The Vanguard had received an anonymous tip about the fire department usage of the union bank hours that alleged that they were using the hours for political activities. As we shall see, the use of union bank hours for political activities would be completely inappropriate.
The anonymous tip read:
“Check out Union Hour Bank and ask what Firemen are doing while on this time. The answer is Union stuff. Campaigning for Angelides, Against Prop 75, Serving and consuming alcohol for politicians, Electing R.Weist to CPF District President (The City sent 6 Firefighters to serve as Bartenders for this event) R.Conroy there as well.”
Union Bank Hours and their usage is laid out in the city’s MOU with the firefighters. From the city’s MOU, here is how the union hour bank works:
“CITY agrees to deposit 24 hours per year ( on July 1, or first business day thereafter) for each participating Firefighter and Fire Captain for deposit in the Union Hour Bank. 70% of time use of Union Hour Bank time shall not incur overtime except with the approval of the Fire Chief. The CITY will provide to the UNION 30 day advanced notice on special training needs and UNION members agree not to schedule Union Hour Bank business during the identified special training. The CITY concurs that course selection and location is at the prerogative of the UNION and they shall provide 24-hour notice to the department for any Union Hour Bank absences. Absences will be charged at straight time. UNION agrees that total Union Hour Bank accrual and carry over shall not exceed two years worth of Union Hour Bank contributions.”
The usage of the hours are also laid out in the MOU:
“The purpose of this Union Hour Bank is solely to provide educational training and development opportunities to UNION members and should not involve conducting or participating in other agencies’ unions activities.”
The Vanguard asked HR Director Melissa Chaney the purpose of these hours. She told the Vanguard that it was basically for the purposes of training and other union specific activities. She was further asked whether it would be appropriate for the union hour bank to be used for political activities. She told the Vanguard “absolutely not” and elaborated that all political activities must be performed off-duty and without the use of city money.
The Vanguard filed a public records request for the union hour bank time sheet. The Vanguard received a general list of how union hour were alotted and how much was alotted overall. However, as the response below explains, the city does not track the usage of these hours.
Here is the alottment of union hours that were used since 2004:
The Vanguard then turned over this information to the independent investigator for follow up.
In the report released by Bill Emlen, it is unclear whether there was annecdotal evidence to support the anonymous tip. We suspect much as the case in the issue of favoritism and retaliation that the investigator simply lacked the time and money to follow up on leads. However, the report is suggestive of a basic problem of lack of accountability.
Two findings in particular draw our attention.
This is from Bob Aaronson’s report:
“Union members asserted that, for the most part, the union had complete discretion on how it chose to use/allocate these hours.”
As Aaronson points out this runs against the city’s MOU which very narrowly prescribes the intended usage for these activities as being “SOLELY to provide education training and development opportunities…” {emphasis added}.
Moreover, as our public records request indicates, the city does not have records on how these hours are used.
“As I understand it, the union does not maintain records of how these hours are utilized and the City has never requested an accounting from it.”
The latter being a very consistent pattern within this city as to the lack of accountability and records keeping.
City Manager Bill Emlen writes:
“Because the current Fire MOU stipulates specific acceptable use of this time, the lack of a written record is problematic. Currently, all requests do go through the Chief but the process is strictly verbal. While there is no indication in the investigation that there has been improper use, the lack of a written record is problematic. Effective immediately and for audit purposes, the Chief will be required to keep written records of requests adequate to address the MOU limitations on Union Bank Hours. This information will be forwarded to the Human Resources Division to monitor purpose and hours usage. The City may also discuss union bank hours further during upcoming negotiations with the fire union.”
Let us focus in on this sentence again:
“While there is no indication in the investigation that there has been improper use, the lack of a written record is problematic.”
Again, this appears to be a case where the investigation simply was not able to look into potential allegations rather than a case where allegations were explored and refuted. This suggests that we really do not know if the union is improperly using city resources for political activity.
An indignant Chief Rose Conroy spoke at council to suggest that these hours are tracked–she said that she has to sign off on their usage and that they are tracked, she simply needs to now add the additional step of recording their usage.
With all due respect to the Chief, she has a very different definition of what it means to track the usage of hours than I do.
Even if the usage of union bank hours was completely appropriate–and frankly there is no indication that that is the case–this practice is problematic both on the part of the Chief for not meticulously tracking how city money is being spent and by the city’s HR department for failing to account for the use of city money. This is a pervasive problem within the city that needs to change. There needs to be much greater accountability than we currently have.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
Question – Do you loath firefighters so much that your willing to abandon other reportable stories ?This does get old really quick .
I don’t loathe the firefighters at all. Better get use to it, I have several other firefighter stories in the queue. If you’d like to see something else covered, I suggest you send me the story that you’ve done.
I do not quite understand how this works – if the city sets aside 24 hours per employee why does one employee have 724 hours in 5 years? Is the city paying for 724 hours or 5X24 = 120?Also if this is for the benefit of all firefighters why are so many missing from the list?
As I understand it, it’s a bank of hours created from 24 hours per employee per year. The union can then disperse those hours to whomever needs them. The two top people in the union are Weist and Emily, and thus it is not surprising that they received a bulk of the hours. I’m not sure that’s problematic. The bigger problem is not tracking how these hours are used and the apparent statement that the union is doing whatever it wants with the hours which is not how the MOU reads.
The argument that the city of Davis HAS to pay top dollar to get the very best people is belied by the facts, City Manager and Fire Chief being two glaring examples. An interesting observation to ponder:Then School Board member Saylor led the Board in pressing the District bureaucracy for fiscal accountability but has been largely AWOL on the Council with respect to the politically powerful Fireman’s Union.
This is directly from the contract: …CITY agrees to deposit 24 hours per year ( on July 1, or first business day thereafter) for each participating Firefighter and Fire Captain for deposit in the Union Hour Bank….My question: HOW IN HELL IS IT IN THE TAXPAYERS’ BEST INTEREST TO PAY EMPLOYEES OF THE CITY TO CONDUCT OR ENGAGE IN UNION ACTIVITIES?There is nothing that can be done now to correct past misuse of these hours. However, if we have three members of the city council who have testicular fortitude, the contract the city signs with the Local in 2009 WILL NOT HAVE ANY MORE UNION BANK HOURS. In other words, if the taxpayers of Davis are paying for fire protection services (and other related public safety services), that is what firefighters should be doing 100% of the time they are on the time-clock.
P.S. As much as I like all 5 members of the city council on a personal level, I don’t think we have one member with the balls to make this change in the contract, let alone 3.
snitch
I quickly looked over the police officers’ contract and didn’t find anything like a …union bank… in it. My assumption is that the DPOA does not require the city to pay its members when they are not performing their public safety duties. Same thing with PASEA (Program, Administrative and Support employees Assoc.): No mention of a union bank in the PASEA contract with the city.However, the DCEA (Davis City Employees Association) has its own union bank. Not quite as horrible a deal for the taxpayers, but another one which should be eliminated entirely when the new contract comes into effect July 1 of this year: …Upon request of the ASSOCIATION of not less than two working days, the CITY agrees to establish a bank of hours to be utilized by DCEA officials and members for DCEA business and/or training. Utilization of this bank will be at the rate of no more than ten (10) hours per month. Time may be granted, with approval, to attend conference or training. This bank will consist of 120 hours per calendar year and does not carry over to future years. The CITY will contribute seventy (70) hours annually to this bank, and the membership using the bank will contribute one-half (1/2) hour of vacation annually. Such leave will not result in loss of compensation or benefits, including credit for vacation, holiday, and sick leave. Such leave will not constitute a break in the employee’s continuous service for the purposes of salary adjustments, sick leave, vacation or seniority….
I agree with Rich Rifkin. I am getting tired of the firefighter issues. They need major reform. Also city council is weak. Can we please elect pro-active council members next time?
If not now, then when??? We are in the perfect position to really play the salary game and keep them in line! No government entity is hiring for anything(posting jobs is altogether different!) …we’re going to lose good people if we don’t keep up with the benchmark cities… No, we won’t..where will they go? Another city/county…Hardly. Really experienced people here have learned the game and know the work is easy.You can’t beat the money versus the daily workload. If we get hooked for another 3-5 year deal that increases pay %20-%25 then we’re done–only sooner than expected. Freeze pay or begin furloughs…those that depart for other govt jobs(fat chance) wish them well, nice knowing you.
…As I understand it, it’s a bank of hours created from 24 hours per employee per year. The union can then disperse those hours to whomever needs them. The two top people in the union are Weist and Emily, and thus it is not surprising that they received a bulk of the hours. I’m not sure that’s problematic. The bigger problem is not tracking how these hours are used and the apparent statement that the union is doing whatever it wants with the hours which is not how the MOU reads….So what are you saying, that Bobby Weist and Emily Lo need more educating than the rest of the firefighters? The money is for education and training, period. It would seem to me that all firefighters would equally, or at least more equally, need such training. To me, the actual hour distribution is a pretty good indication that the Union Bank hours are being used for union activity, and NOT for education/training.Of course the city doesn’t track its expenditures! Then taxpayers might actually realize how much gov’t waste there is. Let’s face it, most likely the taxpayer has been paying for the firefighters to have drunken …retirement… parties at taxpayer expense! The buck stops with Bill Emlen, who has absolutely no control of his city employees. He has nothing but a …circle the wagons… mentality, in which his employees can do no wrong. From personal and bitter experience, I know of what I speak.
724 hours over 5 years equals an average of 18.1 eight hour days per year. That’s 3 1/2 weeks per year the city is paying for this fire captain to be off getting training and education. This is on top of the normal vacation and personal/sick days given to employees. It seems that this captain was gone from his job a lot. Maybe we don’t really need his position filled. Another question, did another fire fighter receive overtime pay covering for this absent co-worker?If the Fire Department wasn’t acting in such a secretive manner and so unwilling for people to see the results of the investigation that we paid for, people wouldn’t be continuing to wonder what they are hiding.
THE REAL PROBLEM: Unions are sucking the life out of the taxpayers. Unions are in the news constantly because of their illegal and disruptive activity. The seiu is one giant example and on a local level,take a good look at the fireman’s union. Rose Conroy should be fired immediately and all pay for firemen reduced by 10%. And if they don’t like it, go somewhere else. I’m tired,and broke, from paying union thieves and their members.
Anonymous at 1023pm: Well-written, brief, hard hitting, truthful…it is: Us versus them…our prosperity versus their insatiable appetite to get every last dime of compensation. The funny thing is that when I was part of that system, you don’t see it. You are part of the system or you aren’t. There is never any middle ground. Folks at the PD are very similar they just use less …in your face… tactics.
The …Union… is a one city union. If you are angry should you be angry at workers who asked for money and got it or should you be angry at the people/system that gave them your money? You really can not blame people for asking for more compensation.
It’s sad to see the City of Davis picking on every …bad… thing the Fire Department does. Keep in mind, these men and women run into burning buildings to save you and your family. They risk thier lives EVERYDAY. You are so bold to comment so negativly about our firefighters. As you sit behind your computer, in the comfort of your home like a coward……they are possibly risking their lives at this very minute.
TO the above ANON; Could you tell us when was the last time a firefighter ran into a burning comples to save someone? How many times has that happened? How many structure fires were there last year that threatened lives? A firefighter somewhere risks his/her life everyday for others. When was the last time a firefighter inDavis risked his/her life for someone in Davis? What is the cost of doing business with fire fighter unions and zero’s like rose conroy going to cost us. To the point of bankruptcy? You may call someone a …coward… anonymous but I ask, Who is the thief here? And who is paying the bill? I sit in the comfort of my home and do not label others, except in your case. If a firefighter is possibly risking his or her life right now is the choice they made in their profession. Having fought in a war I know about risking life and limb. However, I doubt you do, but I have defended your right to call someone a coward in any case.
Look it’s very simple here, I respect the work that the fire department does. However, the fact that the firefighters risk their lives does not give them carte blanch to do whatever they want. They do not have license to misuse public money. And they also do not have license to put the city into fiscal risk by taking irresponsible money.Nevertheless I agree with one of the statements above, at some point you have to blame the people who give out the outrageous salaries and pensions rather than the ones that ask for them. I agree to some extent. But as Rifkin points out, there are something like six bargaining units in the city, the firefighters are the only one that consistently pumps money into council elections to influence the process.I’m sorry but the city cannot afford to pay firefighters an average of $150,000 in total compensation and they cannot afford 3% at 50.I respect the job that they perform, but that does not mean they get whatever they want in return.I am convinced that we would have just as good a service at $70,000 in salary as we get at $100,000.