FOP President David Mutchler has been negotiating with Mayor Greg Fischer in hopes of getting the money back to the Officers that was improperly taken by his predecessor Jerry Abramson. After over a month of negotiation Mutchler called a special meeting tonight to inform the membership about the proposal .
In a very well attended meeting the President unveiled the results of the negotiations:
Everyone will be repaid the money that was taken from them.
Since the money has already been taxed, it will not be taxed a second time.
In the future Officers will not be charged for having a take home car.
Officers wishing to use the take home car for off duty jobs will be charged the standard AAA fee which will depend on the price of gas. At today's prices that would be about $50.00 per month. This fee will only apply if the member uses it off duty that month. The fee could either rise or fall depending on the average price per gallon of gas that month.
This seems like a common sense solution to the issue that started almost 3 years ago when Abramson began charging Officers a fee for take home cars. The issue wasn't the fee a much as the fact that he did it without negotiating with the Lodge and violated the Collective Bargaining Agreement that was in effect.
The State Department of Labor and several Circuit Court rulings backed what we have contended all along. Mayor Fischer has promised that he will work to negotiate rather than litigate and this is testament that he is keeping his word. How refreshing that is after years of getting just the opposite.
The amounts will vary according to how much each individual Officer had take form them over the 15 months that Abramson continued to take fees which kept increasing until the FOP filed an injunction to stop him. I payed in post tax dollars 3 months of fees at $30.00 per month, 6 months of fees at $60.00 per month and 6 months of fees at $160.00 per month so I should be receiving a check for $1,410.00. That is probably an average for Officers, however some Officers did not work off duty and paid less, some Officers were only in the program for part of that time.etc...
The members will have to ratify this in the near future, but it appears that it should pass handily.
Thanks to everyone that had a hand in bringing this fiasco to an end.