From 1975: Police Union, City Reach Pact Agreement

This article is from 35 years ago today, published on January 31st, 1975.

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The city and the police union have reached agreement on a working contract for the current year, Mayor Anthony Sbona said Thursday.

The Common Council will be asked Monday night to authorize the mayor to sign the working agreement, he said.

This will leave only the firefighters union without a working agreement with the city.

The police agreement is based on the proviso that the city increase the time period for payment of wages in compensation cases from 12 to 18 days. The council also will be asked to ratify this amendment to the agreement.

Pay Increase
The agreement provides a three per cent pay increase as of last July 1, the start of the current city fiscal year, and another three per cent as of Jan. 1, 1975.

Firemen have been offered the same pay agreement in the factfinding report by a state arbitrator. However, the major stumbling block in the fire agreement is the manpower clause which would require the city to maintain a specific number of men on each shift.

Still Opposed
Mayor Sbona said Thursday he still is adamantly opposed to any manpower clause maintaining this is strictly a management prerogative.

The police agreement comes as the mayor begins work on his proposed city budget from the new fiscal year starting next July 1.

He already has asked city unions and school officials to ask their membership to forego any pay increase requests in the coming year because of tight economic conditions. The mayor is trying to avoid a tax increase in the coming year and intends to pare as many items as possible in the new budget in an effort to avoid a possible tax increase.

The city operates now on a $17 million budget and city departments have asked for $18.2 million for the coming year. About half of the proposed $1.2 million increase is in proposed education costs.

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"Buddy" Sbona was the longest serving Republican mayor of our city, serving from 1969 to 1975. From his obituary in the Hartford Courant:

At 5 feet 5, with a booming voice, the former union carpenter and Republican city councilman generated so much support for his first mayoral campaign in 1969 that he helped the council and board of education win rare Republican majorities. ...

In 1945, Sbona played on a Middletown High School football team that was selected to play in the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla. ... From time to time, members of that special team, people such as [Carl] Fortuna and Salvatore 'Flash' Faraci, a retired Middletown police detective, would get together and celebrate the football experiences.