Civil Service Board dismisses
police grievance
By Adam Baylus
Asheville, NC, Jan. 3— The Civil Service
Board voted 4-0 to dismiss a grievance filed by nearly 30 Asheville
Police Officers, who claim that the Police Department’s practice
of paying only new recruits salary compensation for post-secondary
degrees is unfair and unjust.
After three hours of testimony and closing arguments
by both attorneys, Board member Jesse Warren asked for private
discussion among the Board. However, Board Attorney William
Slawter indicated that a closed session was not legal in this
case.
No further discussion took place and Alfred Thomas
made a barely audible motion, which stated that the officers
were not “denied a pay raise to which he or she is entitled,”
and consequently dismissed the case. Once the court reporter
was clear about the motion, Sophie Dixon seconded, and the unanimous
vote followed.
Board member George Bancroft, who questioned the
merits of the policy last month, was absent from today’s proceedings.
The officers, represented by attorney Michelle Rippon, had the
option to postpone until Bancroft was available, but declined.
The City, represented by Assistant City Attorney
Curt Euler, presented two arguments: that the Board has no jurisdiction
to hear the case because no entitlement was refused to the aggrieved
party, and that the City Manager, Jim Westbrook, was justified
in dismissing the grievance because the City made no promise
to pay current employees any compensation for Bachelors or Masters
Degrees.
“Employees are not allowed to challenge hiring
policies,” Euler stated.
According to Rippon, the practice, which the City
refused to call “policy,” recognizes the value of four-year
and Masters Degrees” and to be “uniform and fair” should apply
to all in the Department.
Rippon attempted to illustrate that the cost of
not awarding these officers a 5% pay increase for a Bachelors
Degrees and a 10% pay increase for Masters Degrees retroactive
to the date that the hiring practice was communicated to the
Department by Police Chief Will Annarino on July 1,2000, is
far less than the cost of replacing these officers who have
received extensive advanced training at the City’s expense.
Most of the officers are part of the City’s Emergency
Response Team. Two of the officers who testified estimated the
cost of their additional training at between $10,000 and $20,000
each. One is a graduate of extensive sniper training — and is
one of two officers in the department with such training. The
other testifying officer receives on-going training as a canine
officer.
Three of the officers who filed the grievance
have already left the department, according to Rippon.
In questioning Human Resource Director Jeff Richardson,
Rippon established that neither the City nor the Asheville Police
Department anticipated the impact of this hiring practice, nor
did they consider the cost of replacing nearly 30 officers,
who Rippon described as “unhappy officers” who feel “unsupported,
undervalued, and unappreciated.”
Based on an average salary of $28,000 for the
officers, of whom all have Bachelors and one hav ing a Masters,
Rippon asserted that the cost of giving the officers the same
education compensation as the new recruits would be $2,500 per
month retroactive to July 1, 2000.
Richardson concurred with previous testimony that
the cost of training one new recruit is about $17,000, and Rippon
illustrated that the “loss of just one [officer] would cost
the City more than it would cost to give all 25 of them the
5% increase.”
The officers, who could appeal to Superior Court,
declined to comment about the ruling or their plans.
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