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Newport council approves three-year police contract with phased raises and buyout expansion
Summary
Council approved a new police and dispatchers' union contract that phases salary increases over three years (3%, 3%, then 4%), adds dedicated city-paid phones for officers and expands the health-insurance buyout to explicitly include Veterans Administration coverage.
After private executive-session review, the Newport City Council voted to approve a collective-bargaining agreement with the city’s police and dispatchers union on May 18. The contract includes a 3% across-the-board increase in the coming fiscal year, followed by a further 3% increase and then a 4% increase in subsequent years, changes negotiated to align pay and longevity with the city’s personnel policy.
Mayor Rick Evertchase summarized core economic provisions: "the percentage increase approved for the coming fiscal year is a 3% across the board increase, which is the budget that we passed" and noted additional provisions negotiated by the city's team. The agreement also requires the city to provide dedicated cell phones for officers to avoid mixing personal devices with job communications and to protect personal phones from public-records requests; the mayor estimated that cost at roughly $10,000.
The contract expands the employee health-insurance buyout language to include proof of equivalent coverage through a spouse, domestic partner, parent, legal guardian or the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and raises the city’s buyout payment to provide a stronger incentive for those insured elsewhere to opt out of the city plan. Negotiators said the changes were negotiated with assistance from counsel and union representatives and that a redline version of the finalized agreement would be made available to the public within 24–48 hours.
Councilors thanked negotiation team members and the union’s leadership for completing the talks; the motion to approve the contract passed by voice vote. The council did not immediately vote to fund any additional one-time costs associated with the contract beyond what is already included in the voter-approved budget.
