Tulsa World: Tulsa FOP: No further concessions for budget cuts

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Tulsa FOP: No further concessions for budget cuts

By NICOLE MARSHALL and P.J. LASSEK World Staff Writers
Published: 11/5/2009 2:36 PM
Last Modified: 11/5/2009 9:46 PM

The Tulsa police union announced Thursday that they will make no further concessions to the administration as a means to cut the department’s budget.

In July, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 93 members voted to take eight furlough days with the rest of the city’s workforce, rather than see 48 fellow officers laid off from the force.

However, when further budget cuts were required, 21 officers were laid off last week. Eighteen of those officers have been rehired using federal stimulus grant funds.

Two councilors have called for an end to police take-home vehicles going outside of Tulsa to prevent deep cuts in the Tulsa Police Department. The administration has said that by keeping the cars in the city, $1.1 million could be saved.

However, the Fraternal Order of Police President Phil Evans has said that number is inflated.

More than 25 percent of the union met Wednesday night, Evans said, and the overwhelming consensus was that “there will be no further concessions from us.”

He said that the union is trying to find a way to rehire the other three officers and hopes to announce its solution tomorrow or early next week.

“The administration does not like any of our ideas. We are trying to figure out a way to do it on our own,”

Evans said. “All the city wants is concessions. They are not interested in good ideas or other methods of getting stuff done.”

Councilor Rick Westcott said Thursday that it is disappointing that the union was unwilling to budge.

“I always believed that the rank-and-file police officers have the best interest of the citizens at heart,” Westcott said.

Westcott pointed out that the public safety personnel costs equal more than all the revenues produced by the 2-cent sales tax.

“We have to find a way to trim those costs without compromising or reducing our manpower. It’s very disappointing that the FOP does not share the same goal,” he said. “By using the federal grant money to hire back officers we laid off, we’ve preserved 18 jobs. We still have three laid off, and also lost the 18 additional officers that would have been paid through the federal grant.

“My proposal would have saved all 39 jobs, put helicopter in the air and saved the mounted patrol.”

Councilor Bill Christiansen said he is “extremely frustrated with the FOP” especially on the take-home vehicles.

For years, Christiansen pushed to eliminate the take-home vehicle policy for officers who live outside the city limits to free up funds to hire more cops.

The take-home vehicle is a part of the FOP’s contract and would have to be given up through negotiations.

Christiansen said that now, with all the city employees making sacrifices, he thought the cops would also consider compromises to help the city.

“I have been a strong supporter of the FOP with salary increase, and not taking money away from police and fire,” he said.

“But, a take-home vehicle sitting in the driveway in Owasso, Oklahoma, does the citizens of Tulsa absolutely no good other than spend their hard earn money. That money ought to be used to rehire those three police officers,” Christiansen said.

"At the end of the day, the citizens of Tulsa should be outraged that their tax dollars are being used for police cars to be taken out of the city limits where there is not benefit to them at all," Christiansen said. By NICOLE MARSHALL and P.J. LASSEK World Staff Writers

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Reader comments for this story have been moved to the most updated version of the story, now under the headline "Police union votes to keep take-home car concession," which was published on 11/6/2009. So far, 184 comments have been made.