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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - City Council - 03/24/1982CITY COUNCIL MARCH 24, 1982 The South Burlington City Council held a special meeting on Wednesday, March 24, 1982 at 7:30 pm in the Mini-Conference Room, City Hall, 575 Dorset St. Members Present Paul Farrar, Chairman; Michael Flaherty, Howard Perkett Members Absent Hugh Marvin, William Burgess Others Present William Szymanski, City Manager; David Minnich, Assistant City Manager; Joseph Obuchowski, Gil Myers, Richard Ward, Gloria Yandow Meet with City Hall Employees Association to review contract Mr. Myers, representing the SBCHEA, said he would like to agree on meeting dates and start and stop times for those meetings. Mr. Farrar noted that the Council would set tentative meeting dates, but they would depend on being able to get a quorum. Wednesdays were set as the day and start and stop times were set as 7:30 and 9:30, unless something different is agreed to at a previous meeting. Mr. Myers said he would like to be able to take a recess with his people if needed, and that he would like to have initialed the items agreed to. He also felt it would be best to work out wording changes on the spot. Mr. Farrar agreed, but cautioned that there might be times when having the wording worked out outside the meeting might be the best thing to do. Mr. Myers noted that he considered the meaning of initialing to be that he, as the team for the union, and Mr. Farrar, as the team for the city, agree to take the wording back to the bodies they represent. Mr. Farrar did not object to initialing as long as it was understood that there might be times when a change might be needed because of something to be decided later. Mr. Myers agreed that after initialing and signing, something might need to be changed later. Mr. Myers proposed to start with the articles which appear to have no changes proposed. The first of these is Article II. Mr. Farrar noted that in the negotiations now taking place between the city and the police, there had been some discussion of a management rights section in that contract. He said the city would like to make a proposal on this section, as they have done with the police. Mr. Szymanski asked whether the first sentence in the contract meant that an agreement like this could nullify something in the City Charter or in State law. Mr. Myers felt it could in some instances. Mr. Flaherty noted that the voters had to vote to change the Charter and he wondered if the city had the right to override the Charter in a collective bargaining agreement. Mr. Obuchoswki, the City Attorney, felt that what this attempted to do was set up an order of priority. He said this was standard wording, but agreed that once wording was put in an agreement like this it would become the first order of priority. Mr. Farrar said the Council did not like that. After some discussion on this point, it was decided to go on from here. There was no problem with Article IV, and it was initialed. It was also agreed, since it shows up in another place in the contract, to remove Section 2 of Article V. Article VI was also initialed as it exists. In article VII, the city wants to remove all the wording. Mr. Minnich said that was because it seemed to be an agreement among the union members, not between the union and the city. Mr. Myers did not object to removing the language, but he noted that a problem had been brought to his attention today. The union would like to be able to have the treasurer collect dues once a month in lieu of the check-off system used now. The first sentence of the union's proposal was left in, the second was removed, and the following was added after the first sentence: "The treasurer of the SBCHEA shall have the right to collect dues from the association monthly, during working hours, using a reasonable period of time." Mr. Myers went through the articles with minor changes proposed. The first of these was Article I. He said the union did not object to including the Assistant City Manager in the exclusionary clause. There was some discussion of how to define the union. It was felt by the city that the union should be defined by the date and number of the order of the State Labor Relations Board. It was agreed to change Section 2 to read as follows: "It is understood by the parties hereto that the SBCHEA shall be the exclusive bargaining agent for the collective bargaining unit described above with the exception of those classified as supervisors, namely the City Manager, the Assistant City Manager, the Recreation Director and the City Clerk-Treasurer." In Article III, Section 3, the city had proposed to add "No more than three (3)" in front of the last sentence in that section and to remove the words "bargaining team" after "Association". Mr. Myers did not object to the addition of the words, but he wanted to leave "bargaining team" in. It was decided to add "No more than three (3)" but leave in the "Association's bargaining team". In Article XI, Mr. Myers wanted to insure that if a holiday fell on a Saturday, the employees would receive the Friday before it off, and if it fell on a Sunday, they would receive the following Monday. Mr. Farrar had no problem with that and he felt language to do that could be worked out. What the 12th holiday was discussed. It is a personal holiday for each employee and it can be carried from year to year. It is described in the Personnel Rules and Regulations. It was agreed to remove all but the actual holidays themselves. (For example "January 1, Friday, New Year's Day (on the date)" would become "New Year's Day".) The first sentence was left in, the words "as per Section 6.3 of the Personnel Rules and Regulations" was added after "12th Holiday", and the following sentence was added at the end of the article: "If a holiday falls on a Saturday, the proceeding Friday shall be observed as the holiday. If a holiday falls on a Sunday, the following Monday shall be observed." In Article XIII, Mr. Myers did not understand why the city wanted to remove the third sentence. Mr. Obuchowski felt that defining what sickness was asking for problems later on. Mr. Myers had no problem with that, so the third and fourth sentences were removed. The city also wanted to change the number of accumulated sick days from 90 to 100. Mr. Myers agreed to that and the words "one hundred (100)" were put in place of "ninety (90)" after the words "of those in excess of". Mr. Myers noted that the city wanted to remove the last paragraph the union has proposed in this article, and that is not all right with the union. The other two changes were agreed to, but that paragraph was left open. In Article XIV, the words "employee's supervisor" were changed to "City Manager". It was understood that in the absence of the City Manager, he could delegate authority to the Assistant Manager. In Article XV, under ARBITRATION, Section 1, non-arbitrable b), the blank was filled in with "II". Also, in Sections 4, 6 and 11 the word "working" was added after the numbers of days. In Article XVI, the words "or equivalent" were proposed by the city to be added in Sections 1 and 2. Mr. Farrar felt perhaps the coverage should be spelled out in more detail so there would not be discussion on what was and what was not covered. Mr. Myers suggested that modified wording be brought to the next meeting. Mr. Farrar said the intent was to allow the city to change insurance carriers if there is a reason to do so. Mr. Myers did not object to the additional wording, but he did have questions about the proposed deletions. Both sides will look further into this. Mr. Myers said the union would like to review and approve any change in coverage on the dental plan. In Article XVII, Mr. Farrar noted that, with the establishment of IRAs in their present form, the city feels there is no advantage to either the city or the employee to put more money into pensions. Since each individual can do that on their own, putting more money into pensions would just restrict an individual's freedom to deal with their own earnings. He added that it was the city's understanding that the present pension figure is 1.3%. The union feels it is 1.4%. Mr. Farrar said the city would show the union why it felt 1.3% was the correct figure. This article will be discussed again. Article VIII was discussed. Mr. Myers noted that the city had not set out a start and stop time for the work day. Mr. Farrar noted that it was the Council's impression that some employees might want more than 1/2 hour off for lunch and they do not object to that as long as the work day is 8 hours long. The Council is willing to be reasonably flexible on work hours. The union left the room to discuss this. When they returned, Mr. Myers noted that if a worker came in early and City Hall was not open, and that worker's job was to deal with the public, that would not be productive. He also felt people needed to know when the work day started and stopped. Mr. Szymanski wanted a limit on how much flexibility there was and the hours of 7:30 to 5:00 as outside limits were mentioned. As far as the hour for lunch, Mr. Myers noted that employees were far from anywhere they could buy lunch, and unless they brought their lunch, they could not eat in 1/2 hour. He felt that having a 1 hour lunch would not cost the city out-of-pocket money, and that it was in keeping with other similar jobs in the area. He had checked with Essex Junction, Colchester and Shelburne. Mr. Farrar said the problem was not the 1 hour lunch, it was the 7 1/2 hour work day. Mr. Myers noted that Article IX was tied to Article VIII. Section 1 a) was discussed. Mr. Myers felt the day should be defined as starting at the same time it would be defined in Article VIII and Mr. Farrar did not object. If Article IX can be worked out, then Article VIII can be worked on. Mr. Farrar felt that a) should read "Any time worked in excess of eight hours in any day, with the day beginning as defined in Article VIII." Mr. Myers felt the words "and ending" should be added after "beginning". Mr. Obuchowski did not want the ending in there, because there would then be a problem with time between day 1 and day 2. Mr. Myers said anything in that period would be overtime and Mr. Farrar asked about the circumstance where a person had not worked 8 hours in day 1. Mr. Myers agreed not to include the ending time. Mr. Minnich stated that the city's proposal for Section 2 was meant to say that the people who attended the meetings listed did so because it was part of their job, and they would not receive overtime, but compensatory time. The union agreed to add that wording, which is set forth in Mr. Minnich's letter of March 22, 1982 to Mr. Myers. The words "except as defined in Section 2" were added in Section 3 after the words "compensatory time" in the first sentence of that section. Section 1 a) will read "Any time worked in excess of eight hours in any day, with the day defined as in Article VIII." In Section 3, the words "except for meetings as defined in Section 2" were added after the words "back to work" in the first sentence in that section. The last sentence was removed. Article XII was discussed. The city wants to retain the current schedule of vacation time. The union feels the extra time could be given without any out-of- pocket costs. Article XVIII was discussed. The union agreed to add the words "or a new contract has been executed." to the last sentence of the article. They do not like the proposal for Section 3, feeling it puts them in the same position as police or firemen. Mr. Farrar suggested adding wording that this section would end at some point in time, even though the contract would continue until changed. Mr. Myers said that put it in a different light, and he suggested that the city consider a binding arbitration clause. Mr. Farrar said the city might consider that if this contract extended for more than 1 year - binding arbitration might be appropriate for money issues after the first year. Mr. Myers said the union would like to think about this some more and it was decided to meet again next Wednesday at 7:30 pm. The meeting was adjourned at 9:35 pm. Clerk Published by ClerkBase ©2019 by Clerkbase. No Claim to Original Government Works.