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Home My WebLink About24- Human Resources ORIGINAL CITY OF SAN BERNARDINO — REQUEST FOR COUNCIL ACTION From: Linn Livingston Subject: SELECTION AND APPROVAL OF AN IMPASSE Dept: Human Resources PROCEDURE BY THE MAYOR AND COMMON COUNCIL REGARDING Date: January 18, 2011 THE SAN BERNARDINO FIRE SAFETY EMPLOYEES NEGOTIATIONS. M/CC Meeting Date: January 24, 2011 Synopsis of Previous Council Action: Recommended Motion: Selection and Approval of an Impasse Procedure. Signature Contact person: Linn Livingston Phone: 384-5161 Supporting data attached: Ward: FUNDING REQUIREMENTS: Amount: No Cost I Source: (Acct. No.) (Acct. Description) Finance: Council Notes: Agenda Item No. to-69 y-L--)Otl CITY OF SAN BERNARDINO - REQUEST FOR COUNCIL ACTION Staff Report Subiect• Selection and approval of an impasse procedure by the Mayor and Common Council regarding the San Bernardino Fire Safety Employees negotiations. Background: In early 2009 City negotiators worked with all bargaining groups to assist with the impending budget deficit. All bargaining groups agreed to participate by providing concessions equal to approximately a 10% salary reduction through June 30, 2010. Due to the continuing economic downturn affecting California and the San Bernardino area, in particular, the City faced a substantial budget deficit in FY 2010/11. During the 2010/11budget process, the City negotiators presented concession options to the Mayor and Council to partially address this budget shortfall. As directed, the City negotiators contacted all bargaining groups to schedule meet-and-confer sessions to extend current side letter(s) agreements and negotiate successor MOU's that would include salary and benefit reductions of ten percent (10%). Past Efforts to Meet and Confer with the Firefighters Union regarding a successor Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) The Human Resources Department sent an initial e-mail to Mr. Cory Glave, Chief Negotiator for Fire Safety Employees, on May 12, 2010 requesting dates to begin negotiations due to the expiration of the Fire Safety Employees MOU on June 30, 2010. No response was received from Mr. Glave. On May 24, 2010, Irma Rodriguez Moisa notified Mr. Glave she had been retained by the City of San Bernardino to serve as Chief Negotiator in the upcoming negotiations for a successor MOU. She requested that the current side letter be extended for 60 days to provide the parties sufficient time to negotiate a successor contract and requested available dates. The Fire Safety Unit refused to extend the concession agreement gr t and provided July 7, 2010 as a meeting date. The City issued numerous proposals in an effort to reach agreement on a successor MOU. As the Fire Safety Employees did not accept the City's need for labor concessions, City Negotiators offered to go to mediation in November 2010; the Fire Safety Employees rejected this offer. Instead, the Fire Safety Employees presented a new proposal which contained numerous cost items at the next session on December 15, 2010. As a result, the City negotiators declared impasse and on December 15, 2010, the City contacted Mr. Glave to schedule an impasse meeting per Resolution No. 10584, Section 13: Resolution of Impasses. The City requested Mr. Glave inform the City of their interest to meet and schedule a meeting: however, the City was not contacted on or before the requested deadline. On January 12, 2011 Mr. Glave was given notification that the Mayor and Common Council would be presented with the selection of the impasse resolution for consideration at their January 23, 2011 meeting. i 4 _Commencement of the City's Impasse Procedure Due to the fundamental differences between the City and the Fire Safety Employees, the City declared impasse concerning a MOU successor. Accordingly, the City invoked Section 13 of the Employer-Employee Relations Resolution No. 10584 (Exhibit A) of the City of San Bernardino, which deals with resolution of impasses. Under the Impasse Resolution Procedure, absent a mutual agreement concerning an impasse procedure, the matter may be referred to the Mayor and Common Council for selection of one of the following methods of resolution: A. Mediation or Conciliation B. A determination by the Mayor and Common Council after a hearing on the merits of the dispute. C. Any other dispute resolving procedures to which the parties mutually agree or which the Mayor and Common Council may order. Research revealed that the Firefighters declared impasse in November 1989. The City Administrator recommended that a special meeting for an impasse hearing be set to consider the Firefighters' negotiations. Based on the options above, it is recommended that the Mayor and Common Council utilize Option C and schedule a special Council meeting for presentations by the San Bernardino Professional Firefighters, Local 891, and City negotiators regarding negotiations with the Fire Safety employees. Financial Impact: No financial impact. Recommendation: Selection and Approval of an Impasse Procedure. Weeks Ch From: Poaattorney @aol.com Sent: Monday, January 24, 2011 2:22 PM To: McCammack_We Subject: Fwd: SBCPF/City of SB: Impasse: Council Selection of Impasse Procedure to Fo... From: Poaattorney @aol.com To: Tbrin @aol.com, Brinker_To @sbcity.org, chaskelley @charter.net, Kelley_Ch @sbcity.org, McCammack @sbcity.org, VanJohnson_Ri @sbcity.org, marquez_Vi @sbcity.org, Desjardins_Ja @sbcity.org, Shorett_Fr @sbcity.org, Clark_Ra @sbcity.org CC: imoisa @aalrr.com, livingston_li @sbcity.org BCC: scottmoss43 @gmail.com Sent.- 1/24/2011 2:20:06 P.M. Pacific Standard Time Subj: SBCPF/City of SB: Impasse: Council Selection of Impasse Procedure to Follow Honorable Mayor and Members of City Council, Today, the bargaining representative for the City and the Firefighters met to review the positions of the parties in a final effort to reach agreement on disputed issues. The City's team did not seek to address any of the issues raised by the Firefighters, but did modify the City's Last, Best, Final Offer as it appears the City's team realized that the City could not lawfully impose the LBF as it was proposed. The Firefighters then suggested that the parties seek the assistance of the State Mediation and Conciliation group to see if they could help the parties resolve the City declared impasse. The City rejected this suggestion and indicated that they wanted the City Council to hold a meeting to assist the parties through the impasse procedures. As there was no agreement by the parties, the City's negotiation team, consistent with already having placed the item on the City Council's agenda for today, indicated that the City Council would have to determine which impasse procedure to use in this case. The Firefighters continue to believe that using State mediation services is the best and most fair process to use in this case. As you may already know, the City's negotiation team presented the City's Last, Best and Final proposal on November 23, 2010; prior to the final date for which proposals were to be made. The San Bernardino City Firefighters were presented with the proposal, discussed the impact of the item, and unanimously voted to reject the offer at that time knowing that the process will proceed as described in the Employer and Employee Resolutions Manual (EER). The City's negotiation team has now rejected an offer to allow the negotiation process to continue with the assistance of a fair and impartial mediator. The City's team, instead, demanded that the City Council be allowed to act as the mediator between itself and the Firefighters. The EER is a tool to fairly resolve differences using an impartial perspective between the employer and employees . To eliminate this step of the process you have set as policy, will force this issue to be resolved by the City Council, who has already rejected every offer made by the Firefighters during negotiations. The perceived application of forced imposition of employee contracts have caused the public perception of dishonesty and corruption of elected officials, collaborating to reach their goals, in several municipalities this past year. By not allowing the process of fair and impartial review of our differing positions, the process is corrupted and can have the same results as in communities we have heard about this past year. I apologize for not being able to personally speak at the podium this afternoon, and respectfully request that you consider the position of San Bernardino City Professional Firefighters, Local 891. We respectfully request that you vote for a fair and impartial mediator to intercede and assist the parties with the City declared impasse. Thank You, Corey W. Glave Co-Lead Negotiator 1