Councilors mum
as officers decry
budget cuts.
AUBURN – City leaders got an earful from police Monday night.
In a near copy of last week’s City Council meeting, more than 50 police, fire and public works employees crammed the council chambers. This time, however, police and fire employees spoke their minds, questioning councilors about city policies, budgets and decisions for more than an hour.
“It appears that all of this money is going downtown,” said Detective Chad Syphers, president of the Auburn police union. “We see people, public works people, watering plants downtown. We know that they are getting over time, but we can’t.”
The city is currently negotiating contracts with the police and public works unions. Both contracts expired June 30. Assistant City Administrator Mark Adams said he met with representatives from the public works department Monday. He is scheduled to meet with police representatives Friday morning.
Union leaders say a proposed increase in monthly health insurance premiums is the biggest sticking point. Coupled with no cost-of-living wage increases for most officers, that would mean cuts in take-home pay for most officers.
Monday night, officers focused on other budget problems. Syphers said the budget is so tight that four police cruises were sidelined with bald tires this spring. Those cruisers are back in service now, but police had to have snow tires installed to make them safe.
“We’re the only department I know of that has to run with snow tires in the middle of July,” Syphers said.
Police training and staffing budgets have also been affected. That puts fewer and less well trained officers out on the field, according to Officer Tim Morrell.
“Think of that, the next time someone is breaking into your house or sneaking in your woods and we have four officers on and one taking an OUI to the jail, another is responding to an accident and another is breaking up a fight at Denny’s,” Morrell said. “Who are you going to call then? Lewiston? They have their own problems.”
The conversation was one sided, however. Councilors and city management held their tongues. City Manager Pat Finnigan said she would respond to the employees questions and comments in writing in a week or so.
“It’s not our job to negotiate with the unions,” Councilor Joe DeFilipp said afterward. “It’s our job to ratify the contracts after staff has done their job. It’s not that we’re not sympathetic, because we are. It’s just not our job to get into a back-and-forth.”
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