Backers of a proposal to guarantee competitive pay for St. Paul's police officers went to 15 city polling places Tuesday to gather petition signatures aimed at putting the wage initiative on next year's general-election ballot.
The number of people signing petitions was "well into the thousands," said Dave Titus, president of the St. Paul Police Federation.
Joe Mansky, elections manager for Ramsey County, has said that the union probably would need signatures from about 7,500 registered voters to put the pay issue to a public vote next year. Titus said that union leaders are hoping to gather 12,000 signatures.
In November 2009, the city's mayoral race also is being contested. The federation currently is engaged in a contract dispute with Mayor Chris Coleman, whom it did not endorse in 2005.
The union wants voters to guarantee -- through a charter amendment -- that St. Paul officers rank in the top five in pay among peers in 27 metro police departments in the state.
Communities United Against Police Brutality, which is based in Minneapolis, visited three St. Paul polling places early Tuesday in an effort to ensure that voters -- particularly minorities -- did not feel intimidated at the polls, according to Michelle Gross, the group's president. But no police officers were at those precincts. Still, Gross said, her group had planned to continue monitoring until the polls closed.
ANTHONY LONETREE
