Thursday, February 7, 2007
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The advance GDP report for the 4th quarter of 2007 was released last week. The country is not in a recession. Do you want to know the advance warning signs of a recession? Forget about relying on the television talking heads and politicians for your information. Read the latest issue of our newsletter and decide for yourself. You can read York’s Business Cycle Newsletter by going to www.policepay.net and clicking on the link in the publications section.
Tallahassee, union reach agreement on police contract
From The DEMOCRAT, January 18, 2008, By Julian Pecquet
The city of Tallahassee and the police union reached agreement this afternoon on a new three-year contract for police officers.
Here is the press release from the city:
Police Officers Approve New Contract
Tallahassee police officers represented by the Big Bend Police Benevolent Association have approved a three-year pay and benefits package presented to them by the City of Tallahassee. The new contract was approved by an 80 percent vote of support from police officers and a 92% vote of support by sergeants and lieutenants. The agreement represents a 5 percent pay increase per year for 3 years and 3 percent pension enhancement over the term of the contract.
The contract has a total cost of 18.33 percent in pay and benefits, with some personnel receiving as much as 22.5 percent if they are not at the top step of their pay plan. It includes a 2 percent across the board pay increase per year plus step increases for those who are eligible (not at the top of the step pay plan).
The City Commission approved offering the proposal on January 10, and officers voted last night with the votes verified today.
"We are proud of the quality work of the Tallahassee Police Department and their commitment to the citizens of this city," said City Manager Anita Favors Thompson.
"The goal of the government with all employees is to offer a competitive salary that attracts and retains a high caliber workforce. We believe this proposal will work to help retain our competitiveness."
"Throughout this process we have sought two separate things: to take care of the police officers we have and to attract and retain officers due to the pay and benefits we can provide," said Steve Slade, president of the Big Bend BPA and a Tallahassee lieutenant. " We appreciate the fact that the City Commission has taken action to enhance police services to the community."
The contract will be on the City Commission agenda on Wednesday, January 23, for formal approval. The new contract will be retroactive to October 1, 2007. The previous contract ended on September 30, 2007.
Health care key in Waltham union negotiations
From the Daily News Tribune, February 6, 2008, By Kerri Roche
http://www.dailynewstribune.com
Union leaders are hoping city councilors will agree that forming one coalition to bargain over health care matters will benefit everyone.
In a roomful of union representatives, city attorney Bernadette Sewell presented the state law that allows collective bargaining over health care to the City Council on Monday night. After firing off a variety of questions and concerns, councilors agreed to take the matter up again Feb. 19.
Many of the councilors' concerns focused on the effect the legislation, if adopted, would have on the city's retirees.
In short, Chapter 32B Section 19 would allow the city's unions to form one body for negotiating health care coverage only. That would allow the city to deal with all public employees' health insurance packages in one fell swoop through the formation of a Public Employee Committee.
"The major benefit is that it allows the municipalities to negotiate once with all of the unions and basically the way most municipalities have their labor contract structured it's very difficult to negotiate with each of them at separate times when you want to make changes or improvements to your health insurance system," said health insurance consultant John Brouder of Boston Benefits Partner.
Depending on the size of a particular union, each representative would receive a percentage of the committee's vote. Approval by 70 percent of the committee would be necessary to reach a bargaining agreement.
Retirees, not currently represented during health care negotiation processes, would make up 10 percent of the Public Employee Committee vote and would be represented by one person from the Retired State, County and Municipal Employees Association.
Some councilors viewed the retirees' 10 percent weight in the union committee as minimal at best.
With almost 1,000 public employee retirees and 1,400 active employees in the city's system, said Ward 9 Councilor Robert Logan, "their vote on the committee would be a much smaller proportion than what they represent."
However, under a special home rule petition enacted in 2004, former city employees' health care benefits are not intended to change - they still pay the same premiums they retired with despite any bargaining agreement between city administrators and active employees.
Although the special act has provided some health insurance security for retirees, president of the Waltham Educators' Association George Viens said that could easily change.
Viens said the special act could be repealed by the city or state at any time, thrusting retirees' benefits back into the negotiation process without any formal representation.
"When you do not have Section 19, retirees have no say except to influence the powers at City Hall," said Viens. "That's why getting them into the process with Section 19 is desirable."
Also, said attorney Alan Shapiro, who represents both Waltham Police Patrolmen's Union 161 and Waltham Police Superior Officers' Union 161, after reading the home rule petition, it is not clear that former employees' co-payments and deductible rates will always remain frozen when they retire.
That could become a problem, said Shapiro, when city officials leverage higher co-payments and deductibles with higher salaries. Because retirees are on fixed incomes, the higher cost of health care would not be softened by an increased salary.
Although Waltham has a history of keeping deductibles and co-payments low, within the 2004 special act, "there is some language about paying same deductible and co-payments as active employees," said Shapiro. "I think the city's not intending to change that," he said, but any form of representation would further protect retirees.
Shapiro also said city administrators and taxpayers would benefit with the passage of Section 19 because they could simultaneously negotiate with unions over the costliest health insurance plan.
Indemnity plans, said Shapiro, typically allow employees to see any doctor at any location. Because of the high cost of the existing plans, many municipalities outside of Waltham have stopped offering them to new employees. For a municipality to increase premiums or co-payments for active employees' indemnity plans, all individual unions must agree to the same changes.
Viens said union leaders had previously begun meeting informally to hash out changes to the existing indemnity plans but a unanimous consensus could not be reached. It was then decided by nearly 90 percent of the union members to pursue the creation of a coalition, which would only require 70 percent of the unions must agree to a change, said Viens.
Councilors asked city attorney Sewell to return in two weeks with detailed opinions about the proposed legislation's specific effects on active and retired employees.
To pass Section 19, the unions, city councilors and Mayor Jeannette A. McCarthy all need to approve.
McCarthy has previously voiced her support for the coalition to city councilors.
"All of the unions asked me together to bargain about the issues of health care and now we want to formalize it," said McCarthy.
Costa Mesa police to get 10% raises
From The Daily Pilot, January 23, 2008, By Chris Caesar
http://www.dailypilot.com
Costa Mesa officials are singing the praises of a new contract for the police department.
The contract provides expanded benefits for employees, including a $150 contribution for health coverage, two extra steps in the city’s basic pay raise schedule, and a 7.5% increase in bonuses offered to those charged with field training new recruits.
"It’s a very good contract," said Steve Mandoki, administrative services director and city negotiator. "I think any employee would be pleased with the terms and conditions in it, and the fact that it was approved with the officers’ approval is fantastic.
"A contract isn’t always everything you want, but a solid middle ground, I think we found that."
The new contract will provide a fixed 5% raise for about every year of service for seven years, in addition to raises that are contingent on the pay levels of other nearby police departments, contract negotiator Sgt. Paul Beckman said.
Previously, annual raises were restricted to five years per position.
"When we compare ourselves to benchmark cities, we use a percentage that puts us relative to those agencies," he said. "We look at Santa Ana, Irvine and other cities, and see what they make in their overall compensation, and we compare ourselves to that and we determine with the city where we need to be in order to reach that benchmark."
All benefits considered, Beckman said, the city’s officers stand to make a more than 10% raise this fiscal year. Even further benefits will be extended to those police officers proficient in sign language and those with 20 years of service, who will accrue vacation time at a higher rate.
"We went through the negotiation process and on a 5-0 vote came up with a contract that is very fair," Councilwoman Wendy Leece said. "Our officers work hard, and we need to remain competitive with other cities."
The city will transfer just more than $1.1 million from the Non-Departmental Cost Center to the department’s operations budget to cover the salary adjustments.
In 2004, the last time the city negotiated a contract with the Police Officers’ Assn., that transfer amounted to $1.8 million.
Lompoc fears police exodus after sales tax fails
From the Lompoc Record, February 6, 2008, By Bo Poertner
http://www.lompocrecord.com
Less than 24 hours after Lompoc voters rejected a proposed half-cent sales tax to shore up public safety services, the immediate concern at City Hall turned to a possible retention crisis at the Lompoc Police Department.
Although no one said they had heard of a specific threat, several city officials said they are extremely concerned about the possibility of losing experienced officers because of the failure of the sales tax combined with the relatively small pay raise officers received in their last labor contract.
Measure T2008 received about 55 percent of the vote Tuesday, but it needed 66.7 percent to pass because it was a special tax, earmarked for a specific purpose.
"T2008 provided a light at the end of the tunnel that Lompoc might someday achieve salary parity with surrounding jurisdictions," said City Administrator Gary Keefe, who added that there is no retention crisis at the fire department. "With that light snuffed out, we may see our experienced officers leaving.
"We've seen this before and stopped it with higher salaries - just four or five years ago," Keefe said. Several officers had left the department for higher-paying jobs at the Santa Maria Police Department. Keefe said the city provided an 11 percent pay raise over two years to stop the exodus.
In October, police officers received a 4 percent increase, retroactive to Dec. 23, 2006, which was imposed after labor negotiations reached an impasse. Now the city and the police union must negotiate the second year of the contract, and the city's final offer was a 2 percent raise.
During contract negotiations, city representatives said their survey showed Lompoc police officers are paid 12.8 percent below the average market salary.
"The officers felt they were kind of slighted in the last contract negotiations," said Capt. Don Deming. He said salary is a major concern when officers decide whether to stay with the department.
"I don't know that we will see a mass exodus. I don't know that we will not," he said.
Mayor Dick DeWees said rumors that officers are considering leaving are troubling.
"It's a huge concern," the mayor said. "I've got to believe it. We've got to take that into consideration; it's a distinct possibility.
"I know our people work extremely hard at a difficult job," DeWees said. "You reach a tipping point where you can only work so hard. After that you've got to look at other options."
DeWees said he wants to know how much it will cost to give police officers more competitive salaries.
"We've got to run some numbers and see what it's going to take to retain some folks," DeWees said, adding that training police officers is time-consuming and expensive. "We've got to find some ways."
Ron Fink, a member of the city's Public Safety Ad Hoc Committee who opposed the sales tax, said he doubts that police officers will leave because of the rejection of the sales tax.
"If you apply logic to it, why would they leave because the public safety sales tax failed? There were no guarantees for higher wage, just more officers and equipment."
He said the city should look harder for money to spend on public safety. Fink noted that the police department used 7,000 hours in overtime last year and said, "If you've got money to pay enough overtime to equal three-and-a-half people, then why don't you hire three-and-a-half people?"
Consultants estimated that had the sales tax passed, it would have generated $1.85 million per year for public safety services.
Fink had predicted that voters would reject the proposal. He criticized it, saying the language of the measure's resolution had loopholes that would allow the money earmarked for public safety to be diverted to other uses.
DeWees disputed that allegation.
"We made this about as solid as anyone could," he said. "If you look at the Declaration of Independence, you can find loopholes in there too, (and in) any legislation. This is about as solid a measure, as far as the language goes, as we could make it."
Former Mayor Joyce Howerton, who supported the sales tax but criticized the council for mismanaging city finances and creating the public safety issue, said she was not surprised by the message of the election.
"I think it's sad because basically people are just saying ‘We're being taxed too much. You can't keep taxing us every time there's a problem.'"
"The other message was, ‘We don't trust the City Council,'" Howerton said. "In November, people need to go and elect a more conscientious, fresher council. We need people with a different outlook, different approach. I strongly think that's what needs to happen. Until that happens, we're going to keep recycling problems."
City council members whose terms end in the fall are DeWees, DeWayne Holmdahl and Will Schuyler.
DeWees agreed that people feel overtaxed, but added, "I'm as anti-tax as the next person, but there comes a time when your philosophy bumps into reality."
"This is not an issue that you politicize. This is about the health and safety of the people of this community. Unfortunately, in some cases, that is exactly what happened," DeWees said.
He said the City Council is not to be blamed entirely for the public safety crisis. The city has lost $10 million since 1992 because of the state's Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund (ERAF) which was taken by the state for education but diverted to other uses, DeWees said.
DeWees said voters have sent a clear message - one that, as a public official, he dislikes.
"I guess what the people are telling us is that they want to see cuts in some of the other programs that the city offers, which is not something I'd like to do."
Cutting other programs, such as parks and recreation, the library or museum can make the city less attractive for people and undermine the community's economic base by making it more difficult to attract higher-paying jobs, he said.
"Those programs are already operating on a shoestring. If we have to cut, that's really going to be ugly," DeWees said.
But that might be what has to happen, according to Keefe.
"The question was asked and the answer was a resounding ‘No, we're not willing to pay,'" he said. "I think the council needs to consider discretionary general fund program cuts.
"We can't afford to be in a situation where we're losing experienced policemen. That adversely affects the entire community."
He said a high crime rate would label Lompoc as an undesirable community.
"You'll have a community that is not going to do any growing," he said. "That's very basic. It's like having bad schools."
POLICEPAY.NET, Inc. is a consulting firm that has been assisting in public safety contract negotiations for more than twenty years. Wea re not a labor union or a municipal league. We do not replace these organizations or compete with them. We only concentrate on one narrow niche - contract negotiations. By restricting ourselves to this single activity, we have been able to become market leaders for new and innovative approaches to contract negotiations. POLICEPAY.NET offers three levels of service. First, we provide state of the art research that covers market prices, costing, and finances. Second, we teach and assist you in your relationship with the other side, the public, and the decision makers in your community. We teach you how to deal with the expectations of your constituents as well. The third level of service includes us serving as your negotiator throughout the entire process. If you have questions about our negotiation methods or how we can be of assistance to your union, please don't hesitate to call Matt or Ron at (405) 701-8616. |
The Police Negotiator's Handbookby Ronald J. York The Police Negotiator’s Handbook, written by Ronald J. York, provides a straight-forward approach to achieving success during labor negotiations with municipal governments. Upon reading this handbook, you will find that Mr. York’s logical approach to contract negotiations will allow you to set the stage for victory at the negotiating table. The table of contents of this handbook is a step-by-step guide to the negotiations process, with the remainder of the book describing these steps and providing a path to follow throughout the process. If you plan to be involved with negotiating a labor agreement for police officers, deputy sheriffs, or even state troopers, don’t make a move until you’ve finished reading this book. A POLICEPAY.NET, Inc. publication, this handbook includes some of the material presented at POLICEPAY’s live training events. Also included in the back of this handbook is a POLICEPAY.NET discount card, good for discounts off POLICEPAY.NET services and training events. |