CLAYTON — The St. Louis County Police Officers Association has threatened to take County Executive Charlie Dooley to court unless he meets with them to discuss salary issues.

The association delivered a letter to Dooley on Aug. 15 asking him to recognize the group as the collective bargaining representative for all county police officers and sergeants. The letter cited a ruling last month by St. Louis County Circuit Judge David Lee Vincent III ordering the city of Jennings to "meet and confer" with its police officers and Lodge 15 of the Fraternal Order of Police. (The county officers association is a chapter of that lodge.) Vincent had cited a Missouri Supreme Court ruling last year giving public employees a constitutional right to engage in collective bargaining.

"Through this correspondence, the County Association seeks to avoid a contentious legal battle regarding recognition of the police officers for purposes of collective bargaining," the association's attorney, Greg Kloeppel, stated in the letter.

Dooley declined through a spokesman to comment on Wednesday, other than to say he was studying the matter.

Bob Frohne, a sergeant with the county police department and president of the officers association, said the letter was sent after Dooley rejected the association's request in early August for a 6 percent raise for all officers and dispatchers.

"He refused to directly talk to us but told us through the (St. Louis) County Police Board that they couldn't afford to do anything," Frohne said. Frohne said more than 60 percent of the county's 639 police officers and 85 sergeants signed cards to be represented by the Fraternal Order of Police. Frohne said starting pay for a county officer is about $42,000, with a sergeant's salary topping out at about $75,000.

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By Paul Hampel
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
09/04/2008