Unions representing Topeka's police officers and firefighters have rejected the city's proposal that those city employees accept a temporary 3% pay cut.
Those pay cuts were suggested as a way to deal with plummeting city tax revenues in the wake of measures to slow the COVID-19 outbreak.
An attorney representing the unions suggested in a letter Wednesday that the city consider alternative measures before pushing a pay cut on first responders. Those measures included using the city's general reserve fund and relying on upcoming police and firefighter retirements for cost-savings.
Topeka's mayor and city council members voted Tuesday to cut their own pay by 6%.





