Swampscott and the Massachusetts Coalition of Police, Local 417 have reached a bargaining agreement that will remain in effect through June 30, 2028.
Wednesday’s Select Board unanimous vote confirmed the action taken during executive session on January 26. The agreement includes wage increases, education support, vacation allotments, and “a number of housekeeping items and small changes,” according to Town Administrator Nick Connors.
“It’s really about us doing what we can to make sure that we are recruiting and retaining the best possible officers,” Connors said.
Over the next three years, police department wages will increase by 3%, 2%, and 3%, respectively, with a 2% post stipend added in the second year.
The agreement also adds “the equivalent of a full Quinn” to support police officer education incentives. The Quinn Bill, enacted in 1970, provides salary increases to officers who earn degrees in law enforcement or criminal justice. The goal is to encourage higher education and improve the quality of criminal justice services. Officers receive a percentage increase in their base salary based on their education level.
“This will put us on par and I think largely make us more competitive with retaining and recruiting new officers or transfer officers,” Connors said. “A lot of the folks that we were seeing come in were coming, getting some experience and moving to communities that offered this. Our hope is that it will certainly improve retention. We’re looking forward to that bearing fruit.”
Connors had shared earlier in Wednesday’s Select Board meeting that two applicants for officer positions recently received conditional offers, one of which was accepted, with the second expected soon.
This leaves the police department with one vacancy they are currently in the process of hiring for, Connors said.
“We’ve seen the chief here talking about hiring more than any topic I think in my entire tenure on the board and that is because we cannot retain talent,” Select Board Chair Katie Phelan. “A lot of that relates to not just wage but also training and people will start here and then they will hop somewhere else. That just creates this cycle of always trying to find talent, and that causes overtime, that causes consternation with the union, it causes us to be like ‘Why do we continue to have this issue? Why can’t we retain talent?’ Hopefully this is an investment in that retention. We can’t fully control that…but I hope that this moves us in the right direction to be less short sighted moving forward.”
The union agreement also dealt with vacation time, which the Select Board had approved changes to within the town’s handbook last summer.
Under the 2022 policy, most town employees were allotted two weeks of vacation per year, with some higher-level staff receiving three weeks, according to Human Resources Manager Maryanne McMaster. At nine or ten years, employees would have been eligible for four weeks of vacation. The language has been revised to allow for additional vacation time as well as three personal days, starting in the new year.
All town employees are now on an even playing field when it comes to vacation, with many at lower levels receiving more time off than before. Employees who have been with the town for one to five years will receive three vacation weeks, six to 14 years four weeks of vacation, and 15 years at the job and on will receive five weeks.
Connors said the new calculations will “ultimately give a lot more flexibility to the chief and future chiefs in making sure we can do everything that we can to manage overtime and better manage the department overall.”
In June, the Swampscott School Committee unanimously approved new contracts for the education support professionals, tutors and teachers.
The town still has to reach agreements with the fire, DPW and library bargaining units.
Select Board David Grishman asked how the town enters into collective bargaining agreements “without blowing up our budgets,” as the Select Board also discussed capital improvement plans during Wednesday’s meeting. He added that he is in support of the union agreement but wanted to “convey that message to the public” taxpayer.
“When we talked about the teaching contract and we saw many towns and cities go on strike with their teachers and not come to an agreement and sort of where that left communities, the same too can be said about the police contract and about JMLC and not being able to truly control a lot of that process as we can here in town when all the stakeholders are at the table,” Phelan said. “There’s a lot of value to coming to an understanding and agreement with Swampscott truly being at the heart of that value, versus JMLC which is just the average of what everyone else is getting brought down onto Swampscott…It’s something that we really had to take into consideration, of a risk-reward conversation.”
Select Board Vice Chair Doug Thompson thanked all sides of the bargaining table, saying that the group got to a “relatively reasonable position relatively speedy.”
