The Blue Earth City Council was updated by Police Chief Tom Fletcher on Monday that the department will be receiving a check from the state later this month. The money for the department is from legislation that passed last session for public safety initiatives.
One of the ways to use the money that was discussed at the meeting was incentive pay for current officers on the Blue Earth Police Department. This would be a one time agreement which would be presented to the Police Union for them to agree to or not.
Under the proposal, each officer would receive a one time incentive check for $5,000 to say with the Blue Earth Police Department and if an officer leaves within a year, they would owe 75% back to the department, within two years, it would be 50% and within 3 years, 25%.
The council agreed that this is a good way to keep the officers that the city has and approved the incentive pay plan, which will now go to the officers and the union for their approval.