WASHINGTON — An agreement is expected Thursday between the City of Frederick and its police department. Officers have been working since July without a contract.
The major point of contention was the city’s concern over automatic step increases.
“The compensation was the big hurdle. That’s what kept us from having a contract from July 1,” says Charlie Snyder, union president.
Mayor Randy McClement says recent negotiations are the first time the Fraternal Order of Police contract was analyzed line-by-line, which added to the delay in finding common ground. Automatic pay increases, he says, were a sticking point that needed to be discussed.
Snyder said the step increases were necessary to “help us retain people, and it also helps us bring in qualified and good people to come work here in the City of Frederick.”
On Tuesday, both sides said negotiations were coming to an end.
“We’re at the point now where both of us have felt that we’ve been able to find the middle road and move forward,” McClement says.
The Board of Alderman will vote on the new contract Thursday.
“I would hope that it would be a unanimous vote,” Snyder says.
WTOP’s David Burd contributed to this report. Follow WTOP on Twitter.
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