Arbitrator rejects contract that would have required Methuen to pay some police captains $500,000 a

[TexasTowelie]

Arbitrator rejects contract that would have required Methuen to pay some police captains $500,000 a year


An arbitrator ruled on Monday that Methuen city officials do not have to abide by a collective bargaining agreement that would have given some police captains base pay of more than $500,000 a year in 2020, making them perhaps the highest-paid law enforcement officials in the state.

The arbitrator, Loretta T. Attardo, wrote that officials had no idea when they signed the agreement in 2017 that the contract would have paid officers exorbitant salaries, salaries that the financially struggling city of 50,000 could not afford to pay.

The head of the superior officers union, Greg Gallant, added language to the contract that built in rapidly escalating pay increases for senior officers, without ever discussing the specifics with Mayor Steve Zanni before he signed it, the arbitrator found.

“There is no evidence that these multiple layered additions to base pay were ever discussed in negotiations,” Attardo wrote. “Nor were they brought to the attention of either Mayor Zanni or the [City] Council after Captain Gallant added them to the final contract.”

Read more: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/01/10/metro/arbitrator-rejects-contract-that-would-have-required-city-methuen-pay-police-captains-more-than-500000-year/

[live love laugh]

1. Sounds like the mayor was negligent not reading the contract.

Heads should roll.

[captain queeg]

2. "Perhaps the highest paid law enforcement in the state"? Is there a question?

Are some cops already in that category? Sign me up?