Jeannette struggles to fill 2 openings on police force

Jeannette is looking at financial incentives and other options to encourage more applicants to two openings on the police force.

As of Tuesday afternoon, no one had applied for the positions, police Chief Derek Manley said. The application period closes Oct. 31.

During a meeting Monday to prepare for the 2026 budget, Manley asked council to consider upping wages for new hires and presented council with starting salaries at departments around Westmoreland County and Southwestern Pennsylvania. He proposed council eliminate the pay scale established in an August arbitration decision that reduced wages for new officers and revert back to the previous contract.

“I feel that the pay for starting officers is not competitive at all for surrounding agencies,” he said. “Everybody’s struggling to get officers, but if you want to retain them, you have to be competitive.”

But the city’s hands might be tied by the arbitration decision.

“It’s not something that we can even remotely consider changing right now until we see how it plays out,” City Manager Ethan Keedy said.

The August arbitration decision came after contract negotiations between city officials and the Jeannette Police Officers’ Benefit Association were unsuccessful. The previous pact expired at the end of 2024.

The award was retroactive to Jan. 1. It will be in effect until Dec. 31, 2028. The department typically has 12 officers. The force has been lacking staffing for the past year.

Under the previous contract, new officers hired in 2024 earned a percentage of the $78,502 base rate their first year, based on experience, and then got annual wage increases of 7.5%. The lowest amount a new officer would earn was $55,000, or 70% of the base.

The arbitration decision calls for new officers this year to start at $52,000 with the maximum amount any new hire could make is $65,000, based on experience.

That puts Jeannette among the lowest starting salaries at Westmoreland County police departments, matching Southwest Greensburg and West Newton, both of which have about a fourth of the population of Jeannette, according to information Manley compiled.

Mayor Curtis Antoniak said pay rates were out of the city’s hands after the contract negotiations went to arbitration.

“The starting salary of the new police officers was not set by myself or council,” he said.

Manley said officers have left the force for better paying jobs.

Two rounds of applications for civil service testing were sought in 2024. There were two applicants in the spring, Manley said, and none in the fall. No one was hired.

Civil service tests can put those who successfully pass a physical and written exam on a list of potential candidates for hire. That list can remain valid for a certain period of time, and more hires can be made from it as jobs open up.