The Chattanooga Mayor’s Office sent an email to City Council members, asking them to consider not giving $1.3 million to a career ladder program for the police department after comments made last night by a union representative.
“This administration hesitates at throwing another $1.3 million into a career development program that representatives of the police department are not satisfied is equitable,” a news release states.
Sgt. Craig Joel, with the Fraternal Order of Police, made comments during Tuesday night’s regularly scheduled council meeting that the police force’s pay was not fair and that police had “no plan.”
The City Council is in considering how to spend $3 million that’s slated for pay increases out of the city’s total $209 million budget. One option is to fund $1.3 million into a career ladder program, which rewards police who have training above and beyond normal requirements.
The news release states that money instead should be used to fund a study that shows the best pay plan.
For more information, read tomorrow’s Times Free Press.
Cliff has worked for the Times Free Press for five years and covers Chattanooga city government. He previously covered Rhea County, as well as transportation and growth and development in Southeast Tennessee. A native of Maryville, Tenn., Cliff graduated in 2003 from the University of Tennessee with a bachelor’s degree in communications with an emphasis on journalism. Before coming to Chattanooga, he was a crime reporter with Hernando Today, a supplement of The Tampa (Fla.) ...
