Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout05/13/1997 Adjourned Meeting 353 CITY OF YAKIMA, WASHINGTON MAY 13, 1997 ADJOURNED MEETING The City Council met on this date at 8:30 a.m. at the Police Station /Legal Center, 200 South 3rd Street, Yakima, Washington. Council Members present were Mayor Pro Tem John Puccinelli, presiding; Clarence Barnett (absent after 9:30 a.m.); Henry Beauchamp (present after 8:45 a.m.), Ernie Berger, John Klingele, and Bernard Sims. Mayor Lynn Buchanan was absent and excused. Glenn Rice, Assistant City Manager; Al Chronister, Fire Chief; Don Blesio, Police Chief; Archie Sutton, Personnel Officer; Sheryl Smith, Deputy Personnel Officer; Carol Bates, Civil Service Chief Examiner; and Deputy City Clerk Skovald were also present. Lynn Carmichael, Former Mayor of Yakima was also in attendance. Mayor Pro Tem Puccinelli welcomed the group and the meeting began. Review of Collective Bargainina Basics Referencing meeting material previously provided to the Council, Glenn Rice summarized some of the critical concepts inherent to labor negotiations and the collective bargaining process. He also introduced members of the City's bargaining team. Tony Menke, Labor Negotiations Consulting Attorney for the City of Yakima, directed attention to the state labor law, Chapter 41.56, which controls public sector collective bargaining. That law defines public employer /public employee and sets out the steps to organize a collective bargaining unit. The certification process begins by filing a petition with the Public Employee Relations Commission (PERC), an election is held, and if 51% of the individuals are in favor, the group can organize as a collective bargaining unit. Mr. Menke further described the collective bargaining process and provided a basic overview of some of the challenges experienced during labor negotiations within the City of Yakima such as the recent dispute over representation of Public Safety Dispatchers. In response to questions from the Council about the number of bargaining units currently within the City and when they were organized, Mr. Menke reported that some of the seven bargaining units were established many years ago and some are very new. Mr. Menke spoke briefly about union decertification for public sector employees. He pointed out, however,, decertification rarely happens after a group is unionized. Decertification also goes through PERC; it also includes a petition and election' process. Since not all municipalities within Washington are unionized, there was discussion about why some groups don't organize. There was discussion, in a historical sense, about several labor disputes which were resolved and the significant amount of time and resources spent to resolve them. There was also discussion about the Management Pay and Compensation Adjustment (PACA) which occurs after labor contracts are settled. Other issues discussed by the Council include what constitutes an unfair labor practice and whether a substitute equivalent protections system of benefits should be considered. There was also explanation of and discussion about binding interest arbitration and the solidly entrenched support and commitment to unions within the City of Yakima, particularly those with binding interest arbitration. The relationship between the union 359 ADJOURNED MEETING; -- MAY 13, 1997 contract and Civil Service, particularly grievance and disciplinary actions, and the time it takes for negotiations were also discussed. There were also comments, questions, and discussion about the role that Civil Service plays in filling positions. For Police and Fire it takes up a major portion of the year, and the reclass issue, which takes up another six months of the year. After those two tasks there is only a limited time available to fill new general classification positions; it takes almost a year to fill a new position in a general classification. Inflation reflected in the CPI and the cost of living, percentage increases, impact fees and permits, the legal functionality of the mediator, mediation and unilateral implementation law as it relates to non - interest arbitration units, litigative activity and unfair labor charges and grievances were all discussed. There are differences for binding interest arbitration units, such as statutory mandated provisions including cost of living increase provisions. Mr. Menke described the distinction between the dynamics involved in non - binding interest arbitration and binding interest arbitration, i.e., personnel and impacts associated with litigation. There were also questions, comments and discussion about wage comparisons for the management sector. There are a mix of cities closer to the size of Yakima with Eastern Washington views to contact for comparison purposes for management compensation studies. A study is done about every five years to prevent great disparities and compression between groups. The group also discussed the fact that Yakima is one of the very few cities in the state of Washington that has a Charter Civil Service System and the apparent negatives and positives associated with that situation. Mr. Menke pointed out that there are crossover systems which the Council could consider at some point. City Attorney Paolella explained that some of the rules can be changed by the Civil Service Commission; however, any major changes in Civil Service would have to be put to a public vote. ,, Discussion included that collective bargaining provisions have supplanted the Civil Service procedures and the collective bargaining agreement supersedes Civil Service when the provision is the same. There was also discussion about Total Quality Management style which is working with each other one on one and trying to keep the work force both happy and productive. There was continued discussion about the significant amount of time and resources spent in the Collective Bargaining process to resolve labor disputes. Mr. Menke then referred to (c)(i) and (c)(ii) on page 6 of the Summary and pointed out a specific difference in the statute as it relates to the location of comparable employers used for wage comparisons for Police and for Firefighters. He feels this . should be changed in the Legislature; and the same qualifier should be included for the Police statute as is included in the Firefighters statute. Mr. Menke also directed Council's attention to the Cascade Curtain issue where I/ comparisons are done to jurisdictions on the west coast of the state of Washington for firefighters and the west coast of the United States for police officers because of the imagined lesser capability "when it comes to taxation than the I -5 Corridor west of the Cascades." There was also a brief discussion about the fact that there is no issue of comparable worth in the collective bargaining process, but rather for the purpose of wages and benefits for binding interest arbitration. Staff was directed to bring back a recommendation to submit in the form of a resolution to put forth at the Association of Washington Cities (AWC) convention for the next legislative package as it relates to the 2 360 ADJOURNED MEETING -- MAY 13, 1997 ability to pay and the qualifying statement about comparable employers used for wage comparisons. There was also discussion about comparing eastern and western Washington population density and property values instead of gasoline, food, utilities, or housing comparisons. There was also discussion about working conditions which impact the overall work environment and the confrontational and antagonistic nature of labor negotiations and how labor relations or labor management committees can be established by the labor agreement. It was the consensus of the group to schedule an executive session for some time in the future to discuss confidential collective bargaining issues. Glenn Rice reminded the Council of meetings scheduled in the near future on Incubator Management. He reported a letter was received from Yakima County requesting that action be deferred until August on the wastewater connection charge study to provide them more time to review the issue. Council Member Puccinelli asked that ,an opinion be developed. There was continued discussion about whether to defer the issue. There is an upcoming newspaper editorial board meeting with the Mayor and the Mayor Pro Tem to discuss economic development issues. Mr. Rice reported that the Mayor's letter on juvenile justice issues went out to the County Commissioners and to the news media and judges. It was suggested that the meeting be scheduled at another location. Chief Chronister, expressed frustration with the large amount of time that managers spend administering the labor management process and the Civil Service process. He feels that Civil Service is a very time consuming process and is ineffective as far as Fire and Police are concerned with the new rules which are reflective of the contract. The meeting adjourned at 10:05 a.m. READ AND CERTIFIED ACCURATE BY: OUNCIL MEMBER DATE CO CIL MEMB.' R DATE ATTEST: CITY CLERK ;OH P i _ CINE I °,r, MAYOR PRO TEM Minutes prepared by Deputy City Clerk Skovald. An audio tape of this meeting is available in the City Clerk's Office 3