Unions rush to protect details

Local police deals skirt restrictions in governor's plan

Local police unions throughout Massachusetts, faced with an early October deadline, are scrambling to add language to labor contracts that would protect lucrative road construction details that can earn officers thousands of dollars in extra pay.

If successful, the moves by officers in cities and towns could undermine Governor Deval Patrick's plan to reduce police officers stationed at Massachusetts road projects and replace them with less expensive civilians, known as "flaggers."

It is another twist in the long-running political saga over whether costly police details should be curtailed in Massachusetts, which is the only state that automatically assigns police officers to nearly all utility and road work sites.

Patrick scored a political breakthrough this year when he gained permission from lawmakers to set up a scale of dangerousness to determine if a police presence is needed. Under his draft plan, police details will only be required at projects on major roads where cars are traveling fast. Flaggers will be posted at safer locations.

But police are looking to exploit an exemption included by the governor in his proposal. The new rules will not apply at the local level if, by the time they take effect, cities and towns have already adopted a police detail requirement, either in a police union contract or municipal ordinance. The rules are scheduled to take effect as early as Oct. 3.

In several cases already, local officials, hoping to use the issue as a bargaining chip with unions, have looked favorably on the police efforts to preserve the details

In Revere, for instance, city officials say they are willing to protect details in the union contract in exchange for officers agreeing to accept mandatory drug and alcohol testing.

"I'm a huge supporter of the governor," said Revere Mayor Thomas G. Ambrosino. "But on this issue I'm not convinced that the city of Revere is better served by having flagmen on the streets instead of police details. I don't see that there's significant savings."

Chelsea city officials last week proposed an ordinance that would protect police details in their community and prevent the state from using civilian flaggers. Hopkinton officials have asked the Patrick administration to delay the state regulations to give them more time to devise new bylaws.

The state will hold a public hearing to discuss the new rules tomorrow at 5 p.m. in the State Transportation Building. As of Friday, Patrick administration officials were deciding whether to eliminate the exemption in response to union leaders' maneuvers.

"The administration is giving strong consideration to removing that provision from the proposed regulations," a senior administration official said.

The new regulations would place civilian flaggers on nearly all state roads where the speed limit is below 45 miles per hour, as well as on low-traffic roads where the speed limit is higher. Flaggers would also be used on sites where barriers are used to block off construction sites on a high-speed, high-traffic road.

Some roads - generally those with speed limits of 45 miles per hour and above and with more than 4,000 vehicles per day - would still rely on police officers to monitor traffic.

The new regulations will easily apply to state roads, which the state has jurisdiction over. But the current dispute is over local roads, where the vast majority of projects are conducted.

The last-minute push is being led by the Quincy-based International Brotherhood of Police Officers. The union has posted a three-sentence clause on its website for local unions to insert into their contracts. All local officials would have to do is put their city or town name into the blank space.

It is difficult to tell how many cities and towns will go to bat for local police unions, but many local officials contacted last week said they had been approached by their police union. Local police union officials did not respond to a request for comment. The State Police union also has opposed the governor's initiative.

Although there are no statewide regulations requiring the use of police details for Massachusetts road projects or utility jobs, state and local officials have used them for decades at construction sites anyway, in deference to politically powerful unions. It is a longstanding practice and typically has not been included in any local bylaws or mandated as part of collective bargaining agreements.

"The local police are feeling this will cut into their authority and being able to determine what is needed and what isn't," said Anthony J. Troiano, town manager in Hopkinton. "It's all very fluid. Who knows what will happen in the next two weeks?"

Hopkinton town officials declined to alter union contracts, but instead sent letters to state officials asking them to delay implementation of the regulations until July 1, 2009, to give them time to hold town meetings and adopt new bylaws.

Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Municipal Association, which represents local officials across the state, is advising city and town leaders to avoid inserting the new language into police contracts.

"We strongly support the reforms that have been put forward," said Geoff Beckwith, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association. "Even though the cost projections are relatively modest, we feel it's important for communities to be empowered to manage all aspects of their government."

Police have argued that the presence of a cruiser and a uniformed officer slows traffic and provides the best protection for the public and for road workers. Police have at times also made arrests or caught suspects on unrelated cases while on police details.

Some city officials said they did not expect the savings accrued by switching to flaggers to be significant.

"I've gone from being excited about the opportunity to finally addressing this issue, to saying it makes no sense whatsoever not having police officers on site," said Jay Ash, the city manager in Chelsea, where about eight police officers are on police details each day.

Ash said a union flagger would earn $34.84 an hour in Chelsea, compared with $35 an hour for police detail officers.

But an estimate calculated by the administration shows that - on state-funded road projects - annual savings could be between $5.7 million and $7.2 million of the $20 million to $25 million spent annually on police details.

The Boston City Council is expected to preserve contract language and city ordinances that guarantee the use of details.

Councilor Sam Yoon said the city should study whether a city ordinance requiring paid details at construction sites is costly for residents. But there appears to be little appetite on the council or from Mayor Thomas M. Menino to change the arrangement.

"I think we are a very prolabor council," said City Council president Maureen Feeney.

John C. Drake of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.