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Police stepping up pay-raise campaign - 10 billboards proclaim union's demands

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When Mayor Bobby Simpson returns today from a weeklong vacation, he will find himself squarely in the crosshairs in the police union's o­ngoing battle for pay raises.

Ten billboards erected Monday and today throughout Baton Rouge tell Simpson to "Pay your police.""Above that demand, the billboards say, "Welcome to Baton Rouge: Protected by some of the lowest-paid police officers in the country."Simpson's secretary, Ray Anders, said the mayor has been out of town since Feb. 19 and returns to work today.He was unavailable for comment.

However, his chief administrative officer, Paul Thompson, said the police union "needs to look at their own Web site. With the last raise they got, they are now in the middle of the rankings; and with the next raise they will get, they will be in the upper half."Simpson gave police officers a 4 percent across-the-board pay raise in January 2003 - making them the o­nly city-parish employees to receive such a boost last year. A new pay plan that takes effect April 1 will give most officers a 5.2 percent raise. Pay for new officers will go up 6.1 percent."An officer with more than o­ne (year) and less than 10 years will have gotten 15 percent in raises in the last three years" when pay raises and 3 percent longevity increases are combined, Thompson said. Officers with 10 or more years of service will have gotten raises of close to 20 percent."Would we like to pay them more? We'd like to pay all employees more," Thompson said, adding that the city doesn't have the revenue to do that.Still, Sgt. Noel Salamoni, president of the Baton Rouge Union of Police Local 237, said the billboards take aim at Simpson because the union blames him for an impasse o­n salaries that has lasted at least three years and, he contends, with below-average pay."I don't think he feels it's that important an issue or else he would have dealt with it by now," Salamoni said.The union did not endorse Simpson in the 2000 mayor's race, supporting instead former Metro Councilwoman Roxson Welch in the first round and State Rep. Melvin "Kip" Holden in the second."We've been trying to work things out, but they never seem to (improve), so we just thought it was time to step things up," Salamoni said.Salamoni said the union sought billboards in high-traffic areas. o­ne of them is two blocks from the Second District police station o­n Highland Road between LSU and downtown."We wanted to get them in north Baton Rouge, south Baton Rouge, o­n Sherwood Forest (Boulevard), everywhere," he said.The billboards are the latest union effort to keep attention focused o­n its effort to get police a new pay plan.Union members have repeatedly picketed Metro Council meetings and other functions, including the ground breaking of the Centroplex expansion in 2002.Another tactic - which Salamoni said will be revisited - was newspaper ads. In February 2003, the union asked residents to encourage council members to support an increase in monthly garbage collection fees to pay for raises.The ads included council members' phone numbers, but apparently backfired: Of 57 calls Councilman Charles Kelly said he received, three were in support of the pay raise, and two of those callers lived outside his district.The garbage fee measure failed 8-4.A month later, the union spent $8,200 to hire Oklahoma accountant Ron York, who consults with police who are seeking raises.After reviewing city-parish financial documents between 1997 and 2001, York told the Metro Council that city-parish government is sitting o­n $72 million that is "unencumbered" and could be used for a pay raise.Salamoni said Simpson and the council ignored York's conclusion."They said the money wasn't there, but it is," Salamoni said.York is also the source for the billboard's claim that Baton Rouge police are among the nation's lowest paid.According to York's "police pay index," Baton Rouge ranks 174 among 191 cities he compared using police hourly pay and the cost of living.Salamoni said the billboards name Simpson but are targeted at all of Baton Rouge, including "community members, business leaders and citizens.""It's to get everyone's attention," he said. "Everyone wants a Baton Rouge moving forward that's innovative. We haven't even taken care of necessities yet."