Peoria Standard

The East Peoria City Council discussed a dispute with their local police department during a meeting held on January 17.

During the meeting, the Council voted on a motion surrounding a labor agreement with their local police union. According to East Peoria Mayor John Kahl, the city had been working on a pay agreement with the Policemen's Benevolent Labor Committee since 2019. The union took the city to arbitration in 2020, with the arbitrator providing their decision in December 2022, awarding in favor of the union's proposal.

The contract in question regarded the years 2019 through 2022. Each year, East Peoria had proposed a 1.75% increase in pay, with the union proposing a 2.25% increase. Mayor Kahl disliked the arbitrator's decision for multiple reasons, with one being that they had used the percentage raises of other local police departments to support their reasoning despite East Peoria's police already earning approximately 22% more than them. The arbitrator also used the Consumer Point Index (CPI) in 2020 as a motive for their decision. However, in 2020, East Peoria made drastic cuts to its budget due to the pandemic.

"I don't understand from a legal perspective how in the world this could ever occur," Kahl said. "But here's what I'm going to tell you. At the end of the day, these last two years have been extremely painful, not just for the city, but for the employees. Keep in mind, these officers have not seen a pay increase since the 2018-19 fiscal year. So, as this has dragged on, they're not seeing any increases. We're in a bad economy. I don't want this to be personal with them. It's caused a lot of strife. But more importantly, we have openings that we have not been able to fill. And I truly believe part of that is we had no contract in place. So as we're trying to recruit officers from other departments to join the ranks here, they look at that. I mean, it's public record. There's no denying it was held up in arbitration. So just the angst of not knowing where it's going to land, I think, kept people from applying over here."

Kahl asked city employees to consider East Peoria's recent struggles and efforts when engaging in future contract negotiations, as they have two other labor unions among their workers that have received smaller percentage increases than the police have for six years in a row. In recent years, the city has also invested a large amount of money into public safety and environmental factors, and the Council is working to provide for both city employees and the larger community. While the Council was overall frustrated with the arbitrator's decision, each member expressed their support for their local law enforcement officials.