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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - City Council - 03/30/1982CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING MARCH 30, 1982 The South Burlington City Council held a special meeting on Tuesday, March 30, 1982 in the Mini-Conference Room, City Hall, 575 Dorset Street. Members Present Chairman Paul Farrar and Michael Flaherty Members Absent William Burgess, Hugh Marvin and Howard Perkett Others Present City Manager William J. Szymanski, Assistant City Manager David Minnich, Lance Reinholz, Ruth Poger, The Other Paper; Ernest L. Rheaume, Thomas Fraga, Paul Meade and Greg Mitchell. Chairman Farrar called the meeting to order at 8:15 P.M. Meet With Police Association to Continue Review of Contract Mr. Reinholz presented the following tentative agreements to be initialled: 1. Article XXII, Section 12B (SBPOA), Redraft - This was initialled by Mr. Farrar and Mr. Reinholz. 2. Article I, Section 1, Tentative Agreement on Current Language: Drop SBPOA and City proposals. This was initialled by Mr. Farrar and Mr. Reinholz. Mr. Reinholz's handwritten confirmation of the above tentative agreements is attached to and made a part of these minutes. Assistant City Manager David Minnich presented a draft of Article XI, Sections 2 and 3. Mr. Reinholz asked whether the hours that are in Article XI, Sections 2 and 3 as proposed by the city on March 30, 1982 are the same as is current practice. Mr. Minnich said the number of hours are the same. Mr. Reinholz then said the association would agree with the language of Article XI, Sections 2 and 3, and would drop the language of Article XI, Section 1C. Article XVIII, Section 1, Sick Provision - Mr. Reinholz said the association would agree with the new language as to the amount of time left if the city would agree to accept the association's "Sick Time Bank". Chairman Farrar asked Mr. Reinholz for an explanation of how the Sick Time Bank would work. Mr. Reinholz said that on July 1st of each year the employee would be credited with the total yearly sick leave, then any time used is taken out of the Bank when the employee is sick. Mr. Farrar wondered when the employees get paid. Mr. Szymanski said that the pay is distributed on Wednesdays for the week ending the previous Saturday. There was a short discussion on the use of a "Sick Time Bank" when a new employee is working out his probation period. Mr. Reinholz questioned the clarity of the language and Mr. Farrar instructed Mr. Minnich to rewrite the section in question. Mr. Minnich remarked that the city was working on a method of keeping a check on the sick leave by entering it on the computer so it would show up on the weekly pay checks. Mr. Farrar felt there would be no problem in keeping this record on the computer whichever system was used. Article X, Section 5 of the Association's proposal was agreed to by both parties. Chairman Farrar then said we were down to the economic issues, the question was where should the city put the money, more for experienced officers or more for inexperienced? He noted that South Burlington's pay scale and benefits were in line with comparable departments, but that once a person has been in the department for 10 years or more he/she is actually better off than employees in other departments. He understood that the association was suggesting more money for the experienced officers. Mr. Reinholz said the men had discussed this, they seem to want the dollars to go to the experienced men. He said they would further discuss just where the money should go. Mr. Farrar said the city would want imput on this too. Mr. Fraga explained the position of the members. Most would wish to stay in South Burlington and make a career of their work in the department. He pointed out the scarcity of opportunity for advancement to higher level positions such as detective. He said there was a big turnover in inexperienced men and the ones with experience should be better compensated and the longivity process should be expanded. He said there was little opportunity offered for specialized training. Mr. Flaherty asked what Mr. Fraga's solution to the problem would be. Mr. Fraga said they should be able to keep the experienced people and wondered about step increases like teachers have. Mr. Flaherty said that he probably was thinking of different pay grades. Mr. Reinholz said they were asking about pay grades for 5 years, 10 years and 15 years. He pointed out that the department has a lot of turnover and it costs about $2,000 to get a new person established in the department. Mr. Meade said he did not feel the main issue was money. He felt it was up to the department's administrative branch to see that there was more training for hazardous duty, that people should be compensated according to their education and training. If the officers were trained in specialized fields then that would free some of the patrolmen. Mr. Meade also mentioned that the association has been waiting a long time for revised Rules and Regulations, the department is always short-handed and officers are always working overtime. Mr. Reinholz said distribution of manpower was a point to be considered. Officers should not be dispatching, maybe having more dispatchers would put more patrolmen on the road. Mr. Reinholz said the experienced men want a chance to go to training schools, their prime consideration is to have a career plan. They should have extra compensation for hazardous duty, if we can get these concepts across then we will talk money. Chairman Farrar said it was good to have this sort of communication, it was good to know what the personnel was thinking. He noted that the administrators of such a department have problems too. The next meeting was scheduled for Tuesday, April 6, 1982 at 7:30 P.M. 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