CICERO — More than five years after the last contract expired, the town of Cicero has finally inked a new contract with its police officers. The Cicero Town Board voted unanimously March 24 to approve the town’s first collective bargaining agreement with the Cicero Police Benevolent Association since 2013.

The contract signed in 2013 expired Dec. 31, 2015, and in January 2019 the New York State Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) handed down an arbitration award that covered the years 2016 and 2017. The new collective bargaining agreement approved last week covers the years 2018 through 2022, so Cicero police officers will receive retroactive pay increases for the years 2018 through 2020 and the first three months of 2021.

“It was a long haul, but I think we came out with a deal that was fair on both sides,” Councilor Jon Karp said at the March 24 Cicero Town Board meeting.

Karp, Cicero Police Chief Steve Rotunno and Town Attorney Robert Germain made up the negotiation team. Last year, Karp and Supervisor Bill Meyer disagreed over the team’s authority to negotiate with the PBA, but the team was appointed by a majority vote of the town board “in an exercise of legislative power,” Germain said at the Oct. 14, 2020, town board meeting.

Rotunno thanked Germain and commended Karp for his efforts during negotiations.

“His tireless efforts and open lines of communication with the PBA resulted in this [agreement],” Rotunno said.

Karp told the Star-Review that the town and the Cicero PBA “have not had a contract signed on time since 2005.”

The 2018-22 collective bargaining agreement includes several provisions regarding the hiring and training of officers. In an email to the Star-Review, Karp wrote that the contract lays out incentives “to help recruit and retain a more educated, more diverse police force” and “provides for a lower pay rate for new officers that have not completed their training.” These incentives include bonus payments for educational degrees, proficiency in languages other than English, residency in the town of Cicero, and emergency medical technician defibrillator (EMT-D) certification.

Also, the town can be reimbursed for the costs of training and equipment if an officer leaves the department within 36 months of being hired.

Cicero will save a substantial amount of money when it comes to retired officers’ insurance, accumulating leave and other benefits. Once retired Cicero police officers turn 65, they will transition from the town’s regular insurance plan to a Medicare Advantage Plan.

“The previous comptroller estimated that this provision will save the town approximately $1 million just on the current full time officers, assuming they all live to the age of 85,” Karp said.

All officers hired on or after Jan. 1, 2021, will contribute to their insurance premiums when they retire. The contract signed in 2013 exempts officers hired prior to 2021 from this requirement.

The contract “reforms the town’s obligations under General Municipal Law Section 207-c to prevent officers out on disability from accumulating sick leave, personal leave, vacation days, and clothing/footwear allowance for more than one year. This will result in estimated near-term cost savings of approximately $150,000.”

Once Cicero Town Court returns to its pre-pandemic operations, the Cicero Police Department will hand court security back to the town constables, saving about $15,000 per year.

Board opposes luxury apartment PILOT

Also at the March 24 meeting, the board approved a resolution opposing $6.1 million in tax breaks for a luxury apartment development. The town will forward its resolution with a letter to the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency (OCIDA), which is reviewing the developer’s application for a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) agreement.

The board’s resolution calls the proposed tax breaks “wholly inappropriate, unfair, and improper.”

TreyJay Loso LLC is looking to build a 248-unit gated apartment complex along the shoreline of Oneida Lake. Monthly rent for these one- and two-bedroom units could be as much as $1,800.
The developer is asking OCIDA to grant a property tax exemption of $3.2 million over a period of 10 years, a $2.5 million sales tax exemption for construction materials and an exemption of $354,700 from New York State’s mortgage recording tax.

“The town board now formally objects to and opposes the granting of any requested tax breaks for the proposed ‘luxury apartment’ project based upon OCIDA’s own expressed evaluation criteria,” the resolution reads.

Cicero’s resolution states that the project is not in a “blighted area,” does not fill an “unmet need” as there are plenty of housing options in the town, does not improve walkability and would “add significant additional sewage and associated BOD [biochemical oxygen demand] concentrations to an already stressed sewage treatment system, along with other municipally funded services.”

“Granting tax breaks for this residential project would negatively impact the town taxpayers by depriving them of needed tax revenue to offset the burden of the project on roads, sewers, traffic, and other public infrastructure,” the resolution continues. “This board specifically finds that there is no logical or rational justification for providing any or all of the requested tax exemptions for a luxury apartment complex that serves no demonstrable need and is not anticipated to create or support new permanent jobs in the area.”