Committee recommends amendment to 2025 police and fire pay ordinance to full council

A committee of the City of Lawrence Common Council voted unanimously to recommend Proposal 1-20-25, an ordinance amending Ordinance 10-20-24 that fixes salaries for appointed officers and employees of the police and fire departments for 2025, to the full council.

The committee discussion centered on technical clarifications to specialty and technical pay sections. A staff member told the committee that Corporation Counsel and representatives of the police and firefighters unions had reviewed the changes to ensure previous oversights were corrected. “Corporation Counsel and representatives of our police and fire union have been working together to make sure we dial our i's and cross our t's,” the staff member said.

The ordinance draft clarifies specialty pay and technical-pay lines. The committee was told the professional standards division commander position would receive $0.96 per hour under the specialty-pay schedule. Field training officers would receive $5 per hour for each hour they train an officer. The technical-pay section was edited to remove a duplicate “rescue task force instructor” line and replace it with a “task force operator” role. For certification pay, the ordinance language was updated to provide $0.40 per hour for any State of Indiana fire technician-level certification.

Councilor Giles moved to recommend Proposal 1-20-25 to the full council with a recommendation for approval; Councilor Jennings seconded. During the committee roll call, Councilor Jennings, Councilor Robinson and Councilor Freeman voted “aye.” The committee chair announced, “The ayes have it,” and the committee recommended the item for the full Common Council meeting scheduled later the same evening.

No amendments to the motion were recorded during the committee, and the committee chair did not direct further study. The proposal will appear on the full council agenda for final consideration.