CASSOPOLIS — Cass County commissioners accepted a three-year agreement reached with Teamsters Local 214.

The union represents deputies, corrections officers and dispatchers.

The March 15 agreement spans Jan. 1, 2011, to Dec. 31, 2013, and provides 2-percent wage increases each year.

“I’m concerned about this contract,” Commissioner Robert Ziliak, R-Milton Township, explained his lone no vote in a 14-1 margin Thursday night.

“My main concern is 2-percent increases this year and next year. I think they got 2 percent this year and 2 percent last year, too, and yet, our core inflation was zero.

“Social Security checks have not increased this year or last year. Federal employees have taken wage freezes for the next two years, and here we’re offering 2-percent increases this year, next year and the following year. Myself, I’d like to see zero percent the first two years and 2 percent the last.

“The (detective) clothing allowance increasing from $420 to $500 annually, with no core inflation I don’t know why there would be a change. Prices aren’t going up, so I don’t think that should be in there, either,” Ziliak added.

“Law enforcement has very strong unions and special privileges,” responded County Administrator Charles Cleaver, who debuted April 7.

“It costs an awful lot of money and a lot of time to get involved with an arbitrator, who can choose to do whatever he wants, and it’s binding. My second day here, we were in mediation with this group. The last proposal the employer proposed in January was 1 3/4, 2, 2, with health insurance changes. After five hours we ended up with 2, 2 and 2, so 1/4 of one percent more in that first year for wages, but we got health insurance changed on that first year and the second year instead of the third year. That shift saves the county substantially from the proposal we left them with in January.

“I’m going back to that because in binding arbitration, the arbitrator looks at ‘internal comparables.’ Ours were in the 2-percent range, so we could end up with 3 percent,” Cleaver said. “This is the last of the eight units to negotiate, so when the arbitrator looks at that, they’re all 2s. We have five groups whose contracts expire at the end of the year.”

“It’s a significant difference in what they’re paying for health insurance,” Sheriff Joseph Underwood said, with an employee premium share of 10 percent effective Sept. 1, and 11 percent effective Sept. 1, 2012.