GREENFIELD — With the addition of education and physical fitness incentives, two of the highest-paid police officers have negotiated significant pay bumps in the final year of their three-year contract.

As part of the memorandums of understanding, signed last year by then-Mayor Roxann Wedegartner during one of her final months in office, the final year of Police Chief Robert Haigh Jr.’s three-year contract would include a $33,901 increase to his base salary as a result of an education incentive; Deputy Chief William Gordon, meanwhile, would see a $35,255 increase.

“The more education you get, the better a police officer you’re going to be,” said Wedegartner, speaking by phone Tuesday morning.

Those increases, in addition to a $750 physical fitness incentive and 3% longevity increase, would bring their annual salaries to $215,742 and $181,196, respectively. The raises were to go in effect Jan. 1, according to the memorandums. Funding the agreements, however, will require City Council approval.

Mayor Ginny Desorgher — who bested Wedegartner in the Nov. 6 election — said she received the memorandums of understanding that intended to amend the contracts between the city, the police chief and the deputy chief on her second day as mayor. She noted the memorandums were submitted to the Department of Human Resources on Election Day.

“I was quite surprised, knowing that we had already approved the budget for [fiscal year 2024], and that did not include this,” Desorgher said.

To fund the agreements, Desorgher put forward a financial order to transfer $54,901 from the city’s reserve fund to cover the increases. A year-to-date report through December 2023 indicates there is $75,000 available in the city’s reserve account.

The Ways and Means Committee, a subcommittee of City Council, was expected to review the financial order on Tuesday evening. A first reading will take place on Wednesday, with a second reading and vote anticipated at the February meeting.

“I have dozens of emails asking us not to fund this,” said City Council Vice President Sheila Gilmour. “Policing was a big issue during the last election. … It was a landslide and I think we need to pay attention to that.”

The agreements, however, which were signed on Oct. 31 by the former mayor and two Police Department heads, have resulted in more questions from current and former city councilors about the appropriateness of their timing, rather than the feasibility of funding them.

“It definitely appears to be an attempt by [Wedegartner] to pad both the police chief and deputy chief’s salaries,” said City Council President John Bottomley. “I question the integrity of any public servant that would sign such an agreement. It feels really egregious.”

Gilmour noted that if the agreements were signed in October and turned into Human Resources in November, Wedegartner could have put forth a financial order at the November or December City Council meeting.

“I’m getting sick of dealing with city politics in this manner, and I thought we were done with that,” she said.

Wedegartner said Gordon and Haigh asked for education incentive pay to be included in their contracts to be “in line with their department,” given every other officer already has it included as part of their base pay.

She referenced the Quinn Bill, which was passed into law in 1970 to incentivize police officers to pursue higher education degrees in criminal justice. Officers were offered a 10% bonus for an associate’s degree, 20% for a bachelor’s degree and 25% for a master’s degree. Haigh holds a bachelor’s degree, earning him a 20% increase, while Gordon holds a master’s degree, earning him a 25%.

Funding for the bill was traditionally split between municipalities and the state, but former Gov. Deval Patrick significantly cut funding for the program in 2009 and, eventually, the state’s portion was eliminated, according to the State House News Service. Some municipalities still offer education incentives, and a coalition of state troopers is hoping to reinstate a similar bill (S. 1608/H. 2353) to reinstate the state-funded initiatives.

According to Wedegartner, Haigh agreed to a 0% increase to his base salary for the subsequent three years — that includes waiving the typical 3% annual increase for department heads — and Gordon agreed to the same for one year of his next contract.

“They recognized … the 20% and 25% [education incentive increase] would be a fairly big hit to their budgets going forward, but seriously for fiscal year 2025,” she said.

Negotiations for Gordon and Haigh, as well as for Fire Chief Robert Strahan and Finance Director Diana Schindler, who also negotiate contracts on a calendar year basis, began in the fall, Wedegartner explained.

“This year was a little bit weird because it was a busy year for everybody,” Wedegartner said. “I was busy both because of the campaign and being mayor, so it probably did happen later.”

Former City Councilor Christine Forgey said while the pay bumps may have been OK from a legal perspective, she felt it was “an inappropriate time to make those kinds of adjustments.”

“It was in the middle of a campaign,” Forgey said. “In my opinion, it’s inappropriate. You have to wait for the outcome. That would be the appropriate thing to do.”

Reporter Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter (X): @MaryEByrne.