Riverview police walk off the job citing salary issues, hostile work environment

Officers, represented by Laborers Local 42, strive to receive final paycheck with backpay

By SHERI GASSAWAY
Missouri Correspondent

Seven out of 10 Riverview police officials walked off the job June 29, forcing the small village to rely on mutual aid from the Bellefontaine Neighbors and St. Louis County Police Departments.

The personnel, which includes six officers, are represented by Laborers Local 42’s Law Enforcement Division. The interim police chief also resigned. They say they weren’t reinstated a pay raise approved by the previous board of trustees but cut without notice by Chairman Mike Cornell. They also cite a hostile work environment created by the village’s chairman and board.

Specific reasons for the resignations were outlined in a statement by six of the officers:

PAY CUTS
“City officials in the Village of Riverview cut officers’ pay without notice by $8,000 in May. This is a violation of Missouri Wage and Hour 30-day wage reduction notice requirement. The newly elected Chairman and Board of Trustees have shown no support for police officers or public safety. Chairman Cornell and the board had promised to partially reinstate raises but have yet to do so. The board was allegedly going to discuss the pay increases on Thursday, June 22 but it is still unknown to us if this was discussed in the closed session.

“Riverview personnel policy states ‘salaries shall not be decreased.’ Raises were discussed and approved by the previous board at two open meetings in January 2023. The officers’ pay is supposed to be discussed in an open board of trustees meeting before implementation. This issue was not one of the topics discussed at the most recent meeting on Thursday, June 22. In addition to salary issues, the chairman and board have proposed not paying officers for their current compensatory time totals and improperly demoting officers.

HOSTILE WORK ENVIRONMENT
“This is an unfortunate situation that has been going on for months. As police officers, we want to protect the community that we love dearly. But the chairman and the Board of Trustees have created a hostile work environment and do not value us as police officers which is therefore putting our community in danger. We urge the chairman and the Village of Riverview Board of Trustees (Darrin Johnson, Judy Jones, Pat Lewis, Shawnte Jackson) to change course and support our police officers.”

Previously, Cornell told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the officers who walked out were under investigation for issues ranging from not wearing bulletproof vests to pulling out weapons on children. He told other media that matters were much worse and included weapons and vehicles stolen by officers and that financial records were destroyed.

On July 7, the police union’s attorney sent Cornell a cease-and-desist letter claiming statements he made about pending internal investigations into the village’s officers who recently resigned are not true.

FALSE STATEMENTS
“You are to immediately cease and desist spreading false, unfounded and unsubstantiated statements relative to internal investigations against these former officers amongst other lies,” union attorney Daniel McLaughlin wrote in the letter.

McLaughlin said had there been any investigations, the village would be in violation of state law “for failing and refusing to provide those officers notice of any complaint or investigation in writing.”

As of Labor Tribune press time, Local 42’s Law Enforcement Division Field Rep Dave Reagan said the officers who resigned were waiting for their final paychecks, which were to be mailed as opposed to being handed out or direct deposited.

“Most of the officers who resigned have been hired elsewhere or are in the process of being hired,” said Local 42’s Dave Reagan. “At this point we are hoping to get the pay they lost when the board illegally rolled back their pay, all comp time they worked and remaining leave they accrued.”