To recruit and retain quality police officers, Livonia City Council is reinstating defined benefit pensions and, for further enticement, offering more flexible 12-hour shifts.
Mayor Maureen Miller Brosnan said those two new elements in the latest three-year union contract means the city is willing to invest in the community as well as its police department, which is now down by 31 officers.
She explained that the city stepped away from pensions in the 1990s because of an economic downtown that brought income and revenue losses.
Creating a new pension program for Livonia's emergency responders was one of Brosnan's top priorities when stepping into the elected mayor's role in 2020. Approved late last year, the new 2018-21 firefighters' contract revived pensions for a department that had been down by about 10 firefighters.
Brosnan said the fire department has turned the situation around, hiring enough new employees to reach full staffing this year.