PARIS — Selectmen tabled discussion on an arbitrator’s decision that Paris violated its contract with the police union by not giving a 3 percent raise last year.

Selectman Ted Kurtz said he felt the board should discuss the issue with Town Manager Phil Tarr, who was unable to attend Monday’s meeting due to a medical problem.

“I just think we ought to talk with Phil before we do something that kind of closes the door,” Kurtz said. He wondered aloud whether the town could appeal the decision.

According to the decision by arbitrator Ann Gosline, dated Jan. 12, the town is not obligated to both pay for the pay raise and maintain the same level of staffing. If the parties don’t come to an agreement within 30 days of the decision, the town must pay police the 3 percent raise, retroactively to July 1, 2011.

According to Gosline’s summary of the case, the town and police, represented by Teamsters Local 340, agreed in February 2010 on a yearly 3 percent raise in salaries for three years. At the June 18, 2011, town meeting, the approved budget for the Paris Police Department didn’t include the 3 percent raises. Someone made a motion to amend the budget to include the 3 percent raise, a $9,530.22 increase, but voters rejected it.

Kurtz pointed out that no town employee was getting a raise. He said the town had negotiated a contract provision in which raises depended on approval by town meeting voters.

Gosline disagreed. “The language in the contract … does not support this position,” she wrote. She said the town’s position would mean a waiver by the union on a key wage item, and that such a significant waiver would need “very specific language.”

“I do not read the language as providing such an explicit waiver,” Gosline wrote. She said the town violated its contract with police, but may decrease the staffing level as a response to the budget shortfall if necessary.

The next Board of Selectmen meeting is set for Feb. 13.

treaves@sunjournal.com

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