Palos Hills Reaches Contract Agreement With Police Union, Still Negotiating With Public Works

After a year of discussions, the Palos Hills City Council at its last meeting announced it had reached an agreement with the union that represents the city's police force, the Metropolitan Alliance of Police (MAP).

The council agreed on a retroactive, one percent pay increase for the current year ending April 30, a 2.5 percent increase for 2011-2012 and a 2.5 percent increase for 2012-2013. The same increases will also be applied to non-union members of the police department.

When asked about the length of negotiations, Mayor Gerald Bennett said like so many other things, it was just a factor of the economic climate.

“It's just tough times and contracts aren't easy,” Bennett said. “We started our position and they pleaded their case and in the end we reached what I think is a pretty good agreement.”

Bennett said when approving the contract, the council also decided to bump pay for non-union employees of the police department.

“Luckily we came to an agreement and were able to approve something before the fiscal year end [April 30, 2011],”he said.

Bennett also added that the city has yet to reach an agreement with its public works union, The Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and hopes to do so by the end the end of the fiscal year.

Those negotiations also began almost a year ago.

Both the police and public works union did not respond to requests for comment.

The council has budget meetings scheduled for the next month and will likely approve the fiscal year 2011-2012 budget at its first meeting in May.