Bob Eddis, president of Lodge 5 of the Fraternal Order of Police, was not - repeat not - crowing about the arbitration award made public yesterday giving yearly raises of 3, 3, 3 and 4 percent for about 7,000 city cops.
And while the FOP immediately posted on the union Web site the new collective bargaining contract, which also provided an extra day off for a cop's birthday, there was little emanating from the second floor of City Hall yesterday.
Mayor Street was studying the award, according to his spokeswoman, and would have no comment until next week on whether the city will go to court to try to overturn a contract with a $152.7 million, five-year impact on a city budget that is just barely balanced.
"This is very fair," Eddis said of the wage package, substantially lower than the 8 percent annual raises the union had been seeking.
On health care, in the first year, city cops will get about a $51 boost to $898 per capita per year, a 6 percent hike. The award also reopens the contract after year one and again after year three for potential new increases.
Says Eddis, "It's going to put at ease the minds of police officers. For the next four years, their medical is going to be solid."
Barbara Grant, Street's spokeswoman, said, "As the mayor has said, he's always felt that he wanted to be fair to the unions and he particularly wanted to be fair to police officers who are putting their lives on the line every day for the people of this city."
But Grant added, "We are in a tight financial situation so every dollar that is above what is allocated in the five-year plan is a dollar we have to find so we will review it and see where we are."
The city arbitrator appointed to the three-person panel that made the award strongly dissented, fueling the idea that the city will go to court.
H. Thomas Felix III pointed out that state law requires the panel to give "substantial weight" to the city's ability to pay the cost of increased wages and benefits in a new contract.
That, he argued, didn't happen. The award is "plainly in conflict with all the credible evidence of record regarding the city's ability to pay." To fund it, he said the city would have to cut 490 cop jobs in addition to the 300 it's already cutting in the next five years or engage in double-digit real estate tax increases.
But the $152.7 million price tag is not terribly far from the $105 million with which the city said it was willing to sweeten the cop contract. It's proposed method was to pay for annual medical coverage hikes of up to 9 to 9.5 percent.
Meanwhile, the other two city unions, the blue-collar District Council 33 and white-collar District Council 47 are still trying to hammer out a contract. All were waiting for the cop arbitration.
DC 47 President Thomas Paine Cronin was quick to congratulate the FOP for their award, predicting that the city will go to court to overturn it.
"But I think the award helps us. How can you give some people a raise and not others? Now, it's our turn. We'll be back negotiating Thursday and we'll be asking the city to be fair," Cronin said.