The District might have to dish out hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra police pay for the inauguration because of a dispute over the work schedules of hundreds of officers.
The city’s contract with the officers’ union requires the bosses to give two weeks’ notice before changing an officer’s schedule. A new schedule was posted for the nearly 300 officers in the 5th District on Jan. 8, 10 days before the schedule took effect.
The union has filed a grievance and is demanding time-and-a-half for each officer’s regular work shift from Saturday through Wednesday.
“The department is not permitted to change tours of duties outside of the processes in effect at the time the [union] agreement was signed,” the grievance states. The union deal “provides that the department must pay a penalty when it does not comply with the rules and regulations governing scheduling.”
Chief Cathy Lanier didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Every officer in the District was ordered to report for 12-hour shifts in the days ahead of and through President Barack Obama’s inauguration. Because Monday and Tuesday were holidays, officers were entitled to extra pay. They were also entitled to time-and-a-half pay for any time beyond eight hours per day.
Faced with monstrous police and emergency bills for the inaugural festivities, Mayor Adrian Fenty persuaded the outgoing Bush administration to declare an emergency for the District. The federal government guaranteed nearly $50 million in taxpayer dollars.
Police union chair Kris Baumann told The Examiner any extra money stemming from the scheduling conflict shouldn’t come out of the federal emergency.
“If I’m living in Rhode Island or California, I don’t know whether I want my tax dollars to pay for management incompetence,” he said. “This should not be an open checkbook to cover their screwups.”
The union is also negotiating with the department over the payment for extra security for the Obama family in the week before the inauguration, Baumann said. Officers were ordered to work double shifts outside the Hay Adams hotel and the Blair House where the incoming first family was staying, Baumann said. That, too, is likely to cost the city time-and-a-half.
