City Of Tulsa Rejects FOP's Latest Offer To Rehire Laid Off Officers

The City of Tulsa has rejected the Fraternal Order of Police&#39;s latest offer. The city says the union&#39;s offer is $414,000 short of the savings needed to bring back the rest of the officers who were laid off in January. That leaves 87 officers still without jobs.<br /><br /><a href="http://managekotv.worldnow.com/global/Story.asp?s=12047067" target="_self">City Council Approves Grant To Hire Officers, Raises &#39;Lift&#39; Price</a>

Friday, February 26th 2010, 3:46 pm

By: News On 6


By Lori Fullbright, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- There are new developments in the effort to rehire Tulsa's remaining laid off police officers.

The City of Tulsa has rejected the Fraternal Order of Police's latest offer. The city says the union's offer is $414,000 short of the savings needed to bring back the rest of the officers who were laid off in January. 

Two of the officers have moved to Florida and 35 of them have been rehired. They report back to duty on Monday. That leaves 87 officers still without jobs. 

The mayor says it shouldn't be called a rejection because both sides are set to resume negotiations next week and hope they can reach a deal, if the right compromises are made.

Read Jim Twombly's letter to FOP attorney James Moore

Read FOP attorney James Moore's response to Jim Twombly

Aside from the money, a big sticking point is how long the deal is.

The police union has been submitting ideas that would save money from now until the end of the fiscal year or about four months. The mayor wants something longer. He says why hire the officers back now only to have to lay them off again July 1st.

The union argues things could change in the next four months, so why force a long term deal now? For instance, they point to a much larger number of officers retiring in May than normal because of a new pension incentive. They also argue that if the two sides are only about $400,000 apart, why not agree to what they have and hire back as many officers as they can, which would be about 80 percent of them. They say the city is sticking to an all or nothing attitude.

The mayor says he won't agree to anything that's going to hurt the city economically. The city says it doesn't want to pay out a big severance check again or disrupt the officers' lives, so it's better to make a deal that goes through next year.

2/23/2010  Related Story: How Much Did Tulsa Police Officer Layoffs Cost The City?

The union said officers would give up overtime and take comp time, which would save more than $1 million, but the city says some of that money has already been spent, so the actual savings is about $700,000. Plus, the mayor has said that's not true savings, since it would have to be paid eventually. 

In another offer, the union claims a $369,000 savings, but the city says it's really less than a third of that.

The city wants the union to offer suggestions for next year's budget. The union and the mayor's office are scheduled to meet again on Thursday, March 4.

Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett released the following statement:

"We have not rejected the FOP's latest proposal. Our team has scheduled a meeting next week to resume talks. We are still hopeful we can reach an agreement," said Mayor Dewey Bartlett. "We are not going ot make a decision that will hurt us economically. It is bad economic policy to hire back officers for a few months (to the end of the fiscal year) then face layoffs again on July 1. Any agreement we make with the unions should be similar to each other, and we know from working with the Firefighters union leadership that we can work together and reach an agreement for the good of the community."

2/25/2010  Related Story: Tulsa City Council Approves Grant To Hire Officers, Raises 'Lift' Price

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