Ismail Abdussabur: Looking forward to "more time at home." The Board of Alders unanimously approved a long-awaited, six-year police union contract — to applause from an audience of police officers who have worked for two years without a contract.The contract, officially covering six years from July 2022 through June 2028, includes salary raises and new benefits aimed at retaining current police officers and recruiting more staff. According to a statement from Mayor Justin Elicker, the department currently has 58 vacancies out of 392 budgeted positions. Vacancies have led to long work hours for officers and higher overtime costs for the city.This fiscal year alone, the contract will cost the city about $6.8 million, which partially covers retroactive raises for the last two years.The contract provisions include:• Hiking officers’ starting salaries to $70,000 this fiscal year — a nearly $20,000 raise from the current entry salary of $50,745. This raise places New Haven in line with other Connecticut municipalities. (For example, starting salaries are $65,500 in Hartford, $72,000 in Waterbury, and $86,832 in New London.)• Retroactive 2.5 percent raises applied to the last two fiscal years, including for overtime. • A 5 percent annual raise applied to the 2024 – 25 fiscal year and onwards.• A new Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP) option for officers who are eligible to retire. Those officers can opt to continue working for the city and earning a salary while collecting up to five years worth of pension benefits in a DROP account, which they would gain access to upon their actual retirement. • A new work schedule in which officers receive three consecutive days off after five consecutive days of work. (Read more about that here.)Ismail Abdussabur, who said he’s been a New Haven patrol officer for about five years, said he believes the contract will allow him and his colleagues to spend more time with family — not only because of a reworked shift schedule that builds in an extra day off every two weeks, but also because of an expected increase in recruitment and retention that will limit the need for overtime work.“For those that want more time at home, it gives us the ability to do that more,” he said. Still, Abdussabur said, ​“It is by no means an end. It’s a step in the right direction.” Next contract negotiation, he said, ​“it would make sense if feasible to have a contract by the current one’s expiration.”Finance Committee Chair and Westville Alder Adam Marchand said that ​“even though the fiscal impact will be considerable,” the city has ​“an urgent need to rebuild our police department.”Majority Leader and Westville/Amity Alder Richard Furlow described the contract as ​“one move in the right direction to give [officers] what they deserve.”“We have to remember, our officers are the ones running toward danger while we run away from it,” said East Rock Alder Anna Festa.When alders unanimously voted to approve the contract, about 15 police department members — including union members, union President Florencio Cotto, and Police Chief Karl Jacobson — burst into applause.Monday’s vote comes two and a half months after a breakdown in negotiations between the police union president and the mayor resulted in the contract heading to state arbitration. The union and the Elicker administration wound up reaching a tentative agreement, now approved, on Oct. 1.Adam Marchand: "considerable" cost of contract is worth it.