City Of Tulsa, FOP Reach Tentative Agreement

By Lori Fullbright, The News On 6 

TULSA, OK -- After layoffs and tense negotiations, the City of Tulsa and the Fraternal Order of Police seem to have reached a deal for the new fiscal year, which begins July first.

The new contract has no pay cuts and no furlough days for the officers, but also doesn't hire back the 89 officers laid off in January.

The agreement calls for officers who live outside of the Tulsa city limits to continue parking them, rather than driving them home. That will not apply to K9 officers who have special cages in their cars for the dogs.

The officers also will not have to pay a monthly maintenance fee for driving their squad cars to extra jobs. Many of the banks and jewelry stores who hire off-duty officers, say having a patrol car parked outside is a deterrent of its own.

The officers agreed to change how they accrue and use their comp time. They'll now have a 170-hour cap rather than 240. And trips to court and work calls on days off will not automatically be considered overtime, unless it puts the officer's work week over 40 hours.

Police union members had hoped making these concessions would allow the city to hire back laid off officers. In January, 124 officers were let go, then 35 were hired back in March, which leaves 89 still hanging.

3/1/2010 Related Story: Thirty-Five Tulsa Police Officers Back At Work

"I don't think it's good for me to give any false hope that we will be hiring back officers," Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett said. "I think at some point, we can, but I don't know when that's going to be."

Even though sales tax revenues were recently up by nearly 4%, the Mayor Bartlett says Tulsa is not out of the woods yet, although he says he would support hiring back some of those officers to replace those who are retiring.

Attorneys will now put this agreement into writing and the FOP members will vote on it. Their next meeting is May 19th, but they could hold a special meeting sooner.

The mayor's budget does require non-union employees to take eight more furlough days next year.

When officers took furlough days last year, the city often ended up hiring back other officers to fill those shifts at time and a half, which ended up costing more than it saved. The FOP tells The News On 6, that's why they suggested other concessions this time around.

3/24/2010 Related Story: War Of Words Continues Between Tulsa Police Union And Mayor