After more than a year of negotiations, Jeffersonville police have a new contract that includes a pay increase and continues a work rotation that ensures more consecutive days off.
The agreement, approved Tuesday, includes 2% raises starting in January 2026, with officer base pay going from $66,000 to $67,320, according to a news release.
The city’s match for officers’ retirement plans increases from 3% to 4%. A new work rotation of five days on, four days off remains in effect.
“This is a good day, and we’re happy,” Anothony Stewart, president of the Jeffersonville Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #100, told LPM News.
He said the main focus was keeping the schedule change that was amended into the contract last year.
“It allows our officers time to…de-stress from the type of work they do and spend more time with their families,” he said. “And we believe that our officers are in better shape mentally and their morale is better, which leads to a better product from [a] policing standpoint.”
The previous contract expired at the end of 2024. Stewart said they’ve been operating under an evergreen period that allows for additional time for contract negotiations.
The new contract expires at the end of 2026. The abbreviated agreement length is in place as local leaders assess how Jeffersonville will be impacted by state Senate Bill 1, which changes how municipalities and other taxing units get revenue.
“I am thrilled that we are able to finalize an agreement that is fair and equitable without jeopardizing public safety,” Jeffersonville Mayor Mike Moore said in a news release. “With a short-term contract, it will give us an opportunity to better evaluate the impact of recent state legislation on our city finances. We’re also optimistic that the General Assembly will take another look at how it funds local government when it convenes again in January.”
Officials started talks last February on an amendment to the previous contract that included a 10.5% raise and changed the officer schedule.
They started negotiations on this new contract a few months later. Stewart said they had hoped to get around a 3% raise in 2026, with a goal of an 11% increase over the next three years.
Given the city’s current budget constraints, he said the 2% for 2026 in this shorter contract is “a good compromise.”
If there are changes to Senate Bill 1, he’s hoping they could get closer to the FOP’s goal over the next few years.
The local FOP plans to ask their state counterpart to help lobby for amendments to SB1 “so that we can make sure that the cities, and especially cities that border larger urban areas…have the means to adequately compensate first responders.”
Stewart said contract negotiations took longer than usual — in part as the city moved toward starting a fire territory, which the council has since voted to stop, and also due to concerns around SB1.
“[Senate Bill 1] changed the direction of the negotiations, and everyone just had a kind of uncertainty,” he said.
Clarksville has also had a long negotiating period and recently reached an agreement after 20 months. The Clarksville Town Council approved a police contract term sheet at a meeting this week and will consider the contract at an upcoming meeting.
Jeffersonville City Council member Dustin White said in a statement he was “happy our fine officers have [reached] an Agreement with the City. They deserve everything they receive, and then some.”
But he criticized the administration for the steps leading up to it.
The city council had originally been handling contract negotiations but voted to turn that over to the administration last month. City Controller Heather Metcalf said in a July email to the council that she didn’t see how any additional increases could work.
The administration took over negotiations and ultimately approved 95% of what the council committee had negotiated, White said.
Mayor Moore said the council should have consulted the city controller during negotiations, and that “the way they were doing it was not fundable.”
He said the police raises are fundable by restructuring the police department to be more efficient and changes to city insurance plans.
Longtime Jeffersonville Police Chief Kenny Kavanaugh announced a few weeks ago he would no longer lead the department. He said the leadership change came amid struggling negotiations and as the city prepares for SB1.
On Aug. 11, Kavanaugh wrote to Mayor Moore that the newly implemented work rotation had increased overtime pay by about 40% and was unsustainable. That came a week after the city council approved an additional appropriation of $400,000 for overtime pay and to turn contract negotiations over to the administration.
Moore said in the release it was important to keep that time off, and that he believes the city can keep that commitment by making the rotation more cost efficient.
He said the contract will be fully funded when he presents the 2026 budget to the council.
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