After a lengthy closed-doors session last week and three votes by the City Council on Monday, the recommended promotion of Police Capt. Todd Patalano to the rank of major remains in limbo.

The council unanimously rejected two proposed agreements tied to the move – employment terms for Patalano, and a corresponding memorandum of understanding between Mayor Allan Fung’s administration and International Brotherhood of Police Officers Local 301 – while postponing action on the promotion itself until next month in an effort to provide time for new negotiations.

“I would hate to see us lose such a qualified major,” Citywide Councilman Michael Farina said. “I only hope we can move forward with this.”

Monday’s meeting was the latest in a series of public and closed sessions on the promotion over the last two weeks. Patalano is currently serving as major on an acting basis.

The council’s Finance Committee had first taken up the matter on Dec. 4 before an audience packed with police personnel supportive of the promotion, but delayed action based on what members said was the need for time to review the employment pact and union memorandum. Council members said both of those matters had first come to their attention the previous night, Dec. 3, during an executive session.

A special finance meeting was then held Dec. 11, with members meeting behind closed doors for roughly two hours. Patalano and his attorney were briefly asked to enter the closed session.

When the proceedings re-opened to the public, the committee quickly and unanimously moved to recommend against the employment terms and memorandum, while also voting uniformly in support of Patalano’s promotion.

“We went to great lengths to understand it … we had a lot of problems with it, in all honesty,” Council President John Lanni said regarding the employment agreement. “I think it went a little too far … We just don’t feel comfortable with it.”

“Maybe you, your attorney and the administration can work this out,” he later told Patalano.

Under the terms negotiated between Patalano and the administration, Patalano would receive an increase in pay from $86,000 to $95,000, while his contribution for health care costs would be reduced from 25 percent to 20 percent. The agreement also includes a provision providing for a return to the rank of “captain first class” were the major’s position to be abolished at any point, or if the major lost his post for any reason aside from misconduct.

The rationale presented for the terms is that the position of major currently holds little incentive for captains. The lower-ranked officers can out-earn majors through overtime and off-duty details, and majors, as part of the department’s management, lose their union membership and protection.

Citywide Councilwoman Sarah Kales Lee and Ward 1 Councilman Steven Stycos raised concerns over aspects of the agreement that would tie the pay and benefits for the major’s post to the terms of the labor contract, and provide the major with benefits realized through successful union contract negotiations.

Stycos called this the “worst aspect” of the proposal, pointing to the administration handbook that governs pay and benefits for supervisors in city departments and questioning “how this agreement would be interpreted by every other supervisor in the city … How is this going to affect the morale of the entire city workforce?”

On Monday, members of the council echoed the same concerns over the employment agreement while reiterating their support for Patalano’s promotion.

“There’s got to be a separation between members of the union and management,” Ward 3 Councilman Paul Archetto said.

“From the start, this has not felt right to me … It should have been an easy process to appoint someone to major,” Ward 2 Councilman Donald Botts said, while praising Patalano’s qualifications for the post. “I hope in the future it’ll be done in a more linear and logical manner.”

Much of Monday’s discussion was procedural, with council members mulling how to best approach their vote on the three connected issues. The prospect was also raised that the employment agreement and union memorandum had been introduced to and considered by the council in an incorrect manner, although the subsequent votes essentially rendered that concern moot.

After some debate, a consensus was reached to reject the employment agreement and union memorandum, while continuing action on the promotion itself until Jan. 13.

That date was chosen because it marks the end of a 30-day window the council has to act upon such an appointment following a recommendation from the committee level. The council’s hope is that Fung’s administration and Patalano will during that time return to the negotiating table and reach more agreeable terms, and the delay in the vote was designed to extend the timeframe for such talks as long as possible.

“Wait the 30 days. It’s better to be safe than sorry … I don’t want to push [Patalano] over the brink,” Lanni said.

Farina, like Botts, was critical of the process thus far – “It feels like everything keeps coming before us in an odd way,” he said – and expressed a desire not to place any additional pressure on Patalano.

“[It is] really frustrating for me, and I imagine more frustrating for him,” the councilman said. “I don’t want to cause him any additional stress.”

Ward 4 Councilman Mario Aceto was the sole vote against delaying action on Patalano’s promotion, instead urging his colleagues to approve the move on Monday.

“I don’t see why we can’t give our advise and consent on this,” he said, and “get this over and done with now.”

When asked by Farina whether it was felt a new agreement with Patalano could be reached by the Jan. 13 date, Director of Administration Jerry Cordy was uncertain.

“With all due respect, councilman, that’s very difficult to say … I can’t guarantee that,” he said.

Patalano’s recommended appointment to major had been announced alongside that of Capt. Sean Carmody, who has since withdrawn from consideration. They were meant to serve as the third- and second-ranking officers in the department under Chief of Police Col. Michael Winquist, who has been on the job for more than two months.

Winquist said other potential nominees are being considered for the second major’s post, although any selection or recommendation will wait as the process surrounding Patalano’s promotion plays out.

Patalano earlier this year was returned to active duty after nearly two years of paid leave. Rhode Island State Police, who were at the time overseeing the Cranston department’s operations, subsequently cleared him of any wrongdoing. The captain has since filed a federal lawsuit against the city, Fung, former chief Col. Marco Palombo Jr., Carmody and other past and present members of the department alleging his constitutional rights were violated as part of a personal vendetta.

Some council members initially raised concerns over the suit, although it appears to have almost completely faded as a consideration. Patalano, at the Dec. 3 executive session, made his personnel file available to council members.

The recommendation of Patalano and Carmody for the major posts came following an arbitration decision on Nov. 17, which also led to the promotion of two captains, two lieutenants and two sergeants. Local 301 had filed a grievance based on the city’s failure to fill the major positions within the timeline mandated under the terms currently in effect.

The previous contract with the police union expired in 2012, and the finance committee late last year rejected a proposed new three-year pact. Talks between the administration and the union have resumed in recent months.