CLAYTON, Mo. — If St. Louis County police employees want the $7 million in raises they were supposed to get next fiscal year, the department is going to have to cut 100 employees to do so, according to a budget overview presented to the police board Tuesday.
The county’s budget department told Chief Mary Barton she had to keep the department’s budget at the same amount as it was last year, which did not include the $7 million in pay raises, according to Joyce Hill, the department’s fiscal services supervisor.
“In our initial letter to the budget department, we included an explanation of how this would severely adversely affect our business and we would need to eliminate or not fill vacant positions, as well as eliminate actually employees on the payroll," Hill said. "And the budget office didn’t like that letter and said we need actual information so the council knows what the consequences are. If you don’t have the people, we cannot continue to provide the services we do or we are just going to end up paying overtime.
“So the choice is between the positions or giving the pay raises.”
The pay raises were negotiated with the St. Louis County Police Association as part of the influx of revenues from Prop P – a sales tax increase voters approved in April 2017. The first pay plan took effect in 2018.
St. Louis County Police Officers Association Business Manager Matt Crecelius spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting, accusing St. Louis County Executive Sam Page of creating the crisis for political reasons.
“This is a manufactured issue by the county executive,” he said. “The county administration knew these increases were coming and agreed to these increases.”
The most recent raises for police officers were agreed upon between the County Council, Page's office and police union in December 2019. The same happened for civilian employees in April of this year, Crecelius said.
“The county budget office knew that the pay adjustment was approved and coming, they are now trying not to fund it,” he said.
Page’s office has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Crecelius added the union would be prepared to go to court should any employees be laid off or raises not be given.
"It's very specific about how the budget needs to be balanced by extraordinary means and verified by an outside accounting firm," Crecelius said. "There's now way for them to meet that when there's $21 million in Prop P funds sitting in the bank."
Crecelius also said he didn't understand why the fiscal supervisor brought up the issue during today's meeting, given that the department has until October to present its budget to the council.
When asked whether he believes Page is pushing back on police raises because the police union endorsed his opponent in the primary, Crecelius said: "That would probably be what you would read into the political side, yes. It's politics."
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