By Joseph L. Wagner, The Cleveland Plain Dealer
Parma, Ohio -- Mayor Dean DePiero has ordered 72 police officers to forfeit 44 hours of pay about $1,100 each that they received last year for practicing at a firing range.
DePiero and labor lawyer Gary Johnson said the city’s decade-old practice of paying officers extra to go to the firing range was not justified.
The extra pay cost the city $80,000 last year.
“The police union has been abusing the taxpayers in Parma for several years,” Johnson said. “The present administration is trying to stop the abuse.
DePiero’s action has rekindled a labor war that flared often between police and former Mayor Gerald Boldt. It also comes as tensions build over a 15-month investigation into police overtime and sick leave abuse.
Law Director Tim Dobeck said the probe could result in the prosecution of some officers.
The officers must repay the money by giving up overtime they accumulated or through payroll deductions.
DePiero said he has the right to end the firing range pay retroactively, thanks to an arbitrator’s ruling which retroactively granted pay raises to police.
Police union representative Ken Gillissie said the union disagrees and refuses to sign the contract giving officers the pay raises. This led the city to file an unfair labor practice complaint against the union.
Gillissie also objected to the suddenness of DePiero’s move.
“We were never advised of it,” Gillissie said. “We heard it through the grapevine.”
Gillissie said Johnson has been the one abusing taxpayers by urging city officials to fight losing and costly contract disputes.
“I don’t know how we abused the taxpayers when we abided by the contract.”