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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - City Council - 04/28/1982CITY COUNCIL APRIL 28, 1982 The South Burlington City Council held a special meeting on Wednesday, April 28, 1982 at 7:30 pm in the Mini-Conference Room, City Hall, 575 Dorset St. Members Present Paul Farrar, Chairman; Michael Flaherty, Howard Perkett, William Burgess Member Absent Hugh Marvin Others Present William Szymanski, City Manager; David Minnich, Assistant City Manager; Richard Ward, Zoning Administrator; Gilbert Myers, City Attorney Joe Obuchowski Agenda addition The following item was added: Meet as Liquor Control Board to consider two liquor licenses. Meet with City Hall Employees Association to continue review of contract Mr. Myers said the negotiations were left at the union asking for a 9% increase and the city offering 7%. Both agreed to leave the retirement as it is. Mr. Farrar said the city's position was that its offer was fair and reasonable, and commensurate with what is going on in the rest of the world. Mr. Myers asked if it would be possible to modify Article VIII to give the employees travel time on their lunch break. He said this was not out of line with what is done in the Street Department. He suggested a 1/2 hour lunch break plus 15 minutes on each side for travel time. Mr. Farrar said that sounded very close to the request for a 1 hour lunch. Mr. Burgess noted that the employees could have an hour for lunch if they were willing to go back to their original hours. They work the hours they do now because they wanted to do so. Mr. Myers did not think the request was out of line with other communities in the area and he did not feel it was a straight out-of-pocket expense. Mr. Perkett agreed it would not be an out-of-pocket expense for some time, but as the city and the workload grows, it will become an out-of-pocket expense. There are 16 City Hall employees, 12 of which are in the bargaining unit. Mr. Farrar noted that if the city did not hire anyone to fill the time for the hour lunch, perhaps it now had too many employees. Mr. Myers said he would give the Council the items the union was willing to fluctuate on. These are the request for conversion of sick time to retirement in Article XIII, a continuation of the existing vacation schedule, leaving the retirement at 1.3%, they might consider a longer period for the contract, and they would consider withdrawing the supplementary retirement. Regarding the insurance, they would consider going back to the previous plan (under the present contract). At this time the union left so the Council could talk the proposal over. When the union returned, Mr. Farrar said he had two things to offer above the offer already made. He offered to have the city pick up the deductible on the present dental plan, and he said the other had to do with sick time for retirement. The city makes a counter proposal that the amount of time a person can trade in depends on their service. Starting with a person with 20 years of service, that person could turn in 20 days of sick time for retirement, and for every year of service beyond that, they would get 2 additional days, so a person with 25 years would get 30 days. Mr. Ward noted that the city picking up the deductible on the dental plan would cost them $430 per year for 16 people in City Hall. Mr. Farrar said this would be the present plan, which is a better one than the one the employees had before, with no deductible. The union left the room to discuss this. When they returned, Mr. Myers said they would take the 7% salary increase plus 1 1/2% longevity plus the dental plan as proposed, if they could split the difference on the lunch hour. If the lunch is 45 minutes, and the retirement/sick time proposal drops back to 15 years of service, the union will agree. This would mean a 15 year employee would receive 20 days plus 2 per year after that. Mr. Obuchowski asked about a no strike clause for the life of the signed contract and Mr. Myers said that would not be a problem. The union left the room so the Council could discuss the offer. When the union returned, Mr. Farrar said the city had two counter offers, assuming that this was the end of the economic issues. He said the first proposal was that the city accepts the union's proposal to modify the formula for sick time conversion to retirement but leaves the work day at 8 hours as it is now. The second is that the Council calculates the union's proposed decrease in the work week to 38 3/4 hrs from 40 hours be 3$ of the salary. They will allow that and will not insist on a 1 to 1 trade-off. If the employees really feel it is important to reduce the work week the Council will split the difference and reduce the salary offer to 5 1/2% from 7%. Mr. Myers wondered about the union taking the 3 items suggested by the Council and submitting the lunch to an arbitrator. The Council did not want to do that. Mr. Obuchowski said the Council's concern with putting issues out to arbitration was that that was a diversion from the flow of negotiating and the Council wants to put together a package and not slice off pieces of it. He noted that the work week reduction was 3% and the Council was not asking for a 3% salary decrease in return, just 1 1/2%. The union left to discuss this and when they returned, Mr. Myers said they would have to take the proposal back to the membership and that he would let the city know whether it had been accepted by Monday. They will be taking back the lunch break as it is now, the 7% plus 1 1/2%, 15 year retirement, and no deductible on the dental plan. If the members do not agree, Mr. Myesr said they would meet again two weeks from tonight. Meet as Liquor Control Board to consider two liquor licenses Mr. Flaherty moved to adjourn as the City Council and meet as the Liquor Control Board. Mr. Burgess seconded the motion and all voted aye. Mr. Szymanski said the two licenses were for Papa Gino's and the Kohala Mauna. They have been approved by the fire and police chiefs and the tax collector. Mr. Flaherty moved to sign the above liquor licenses. Mr. Burgess seconded the motion and it passed without dissent. The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 pm. Clerk Published by ClerkBase ©2019 by Clerkbase. No Claim to Original Government Works.