LIME CITY – Perrysburg Township police staff now have a new contract after a lengthy fact-finding and
conciliation process.
Trustees approved the contract Wednesday after accepting terms from a fact finder in July; however, the
police unions contested the terms, arguing that they would still be underpaid, and the negotiations went
to a conciliator.
Terms of the contract are the same as those proposed by the fact finder, said Walt Celley, township
administrator. That report suggested a 1.5-percent raise for 2014 and 2015, which increases to 2 percent
in 2016, the final year of the contract, which is for patrol officers, sergeants and dispatchers and is
retroactive to the beginning of the year.
In other business during the afternoon meeting Wednesday, trustees learned that both uniformed officers
and others from the township’s Criminal Interdiction team arrested a group of people who had been caught
stealing from multiple businesses on U.S. 20 Tuesday.
"We got a truckload of stolen merchandise from all up and down our business corridor," said
Mike Gilmore, deputy police chief.
"It was pretty nice because we’re able to try to get that property back to our businesses, so we’re
pretty happy about that."
More information on the arrests appears in a separate story in today’s Sentinel-Tribune.
Such efforts likely won’t be able to continue in 2015, though, because the Criminal Interdiction team is
one of the services being eliminated next year due to budget woes.
Township trustees have been supplementing the police budget for years but made a concentrated effort to
reduce the burden on the general fund. Following a failed 3-mill levy attempt in November, other changes
will be made to the department including the elimination of a newly-developed crime scene investigation
unit. The township will also no longer participate in the Northern Regional SWAT team, a multi-agency
unit it helped establish.
Also Wednesday, the board entered executive session to discuss litigation and real estate, with no action
following.