the unlimited use of police vehicles will stop once the spike in crime has gone down but has declined to elaborate on how the city will make that determination.
The firefighters union is watching the developments closely. They begin negotiations on their contract in coming weeks, Bartley said.
The police union and the city had been negotiating for six months on reinstating the personal use benefit before Gray made the change Friday. The benefit was halted in 2012 as part of an effort to cut costs. But only allowing police officers to drive their vehicles home and to work did not generate the
After the estimates showed that there were limited cost savings, the city and the union began to talk about trying to reinstate the benefit. The union suspended its vote
Union officials said the vote was suspended because they felt that comments made by Gray's staff made it appear that the police were at fault for the loss of the benefit.
Gray has said that his staff was simply stating facts of the collective bargaining agreement -- the police opted to take the restriction on personal use of police cars over other cuts such as a changes to health insurance benefits.
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