Members of both the County’s Deputy Sheriff’s Police Benevolent Association and local Civil Service Employees Association say they’re seeking better compensation from the county, which they say would bolster worker retention.
The 500-member CSEA unit voted down a contract in December. Spokesperson Therese Assalian says members felt pay increases didn’t go far enough.
“The increased cost for health insurance, coupled with the increase in salary that was on the table was something that our members felt when they did the math would result in a net loss to them. And with that the ratification was shot down,” said Assalian.
Assalian says without pay increases, the county will continue to lose employees.
“We see that often with folks in the highway department—come in, get a training, getting a CDL or another type of license and then they’ll just jump ship to a better paying job. And we see this often as well in social services. There’s a lot of positions with New York State that are paying more and so it’s sort of a revolving door,” said Assalian.
County Board of Supervisors Chair Phil Barrett, a Republican from Clifton Park, says the contract was a testament to a good working relationship between CSEA leadership and the county.
“Unfortunately that agreement with the CSEA leadership was voted down by the membership, why that occurred, I don’t know. But, basically we are entering a phase of mediation and the county has a very positive outlook on that process and we are eager to get started,” said Barrett.
Assalian says the next steps will come once a mediator is assigned to navigate the current impasse.
Saratoga County Deputy Sheriff PBA President Ryan Mahan says the department is understaffed, with more than 4,500 overtime hours as of March 18th and roughly 100 active officers out of a budgeted 140.
The current five-year contract saw a long awaited 20-year retirement at the cost of receiving no raises for the first two years. Mahan says this has backfired, with seven losses in the past month.
“And with our pay not being competitive, we really want to be able to talk to the county like, ‘hey how are we going to fix this?’ Because the recruitment piece isn’t the big issue. People take the test continuously, they’re always going to come back. That’s not really our worry. But how do we keep the good cops that we have now to stay here and not leave for better paying jobs. The county brags all the time about being the richest, the safest, the fasted growing county in New York State, whatever the case may be, but yet we’re not taking care of our employees,” says Mahan.
Mahan says the retention problem has snowballed; the department has roughly 40 officers with three years or less of experience, so inexperienced officers are going up for promotion or leaving, increasing the burden on the remaining staff.
Barrett says the PBA wanting to renegotiate its contract is unheard of.
“So, it’s a very unique situation. When you sign a five-year contract that’s overwhelmingly supported by the union membership and then less than a year later they’re coming back and saying ‘we don’t like this contract.’ It’s not a position that I’ve ever been in in all the years that I’ve been negotiating union contracts,” said Barrett.
Mahan says that’s missing the point.
“This isn’t about honoring a contract this is about, how do you treat your employees and how do they feel working for you? And that retention piece is huge, and I guess I don’t understand as an employer why we wouldn’t want to work on that contract or not. Because when we signed our contract back in February of ’22 we didn’t know the economy was going to drastically change,” said Mahan.
A deputy working with the department for five years can average just over $70,000, while the city of Saratoga Springs pays its police officers almost $10,000 more after the same period of time.
