Nassau PBA contract gets NIFA approval

The Nassau Interim Finance Authority on Tuesday approved a new contract for Nassau's police union, hiking pay by 15% over 8 1/2 years and clearing the last hurdle in a six-year dispute.

Directors of NIFA, the state control board that runs Nassau County finances, approved the contract by a vote of 4-0. 

The Nassau County Legislature approved the nearly $170 million agreement with the Nassau County Police Benevolent Association on Feb. 6, by a vote of 18-0. The union's previous contract expired on Dec. 31, 2017.

Finalization of the PBA deal closed out a tumultuous six-year period. In December 2020, PBA members rejected a similar agreement when former County Executive Laura Curran, a Democrat, was in office.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican who defeated Curran in 2021, announced the new deal in January. PBA members approved the contract, with 93% voting in favor. 

NIFA chairman Adam Barsky told Newsday before the vote that the new contract provided "good value" for the county and followed the pattern of other deals Nassau sealed with the Detectives Association Inc. in 2019 and the Superior Officers Association in 2020.

Barsky said the agreement "was able to get done in a way that maintained that pattern and provided the benefits to the county over eight and a half years," while "preserving the value of those previous contracts and those that came after."

Barsky continued: "It's good value for the county and it's good value for the unions to have certainty. It's a good outcome all around.

"This is a contract that was voted down, and this time around it's essentially the same, but was voted in favor of, by 93 percent. It shows you the original contract was voted down [not] because it was a bad contract. It was union politics, internal politics," he said.

In a statement, Blakeman said the new contract "fairly compensates our hardworking police officers while protecting taxpayers' wallets. Tonight's final approval is a huge win for officers and Nassau County residents."

Tommy Shevlin, Nassau PBA president, said in a statement: "I am very pleased that we have collectively resolved to move forward with a new labor agreement that, I think, suits both the compensation requirements of our membership and the safety and security of the residents of Nassau County."

Barsky said he believed police officers voted in favor of the deal this time because the county had in 2021 approved a $100 million agreement providing "longevity pay" to officers.

Longevity pay is factored into a worker's salary after the employee has completed a certain number of years with Nassau.

With deals for the PBA, DAI and SOA settled, Nassau must still finalize agreements with its largest union, the Civil Service Employees Association, as well as the Correction Officers Benevolent Association.

The correction officers union, covering employees of the county's East Meadow correctional center, voted down a tentative deal the Blakeman administration had proposed in August.

"It’s the goal to settle all these agreements," Nassau Minority Leader Kevan Abrahams (D-Freeport) told Newsday on Tuesday.

"It definitely adds a level of certainty of having to move forward to have all these contracts in place,” Abrahams said. "There needs to be a consensus on settling the last two.”

By Scott Eidler

scott.eidler@newsday.com@ScottEidler

Scott Eidler is a deputy editor for the towns department at Newsday. Scott has worked at Newsday since 2012 and previously covered municipal government and education.