High Grades for Heiner in Debate
9/8/2010Rick Redding:
If you just dropped into town and didn't know anything about Greg Fischer or Hal Heiner, and then watched the debate put on by the Louisville Forum at Vincenzo's today, you wouldn't believe that this race is ne...
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Heiner: city should negotiate with police over take-home cars
1/15/2010Written by: Dan Klepal, CourierJournal
Published: January 12, 2010
Louisville Metro Councilman and mayoral candidate Hal Heiner will soon file a resolution that says Mayor Jerry Abramson's administration should begin negotiating with the Fraternal Order of Police for a refund of money officers were charged for taking home their patrol cars.
The Kentucky Labor Cabinet issued an opinion in May and a final order in July that said the police department's administration and Abramson violated collective-bargaining laws when they imposed the fees -- $100 a month to take home the cruisers; $160 a month if the cars were used as transportation to secondary employment -- without union approval.
The administration did so in an attempt to raise $110,000 per month to offset budget deficits during the past two fiscal years. It collected about $940,000 from the take-home car fees, according to Chad Carlton, an Abramson spokesman.
The administration said it could impose the fees because the take-home car program is a privilege and not a benefit the union negotiated in its' contract.
"Now is the time for the mayor and his representatives to halt their appeal, and instead begin talks with representatives of our police officers to put this dispute to an end," Heiner, who represents the 19th District, said in a prepared statement. "Rather than adjudicate this for years, we need to put this matter behind us and find an acceptable answer for this contentious legal fight."
