The Batavia City Council on Monday night unanimously approved a three-year contract with the Batavia Police Benevolent Association that gives the union members a 3 percent salary increase each year and makes modest adjustments to their uniform purchase and maintenance allowance.
The vote was 8-0 since Council Member Jeremy Karas was not present.
According to City Manager Martin Moore, the impact of the agreement during the first year would be $72,100 -- $84,000 in wages, retirement and Social Security benefits minus $11,900 in savings from the uniform allowance changes.
The police officers’ allowance would go from $700 per year to $650 per year and the current reimbursable stipend of $300 per year would be eliminated.
The contract runs from April 1, 2020 through March 31, 2023.
“There is a lot of give and take (during collective bargaining negotiations) and in all of that give and take, never once does the City of Batavia take for granted what the police department does for us,” Council Member John Canale said immediately following the board’s vote.
In other developments, Moore reported that he expects the state’s Homes and Community Renewal agency to announce its decision on funding for the Ellicott Station project sometime in April.
Moore also said that the Theatre 56 project in the mall is coming together with “most of, not all, of the interior gutted and waste materials removed, and the MRI machine is gone.”
Regarding the deer population control committee’s work, he said the group wishes to update Council at its March 23 meeting, having completed a third draft of a deer management plan with ongoing assistance from the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Wildlife Division.
Canale said that he has been impressed with the committee’s work ethic.
“I’ve never served on a committee like this one,” he said. “It is truly unbelievable. They go out in the woods, checking where the deer are. They’ve taken the ball and ran with it. It is something when community members get involved in solving problems that affect them.”
In other action, Council:
-- Approved sending a resolution to Albany seeking amendments to the state’s recently passed criminal justice reforms, which states that “several of the drastic changes in the law pertaining to discovery are overly broad and vague and are having unintended consequences at the municipal level.”
The resolution outlines increased costs of the mandated measures and restrictive deadlines that hamper the work of attorneys and judges.
“This has been a banner year for Albany pushing things down our throat,” Council Member Robert Bialkowski said.
Council President Eugene Jankowski then shared statistics compiled by New York City’s police department showing that of the 1,482 persons charged with crimes and then released (no bail), 846 of them went on to commit new crimes.
-- Approved resolutions transferring $100,000 from the committed fund balanced to the unassigned fund balance following the completion of the City’s Comprehensive Master Plan, and $27,711 in leftover money from the former Vibrant Batavia program from the committed fund balance to the unassigned fund balance.
-- Referred to the City Planning & Development Committee for review a request by Eric Biscaro, owner of property at 653 Ellicott St., to change the zoning in that area to permit an auto repair shop.
-- Appointed Caroline Hosek to the Historic Preservation Committee through Dec. 31, 2022, and Council Member Patti Pacino to the Batavia Business Improvement District through March 31, 2022.
-- Signed off on GO ART!’s Picnic in the Park event scheduled for 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, July 4 at Centennial Park.
