Will MB Council renege on promise to compromise with Fire Dept?
School Board Election Forum this week; emails from residents
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Will City Council renege on its promise to compromise with Fire Dept. on contract negotiations?
The last word we heard from Mayor Napolitano and the 4 other Council members at the July 19th City Council meeting was a statement read to the residents that concluded Council and the Fire Department were going to turn to a neutral third party to assist in a compromise between the 2 parties with their contract negotiations that have dragged on for over two years.
“Negotiations are a two-way street and about compromise.” “Our hope is that this (neutral party) will move us closer to a fair and balanced agreement…” - Mayor Napolitano
To the 200+ residents who attended the meeting, that decision appeared to be made in good faith. Council needed a fresh start with the community after the backlash it received for demonizing the Firefighters for months as overtime money grabbers when it was actually the Firefighters themselves who blew the whistle on the excessive overtime imposed on them for two years without reprieve.
The Firefighters raising the alarm about excessive OT prompted us to access the payroll records for 2020, and in doing so, we discovered that the Fire Department was paid $2.4 million in OT pay, the Police Department was paid $2.1 million in OT, and every department in City Hall operates on what appears to be a standard operating policy that it is less expensive to pay overtime than to hire more employees with a pension.
This concurs with statements made by some in City Hall that the City Manager, Bruce Moe had made statements that it is cheaper to pay OT than to incur pension costs.
We agree with Bruce Moe, except when it comes to Fire/Paramedic and Police services. We are advocates for fiscal responsibility, but also advocate for common sense policies when it comes to emergency services that save lives. In fact, given the increase in crime in MB, our police personnel should actually be increased by attracting experienced Officers with lucrative employment contracts.
We were anticipating that Council’s appearance of wanting a fresh start with the community by going to a neutral party with the Firefighters would bring answers and closure.
But the hope of a fresh start came to an abrupt end this week when Council announced both parties received the neutral party’s report, Council plans to set aside all recommendations and compromises, and will force the original City contract on the Fire Department with no recourse available to them but to find employment elsewhere. Council went back to their take it or leave it stance.
The neutral’s report is a fair compromise for both parties. See the “factfinding report” on page 7 of the Council Agenda, item J.8 [HERE]. He methodically covered each point with an explanation of each for his decision. The report was thorough and required both parties to be flexible. Neither party got all that they wanted, but both parties got something reasonable. The firemen agreed to the recommendations and it was expected Council would do the same as they promised.
But, as it turns out, going to a neutral third party was just a required legal formality before Council could go forward to impose the original City contract without any further pushback from the Fire Department.
The Firefighters never brought much to the negotiating table to begin with other than rejecting the City Manager’s proposal of drastic cuts to training, sick leave, vacation, and compensation for new and existing emergency professionals.
Their position has always been that the proposal by the City Manager demonstrated his misunderstanding of how to properly manage a paramedic/fire emergency department, in the best interest of the community as a whole. Does he misunderstand or does he fully understand but trying to gut the department anyway?
Council does not like it when we scrutinize the City Manager, but in a self-governed society, it is the duty of residents to hold those accountable who we place in government.
To raise even more red flags, typically Battalion Chiefs and the Fire Chief would be part of any discussion related to a change to their department, particularly changes of this magnitude. However, the City Manager created a wall between the Fire Dept. Management and the department rank and file. Management employment contracts depend more on loyalty to the City Manager rather than working for the best interest of the department and its personnel. This cut out the Battalion Chiefs and the Fire Chief from the discussions from the get-go.
That put Bruce Moe, a layman with no professional training or experience in medical or fire emergency services, solely in charge of our Fire/Paramedic Department with no reasonable input from the professionals within the department.
To safeguard against such unbridled power over any city department by our City Manager, our Council has subcommittees wherein a Council Member acts as a liaison with certain segments of our city; ie the downtown businesses, the various schools, the police and fire department, etc.
Each Council Member is assigned a subcommittee and, acting as a liaison, listens to problems, attempts to solve them, reports back to Council, and in essence, is the check and balance to the power of the City Manager. This is where any complaints the Firefighters/Paramedics had with the City Manager would have taken place and the liaison would have reported back to Council to investigate.
At some point, there was a breakdown of communications between the Council liaison and the Firefighters, or maybe it hasn't existed for a few years. Without this healthy oversight from the liaison, the City contract by Bruce Moe has been allowed to get to this point. But why would Council bless Bruce Moe’s contract that clearly takes our department back to the days before we became the model department across the country? Is it to save money, and if so, is the savings worth it to the community?
Council published a statement of “estimated TOTAL savings” of overtime pay of a mere $137,215 by imposing the City contract. That is only a 5.7% savings to the $2.4 million in OT in 2020. See Council’s “estimated costs and savings of last, best and final offer” on page 7 of the Council Agenda, item J.8 [HERE].
This hardly addresses the excessive overtime that boosted a Firefighter’s average take home to well over $325,000/year when the average salary is only $168,000/year. With salaries and bonuses being on par with other cities similar to MB, taxpayers are paying Firefighters/Paramedics an additional $125,000+/year in OT. Police Officers are about the same. Council’s “savings” by imposing the City contract doesn’t put a dent in the OT.
Furthermore, the changes the City contract will impose on the Firefighters/Paramedics are simply not good for our city or our residents. It’s a bad contract. If there ever was a contract constructed to demoralize and run off our top-of-the-field emergency medical and fire professionals, it’s this contract. It also will not attract new personnel of the same caliber to our city. This City contract takes us backward, not forward.
The neutral third party made several fair and balanced recommendations in his report, the Firefighters agreed to them, and Council should also. Listed below are some of the major points of the City contract you should know:
The Net savings of this contract is ONLY $133,934 for the 1-year contract. It does not solve the overspending on OT. See Council’s “estimated costs and savings of last, best and final offer” on page 7 of the Council Agenda, item J.8 [HERE].
The City’s contract is only for 1 year, whereas other city departments have employment contracts that span several years. Why keep toying with the future of the Fire department? Will next year’s contract gut even more? This appears intentionally unfair.
Other MB city departments have been given a 3% cost of living adjustment in 2020 and 2021. The City does not want to retroactively pay the Firefighters a COLA for the two years they have been without a COLA, nor does it want to follow the neutral’s recommendation of entering a 5-year contract with COLAs of 3% in 2022-2024 and 1.5% in 2025. Instead, the City wants to impose only a 1-year contract with a 3% COLA. This is unfair and leaves our Fire Department in a lurch for its future.
The neutral third party makes some recommendations that can help bring down the costs of running our FD and makes those recommendations by comparing the City contract to other comparable cities. But it also does not recommend several policy changes in the City’s proposal as these changes severely gut the policies for sick leave and vacation time, and reduces paramedic pay for new hires. The neutral also recommends the City not seek to eliminate positions.
Lastly, overtime pay. The neutral recommends the City address the OT problem by forming an unbiased committee to study and solve it. This is a wise recommendation.
Summary
The neutral gave the City what Council expected, a fair and balanced recommendation for a compromise with the Firefighters. His report moves us forward in an equitable manner between both parties, and the recommendations will bring peace of mind to our community over the trepidation of the future of our Fire Department. Council has a duty to our residents, city, and Firefighters/Paramedics to accept these recommendations and set aside the City's original proposal.
The recommendation by the neutral to form a committee to solve the OT issue is wise and the city should follow it. The resident taxpayers expect fiscally responsible decisions from the City Manager, but not at the expense of compromising our stellar emergency services.
And Council has an ethical obligation to issue an apology to our Firefighters for falsely accusing them of being the cause of the OT, which they were not.
Many residents, from all political parties, agree on the Fire Department issue. Conversations are taking place on Nextdoor and residents have written to Council.
If you have expectations from Council on this issue, voice your opinion at the City Council meeting with a 3-min comment.
Tuesday, 9/20/22, 6:00 PM
Location: 1400 Highland Ave.
or attend on Zoom by clicking [HERE].
~MBStrong
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