A downtown rally will be held next week to show support for public safety officers slated to take an across-the-board pay cut in the new fiscal year that starts this summer.
The rally will take place on the same day City Council is scheduled to grant final approval to the new budget. The budget, in its current form, imposes a 3 percent pay cut on all city employees.
Recently, it’s been suggested the public safety division — which consists of police, fire and emergency dispatchers — should be exempt from those salary reductions given the nature and significance of their jobs. Rally organizers hope to drive that message home to council and, perhaps, persuade members to alter the budget before it goes through.
“We want to open up the dialogue and see City Council go back to the drawing board and find creative ways to balance the budget without cutting salaries,” said Leecy Fink, a rally organizer and wife of a 12-year Lynchburg Police Department veteran.
“We don’t want them to make a hasty decision and approve the budget, then regret it later,” she added, noting a pay cut would damage morale and cause people to flee to higher-paying jobs elsewhere, leaving the public safety forces depleted.
It’s uncertain if City Council could be convinced to postpone the final budget vote this late in the process. Last week, Councilman Jeff Helgeson proposed restoring full pay for police officers by reducing the city contribution to the schools.
He cited an LPD memo that reported a 7.4 percent rise in violent crime and a 19.4 percent turnover rate among officers over the past two years.
The same report said a survey of 28 Virginia communities, including Lynchburg, found the Hill City was the only one planning to cut pay for public safety employees.
Helgeson’s motion was criticized by the rest of council and died due to lack of a second. One of the most common objections dealt with the message it would send to cut pay for some employees while protecting others.
Opposing council members also said the pay cuts were a difficult but necessary step given the economic troubles the city faces. Full employee pay could not be restored without making significant cuts elsewhere in the budget, they argue, including possible layoffs.
Public safety officers themselves offered conflicting views on how council should respond to the salary concerns. All agreed the pay cut should be reversed if possible, but not necessarily if it meant taking from other departments or only exempting public safety.
“I hate to take any money from one organization and give it to another,” said Officer Doug Childress, a police officer with 28 years experience and current president of the local chapter of the Virginia Police Benevolent Association.
Childress felt strongly about the need to restore public safety salaries, noting the LPD already has some of the lowest pay rates in the state, according to the same staff memo discussed earlier by council.
He said he felt the city needed to look for “new ideas” and revisit some of the major capital projects it was spending on, a suggestion that’s been made in the past.
But Childress stopped short of saying the money ought to be taken from the school budget. “If there’s excess in their budget, that should be looked at,” he said. “But if this is something our school teachers need, I don’t want to be the one to stand up and say we’re going to take that away from you.”
The Blue Ridge chapter of the Virginia Police Benevolent Association is supporting next week’s rally, as is the Lynchburg Fire Fighters Association.
Fire Chief Brad Ferguson said he was aware of the rally and told his employees they were free to attend, but he did not directly align himself with the gathering’s mission.
“I’m in support in that I’d like to see them put the pay back in,” he said. “But I think they need to do it for all city employees. I don’t think we should separate ourselves. It will damage morale (in other departments).”
Turnover has been a more severe issue for the police department and emergency communications center than the fire department. Police Chief Parks Snead said two officers recently announced plans to take other jobs, citing in part the department’s uncompetitive salaries.
Supervisors are also reporting as many as 18 others are considering leaving if the pay cut goes through. Snead said the idea of such an exodus “disturbs me greatly” and added that for an organization the size of the LPD, the loss of 10 officers would be a “public safety crisis.”
The pay cut is an unusual measure and comes on the heels of a two-and-a-half-day unpaid furlough for all city employees.
Fink, one of the rally organizers, said that event has drawn, not only city employees and their families, but also regular community members who are concerned about what’s happening.
“These are people who feel strongly that the impact of cutting public safety salaries will be greater than the impact of cutting other employees’ salaries,” she said. “… A community is built first on safety. People won’t send their children to your schools or start a business or move to your community unless it’s a safe community.”
The rally will begin at noon Tuesday, May 26, at the foot of Monument Terrace. It will continue until City Council begins its regular business meeting that day at 5 p.m.
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