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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-29-2017 PBA MinutesCITY OF SEBASTIAN PBA UNION CONTRACT NEGOTIATION MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING August 29, 2017 Present: Al Boettjer, Coastal Florida PEA Union Representative Ken Killgore, Administrative Services Director, City of Sebastian Cynthia Watson, Assistant Administrative Services Director/HR Manager, City of Sebastian Dan Acosta, Commander, Police Department Al Boettjer brought the Contract negotiations to order on August 29, 2017 at 9:34 am. Those present were Al Boettjer, Cynthia Watson and Ken Killgore. Mr. Killgore asked if an MOU will be used. Mr. Boettjer stated he will be amending the existing agreement and it will be incorporated into the existing agreement. A discussion took place on how the article would be changed and written and when the agreement would be voted on by the members and go to the Budget Committee and City Council. Three days of posting is needed and Mr. Boettjer will take care of the posting and get Jason Mills and Ken McDonough onboard. There is a minimum of 3 days for the posting then there would be a vote. The posting will take place the week of September 6, 2017 with the vote on September 12, 2017. The “hot-sheet” will be sent to Dan Acosta and he will give it to the Chief. Mr. Killgore began discussion regarding the wage increase. He asked if it was an increase up to 3 percent. It was noted that Ken McDonough and Jason Mills, union reps were not present. Mr. Killgore stated that the budget states the increase as up to 3% because we haven’t reached an understanding. Mr. Killgore stated that the City spent a lot of time on the insurance, Police Pension, etc. to become more competitive. The Council took what we did and voted on it. Also, in the budget, is approximately $70,000 to $75,000 which could be used the things such as incentives, job market increases, or merit. It doesn’t mean we are going to spend the whole $75,000. Discussion took place on the additional funds. Mr. Killgore stated that the City is really trying to help the employees and we hear there are issues. Mr. Boettjer agrees with what Mr. Killgore stated. Mr. Boettjer stated that if we wanted to change certain items in wages, or give out incentives this could be completed through an MOU. Mr. Boettjer stated that there are several Officers, Irwin, Bauers and Matthews, which have been working for the Police Department for several years, yet they are almost equal pay to the new Officers coming into the Police Department. Mr. Boettjer asked if we could adjust them a step or two (3-6%). Mr. Killgore would like to make the changes and we don’t want this to continue. Ms. Watson stated the three officers would receive their normal increase and then be reviewed for the compression. To do this, the Chief would have to come to us and state the changes needed. Mr. Killgore stated we would have the funds now to make adjustments. A discussion took place on how to increase the Officers. Ms. Watson also discussed wages of positions that were out of kilter with the market and she indicated that now there are funds to help with the increase. Mr. Boettjer stated that one of the issues that the membership has is that they would like to start negotiations for wages in January. He stated that most agencies don’t know the anticipate revenues until March. Mr. Killgore stated that the tax information or preliminary isn’t even in until June 1st. The complaint he gets is that if we don’t even start to discuss wages until June and we don’t start to get a budget until June, He gets a preliminary budget in June. We are in a range of 0 to 3% depending on negotiations. Mr. Killgore stated that if we had to talk that early, we would have to lock in a percentage early on, before we had all the numbers together, I doubt we would have been coming in at as much as 3%. If it had to be a hard number, we would have probably come in at 2%. If we would be tracing the CPI, the increase would not have been more than 2%. The CPI is what Social Security uses to increase. In fact the world uses that as a benchmark so we use it as a benchmark. Mr. Killgore stated he understands why employees want a hard number but I don’t think it’s in anybody’s best interest. On the other hand management could be too generous and then the City has to say that we have to increase taxes. A discussion took place on starting negotiations in January. Mr. Boettjer asked the City to think about a 4% increase. He wants us to think about the lean time. Ms. Watson stated we could consider insurance rates. We could charge 60% for insurance which means we could take most of the increase if they want a higher increase. Mr. Boettjer stated that they had completed our own pay study and will bring that to the next meeting. It was agreed to bring the surveys. Mr. Boettjer stated that the membership doesn’t want to adversarial. They want to be competitive. Mr. Killgore suggested that we split the difference at 2%. Mr. Boettjer stated that didn’t feel right to him. A discussion took place regarding the increase and how the employees are valued and we have a very good quality employee. Mr. Boettjer stated he would make it clear to the members how the City feels about them and the 2%. Mr. Killgore stated that we do feel good about hiring another officer and 2 part time officers. A discussion took place on what the Police Officer gets paid when performing off- duty detail. Mr. Acosta stated that there are lots of off duty detail. Mr. Boettjer asked how the officers were paid for off-duty detail. Ms. Watson stated that the vendor pays the City and the City then pays the Officer. Mr. Boettjer stated other Agencies pay at least $25.00 an hour for off-duty detail. Mr. Killgore discussed an issue regarding an employee who is maxed out of his pay grade. Mr. Boettjer stated that if an employee is capped out then the percentage of the increase would be paid out in this fashion. For example, if the employee had 1% to the cap, he would be paid the 1% to the cap and the remaining in a bonus check to bring the total to 3%. In Broadbanding you don’t increase the maximums. That would have to be explained but normally you only go to the maximums. Mr. Killgore stated there is one employee in the PBA that this affects. Broadbanding is common. Mr. Boettjer will take what we discussed to the members and he stated he was glad we were going to look at the compression issue. We are looking at meeting September 6, 2017. The meeting ended at 3:02 pm.