On the same day the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police dropped below 800 officers, an arbitration panel handed the police union a five-year award that neither met its worst fears nor its highest expectations.

		Previous coverage Retirements deplete city's police force (12/30/04)

The contract freezes pay, cuts vacation, changes overtime rules, eliminates some holidays and offers a health plan that the Fraternal Order of Police membership does not like, but one it acknowledged could have been far worse.

However, the award also allows the most senior officers to choose where they will work, permits officers to cash out all the sick days they have not used when they retire, and maintains pension benefits, a major victory.

Union president Michael Havens Jr. called the contract fair, but said he was unhappy that officers who currently pay nothing for health coverage will have to begin shelling out more than $1,000 a year for a family plan.

"Not really great, but it's an award. Hopefully, the city will live up to it," Havens said last night. "Looking at it on the whole, I think they'll be better off than under the Act 47 plan."

Havens said he thought the fact that Mayor Tom Murphy told non-union city officials -- including the police bureau's command staff -- that they would not lose pension benefits nor accrued sick days affected the arbitration panel's decision to maintain benefits for the rank-and-file.

At least three officers at the East Liberty police station last night said the award's terms convinced them not to join dozens of colleagues who had already taken early retirement this year out of fear of an uncertain financial future.

"Until I saw the contract, I didn't know if I was going Downtown tomorrow to retire or not," said Lt. Phillip Dacey, a 25-year veteran with the city police department. "It's bad. It's a real kick in the teeth to a lot of officers. But it's something we can tolerate."

As Dacey spoke last night, a group of officers stood around the station's long wooden front desk and joined in, griping about how they will face a harder job next year with a much a smaller force, conditions that make the award more difficult to accept.

"Starbucks has a better health care plan than we do," said Officer Kevin McNamara, who had also been considering retirement.

With the city struggling financially, nobody in the department was expecting generous pay raises, said Officer Eric Engelhardt, "but it's not our fault the city's in this position. People still have families to feed."

A few officers expressed concern that Mayor Tom Murphy would challenge the award in court and seek more benefit cuts.

Craig Kwiecinski, a spokesperson for the mayor, would not discuss the administration's plans.

"It is premature for us to comment until we've had an opportunity to thoroughly examine the contract award with the Act 47 coordinators," he said.

The 17-page award was determined by a three-member arbitration panel that included police union attorney Bryan Campbell, city attorney Joseph Quinn, and neutral arbitrator John Skonier.

Skonier, as the neutral party, essentially was the deciding factor on the contentious issues. He had been working on the award for several weeks, and it arrived in the union's hands late yesterday afternoon.

Union officials promptly faxed the award to the bureau's five precincts and the detective bureau.

Among the award's highlights:

After two years of pay freezes, the award provides for annual 2 1/2 percent increases for the next three years.

Officers lose a fifth week of vacation and four paid holidays.

Effective for 2006, 25 percent of the most senior uniformed officers, excluding supervisors, will be able to choose their duty location.

Many of the 110 officers who retired in 2004 -- about a quarter of them in a flurry this month -- cited concerns that they would lose between $1,000 and $7,000 a year in pension benefits under any award fashioned amid the Act 47 recovery plan.

Havens said some officers might have stayed on the job had they known they would maintain their pensions. However, Havens, said, "It's still a gamble. The city might appeal."

Besides, union officials pointed out, officers who left the job after this year would still face the prospect of a more expensive health insurance plan in retirement.

Anyone who retired in 2004 will carry the current health insurance plan, which the union considers favorable, and pay only premium increases in the future.

New police officers will have pension benefits that follow state guidelines, which are more restrictive that the current plan. An academy class is due to start Jan. 24 to bolster the depleted ranks.