City, police reach tentative agreement

TOLEDO, Ohio - The City of Toledo said late Monday afternoon that the Finkbeiner administration and the Toledo Police Patrolman's Association have reached a tentative contract agreement.

Finkbeiner administration spokesperson Megan Robson said the contact package will be presented to the TPPA Wednesday, July 1, for ratification.

The Finkbeiner administration has requested city council to hold a special meeting Thursday, July 2, for council to approve the contract deal.

"We had issues as a city administration that I felt we had to address, that the shortage of revenue was forcing upon and the union had issues that it wished us to address," Mayor Carty Finkbeiner said.

Though not getting into too much detail, the mayor mentioned the tentative contract is a three-year deal. The hope is to get as many officers back on the streets as quickly as possible.

"We have a responsibility to the citizens of the city of Toledo, to protect them as best we can," the mayor added. "We have a responsibility to our employees to be as fair as we can at this given point in time."

The mayor would not address talk that this new deal stops future layoffs. He also would not say how much of the city deficit this deal eliminates.

On Friday the latest round of contract negotiations between the city's police union and the city broke down. TPPA President Dan Wagner said that both sides had finally come to an agreement and attorneys for both sides were finalizing it Friday afternoon, but at the last minute Mayor Finkbeiner was insistent on some changes.

"Hopefully we have a good, fair agreement to all sides," said Councilman George Sarantou. "I am optimistic. I'm very glad we have a tentative agreement and obviously council wants to get police back to work, but we also want to have a labor agreement that everyone can live with."

With this deal, the mayor hopes the council will now consider what he called "revenue enhancements," like an increase in trash fees or changes in income taxes.

"The deal has been, you get some concessions and we'll take a serious look at the revenue enhancements that need to be made," Mayor Finkbeiner said.

Wagner was unavailable for comment.

The TPPA has been working under an expired contract since Jan. 1.

FOX Toledo's Shaun Hegarty contributed to this report)