Middletown council reviews tentative five-year police contract, seeks budget details ahead of Jan. 14 vote

The Middletown Common Council on Jan. 8 held a workshop to review a tentative five-year agreement between the city and Local 1361 AFSCME Council 4 covering July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2030. Deputy general counsel Corey Wisniewski presented the red-lined tentative agreement and an executive summary, saying the TA was reached Dec. 3, 2025, and will be voted on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026.

The meeting focused on the contract’s cost and structural changes. Wisniewski said the package “is a fair contract for both the Local 1361 members as well as the city of Middletown and its taxpayers.” Finance director Carl Erlacher and HR staff joined the presentation to answer detailed questions from council members.

Council members concentrated on three budgetary items they said needed clearer explanation: longevity pay, overall salary step and cost-of-living increases, and changes to sick‑time and retiree benefits. On longevity, Erlacher described two components: an approximately $1,000-per-officer increase that he said equates to roughly $175,000 over the term of the contract, and a separate pensionable longevity element he estimated at about $17,700 per year. “That’s in the budget for longevity; it’s about $175,000,” Erlacher told the council.

On overall salary costs, council members recited spreadsheet figures provided by city staff. Erlacher said the city’s starting annual payroll for the police department is about $16.3 million and explained the accounting method the city uses to project multi‑year budget impacts. He told the council that the modeled additional cost tied to step increases and COLAs for the unit amounts to about $2.3 million over the contract period as presented to the council; councilors pressed him for the line‑by‑line calculations and asked for the city’s underlying spreadsheet.

Councilors also questioned changes to sick‑time payouts that will affect final pension calculations. Under the draft agreement, officers will retain the ability to cash out 50% of accrued sick time up to 75 days, but they will no longer “run out” sick days into their pension calculation at retirement. Wisniewski said that modification reduces pensionable pay and was negotiated in conjunction with other changes intended to lower the city’s OPEB and long‑term liabilities.

The TA also includes changes affecting retiree health: the agreement offers Medicare Advantage as the post‑65 option for members who retire after July 1, 2025. Erlacher described projected savings tied to the shift and said the city estimates about $9,110 in annual savings per eligible member under Medicare Advantage assumptions used by staff.

On private duty and attached MOUs, Wisniewski said the city added provisions to formalize private‑duty reserve officers — retired officers who can be hired for city‑sponsored events — and to raise a reserve hourly rate from $60 to $70. The council asked about longer‑term changes: starting in the later years of the agreement, the private‑duty billing basis may shift upward to higher step rates tied to sergeant or lieutenant steps, and council members requested a financial analysis of how that change could affect net revenue. Erlacher and deputy chief Rich Davis said the current private‑duty program brings in more revenue than it costs and estimated a current annual net revenue delta in the range of several hundred thousand dollars; they said the city could adjust billing practices if needed.

Several councilors asked whether the TA’s changes were necessary to attract laterals. Lofredo and others noted Middletown has attracted lateral hires in recent years and questioned the magnitude of the longevity increases. Wisniewski said the chief prioritized maintaining longevity to help recruitment and that certain offsetting changes — for example, eliminating an employee birthday pay provision — were part of the package.

No formal action was taken at the workshop. Councilman Vincent J. Lofredo moved to adjourn at the meeting’s end; the motion was seconded and approved by voice vote. The council’s formal vote on the tentative agreement is scheduled for Jan. 14, 2026.

What’s next: The council requested additional line‑item detail from finance and HR on the five‑year cost projections, on private‑duty revenue modeling for later contract years, and on the number of officers likely affected by the sick‑time and pension changes. The public record packet provided to the council included the red‑lined TA and supporting spreadsheets that councilors repeatedly referenced during the workshop.