City of Salisbury to Dissolve Collective Bargaining, City Union Amid Police Retention Crisis

SALISBURY, Md. – The City of Salisbury is addressing concerns surrounding a lack of pay raises for Salisbury Police Department (SPD) officers after the Wicomico Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) issued an open letter on Wednesday.

In a letter dated Apr. 8, FOP President Scott Hamilton said that Salisbury Mayor Randy Taylor intends to move forward with a request to the City Council to dissolve the current collective bargaining and binding arbitration process used by the FOP and other city employees for the last several years.

“As President of the FOP, representing the Salisbury City Police Department in this process, I am asking for the support of our community and the City Council to oppose this action,” Hamilton wrote. “I also want to emphasize that this process includes our city firefighters and supports all Salisbury City first responders who serve this community.”

Collective bargaining is known as the negotiation process between employers and a group of employees, typically represented by a union, to determine terms of employment, including work conditions and pay. Without the process, Hamilton argues officers will begin seeking opportunities elsewhere, where they will have a voice in negotiating competitive starting salaries and other terms.

The issue of police turnover rates is affecting precincts across the Shore, including SPD. Salisbury currently offers police one of the lowest starting salaries compared to neighboring departments, and has lost 18 officers to other agencies over the last five years.

In a previous statement to WMDT, SPD Chief David Meienschein said, “We’re all concerned about the same thing: being able to answer the call for service to the best of our ability, with the most experience possible. We don’t want to constantly be running with just brand-new officers all the time. We just need to retain that experience in the middle.”

However, the City argues that there just isn’t enough fiscal leeway to increase SPD’s starting salary. Between operating budgets, capital projects, and large increases to health care expenditures, Mayor Taylor says that higher wages don’t fit into the City budget.

“Because the union negotiated wage increases that grew faster than the City’s operating revenues, Salisbury is currently projected to take $3.3 million from our savings — just to pay recurring FY26 operating expenses,” Mayor Taylor wrote in a letter on Thursday. “Prior union agreements created ongoing wage obligations. The Administration’s proposed FY27 one-step increase to employee wages comes at a cost of $750K. Raises granted by the Administration to current employees from career ladder and merit increases account for another $120K. Meeting the union’s current expectations would require withdrawing an additional $3+ million from savings this year alone, with no clear end in sight.”

Mayor Taylor went on to say that while he remains committed to fair wages, competitive benefits, and a strong, professional workforce, maintaining the current system of collective bargaining would be to the detriment of the City’s financial health.

“Dissolving the union is not a political decision, nor is it an emotional one. It is a decision grounded in math, law, and the obligation to keep Salisbury on stable financial footing,” Taylor added. ” I cannot stand by and allow Salisbury to drift into a structural deficit that jeopardizes our future. To continue as-is would be operating in poor faith past my Administration and the Council’s fiduciary responsibilities.”

The Mayor and City Council are expected to discuss this matter further at the next Salisbury City Council meeting on Monday, Apr. 13, at 6:00 p.m. A formal agenda for the meeting has not been released at the time of publication.