The Jeffersonville City Council and the city's police union began contract negotiations on Monday at a public meeting, a move the union's president said concerned him.
Joe Hubbard, president of the Jeffersonville lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, said he did not understand "how this changed from a closed negotiation to a public meeting."
The council's president, Nathan Samuel, said the meeting was open to the public because all seven council members wanted to participate, and Indiana law requires meetings of a majority of the council to be public.
Leo Blackwell, a lawyer for the police union, said he would review the state's open door law to determine whether the negotiating meetings with the full council can be closed to the public.
Council member Keith Fetz said he "never have liked the idea of negotiating behind closed doors. I think the more we can open up the better off we are."
Hubbard said the union and the city negotiated a four-year contract in 2009 that was to be reopened for salary and physical fitness requirements for its last two years.
"We did not want to agree to a salary budget for 2011 and 2012 because we wanted to see if the annexation was going to follow through, and it did," Hubbard said, referring to annexations during the last two years that are estimated to have added a third to the city's population.
"Now that it has, we look forward to fair and appropriate compensation" for expanded police operations, Hubbard said.
He also said that the physical fitness requirements that were included in the contract in 2009 must be refined.
While the FOP supports such requirements, Hubbard said he was "opposed to the punitive aspect of it."
The contract says officers hired after Jan. 1 can be terminated if, at some point, they cannot pass the exam, which sets standards for running, sit-ups and push-ups.
He said he also wants to discuss compensating officers for medical exams or training they might need for the physical fitness test, and the city providing facilities where they can train.
Samuel said he did not see "how to get around" requiring police to meet physical fitness requirements since it is important for them to be able to perform in emergencies.
Hubbard said that officers want to be fit but he thinks "carrots are more effective than sticks" in setting such standards.
The union and council agreed to meet again for negotiations on June 7 at 5:30 p.m.
At Monday night's council meeting after the negotiating session, Mayor Tom Galligan said the city is planning to acquire the building on Pearl Street now occupied by a community soup kitchen so the building can be demolished to make way for a pedestrian ramp to the Big Four Bridge.
Responding to a question from council member Keith Fetz, Galligan said he has told the soup kitchen it has until early January to move, and he has promised city help with moving equipment.