Back in April, the City of Davis was able to take advantage of the vacancies in fire management positions to create a separate MOU for the vacant fire management employee positions.
As the staff report noted, “During the last round of negotiations, the previous management incumbents of the Fire Department requested the City pull the Fire positions out of the Individual Management Employees MOU and create a separate contract for these employees.”
What this allows the council to do is to basically set the boilerplate for new contracts across the board. In so doing, they ensured that city employees would cover their full share of employee contributions to their retirement. In this contract, a new agreement, employees will contribute an additional 3% to CalPERS (California Public Employees’ Retirement System).
Moreover, it sets up a “reduced second-tier retirement benefit for new employees, as early as July 1, 2012.”
On retiree medical benefits, the city opted not to limit themselves: “Staff does not want to limit the options available during the negotiation process regarding retiree medical benefits, so have chosen not to address that particular benefit in these work rules.”
They note: “Currently the Fire Management employees are tied to the Davis Firefighter Local 3494 regarding retiree medical benefits by statute through CalPERS. These work rules do not address the retiree medical benefit, other than acknowledge the connection between the two groups. The City is currently in negotiations with Local 3494 and any changes to the retiree medical benefit will be addressed in those negotiations and will also apply to the Fire Management employees.”
Finally they deal with the cafeteria cashout: “The current contract provides a cash payout to any employee not taking the full health insurance allowance. The new contract would cap the cash-out provision for current employees at $500 per month.”
They add: “Effective with this agreement, the City will contribute $1,485 to an employee’s cafeteria plan to purchase health insurance. Effective with the January 2012 premium increase, the City will contribute up to an additional 3% to health premiums to offset any health insurance increases and employees will contribute the balance, if any.”
In many ways this was a brilliant move for the city, as they get to establish what they want to do, and lay down the groundwork for the negotiations with labor groups.
What became clear at last week’s meeting is that the firefighters, as the most powerful labor group in the city, are going to fight back.
Two members of the public spoke. Both of these individuals have considerable ties to Supervisor Don Saylor, who was a champion for the firefighters union, and both have strong ties themselves to Bobby Weist.
Alan Fernandes was Don Saylor’s campaign manager in 2008, and noted that this was the first time he has ever spoken at public comment.
He cited as his reason, “a growing concern” about the “tone and tenor of our debate in this community about the value of public service” and specifically, “I want to address our first responders, because I don’t think you hear much from the public. But there is wide public support for our firefighters and first responders.”
He touted the record of the firefighters in the community and added, “The point is that we have a part of our community that is often times part of a negative conversation; I’d like to see that change.”
“The council has recruitment and retention policies that really talk about reinforcing community involvement and I think that we need to consider those things as we deal not only with firefighters and first responders, but frankly, all public employees that the city is responsible for.”
Norbie Kumagai described the firefighters who make an average of $150,000 in total compensation, as “these selfless individuals” who “constantly place themselves in harm’s way.” He added, “What other profession do you know of where individuals leave for work not knowing if they will see their family at the end of their shift? Most people take this for granted.”
He spent some time talking about staffing issues and response time, and then he finally got to the point.
“I understand that the City of Davis is in the process of filling a position for Division Chief; several well-qualified internal candidates experienced professionals tested for the position. My understanding is midway through the process, the city re-wrote a new contract for this job description after the internal applicants completed the testing process,” he said.
“Changing the rules in the middle of the game strikes me as unethical and disingenuous,” he charged. “Not to mention, fostering or potentially fostering a negative and adversarial relationship. Please allow the selected candidates to accept the positions under the current contract and give them the opportunity [to accept the] upcoming contract fairly and in good faith.”
Clearly, the council has done something right here, as the firefighters are objecting to the city’s decision to create the new MOU prior to hiring an individual to fill the position.
There is no doubt that firefighters serve a vital function in our community, but what Mr. Kumagai and Mr. Fernandes leave out, of course, is the rest of the story. You know the part about the $150,000 in total compensation. You know the part about the 3% at 50 enhanced benefits package.
You know the part about the city facing a $7 million budget crisis over the next few years and needing to find ways to cut costs without sacrificing services or public safety.
The era of shared sacrifice is upon us and the group needing to sacrifice most is the one that got a 36% pay increase last decade eating up in its entirety the half cent sales increase.
It is obvious that the firefighters are about to launch a new effort aimed at regaining their positive image that has taken a hit in recent years. The interesting question will be, whom are the firefighters going to back, whom will they publicly endorse, and will we know whom they decide to back?
—David M. Greenwald reporting
I encourage the City Council to stay the course.
Norb Kumagai is a really odd person to be speaking on behalf of the Fire Department. His request is really odd – to offer differentiated offers to candidates depending on whether they are internal or external? I would think that this is illegal.
I applaud the City of Davis and wish that Woodland would follow suit. Given that the bulk of funding goes to cover safety, some sort of compromise must be found since all other units have taken more than their share of cuts.