Village of Lewiston signs off on new police contract

By Joshua Maloni

GM/Managing Editor

The Lewiston Police Department has a new contract with the Town and Village of Lewiston.

Trustees in the village approved their portion of the deal at Monday’s monthly meeting.

Read the contract online HERE (PDF).

Mayor Anne Welch said, “Just so everyone is aware, the police contact has not been updated since, I believe, 1995; so, we've been working with the town to update that police contract and get it revised and updated.”

The village’s negotiation efforts were led by trustees Nick Conde and Tina Coppins, and counsel Joseph Leone Jr.

“We sat down with the town, which was (Supervisor) Steve Broderick and his team, and (Councilman) John (Jacoby). We came to an agreement that, from year two to year six, they'll get a 2% increase every year, and the last four years it'll be flat,” Coppins said. “We did a 10-year contract with them. We’re looking to start it next July. We're signing it now, but then the new payments start in July.

“The new fiscal year,” Welch said.

“We haven't given them an increase in over 12 years, so we came to a tough agreement with them,” Coppins said.

“It’s overdue; it's been overdue for a long time,” Deputy Mayor Vic Eydt said. “At least it spells out what we're going to be doing in the future.”

Welch said, “We appreciate our police department. You always do a good job and keep us safe.”

Leone said, “There have been drafts of this agreement for the past several years, going back and forth between myself and whoever the town attorney was at the time. (Current counsel) Al Bax and I participated in this, and were able to agree on the terms of the language that we think is fair to both parties – not only dealing with payments, but dealing with insurance; dealing with litigation; dealing with the fact that the town has a collective bargaining agreement with the police union and we do not. So, we tried to make it as comprehensive as possible, but as easy reading as possible.

“As to the numbers that are in there, the board here, and I think the Town Board … the members who were part of the committee, all agreed that the numbers that the village will be paying towards its share of the budget are fair and reasonable under all of the circumstances.

“We thought that 10 years was an adequate time. The fact that this hasn't been in place since 1995 didn't make a whole lot of sense to any of the board members, or the council, and we thought that 10 years was a reasonable period of time. And then at the end of 10 years, it can be looked at again.”