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03-07-84SpMtg ~L~RC~ - 7~ - 1984 A Special Meeting of the City Council of the City of Delray Beach, Florida, was called to order by Mayor Willard V. Young in the Council Chambers at City Hall at 2:10 P.M., Wednesday, harch 7, 19~4. Roll call showed: Present - Council Member 5~lcolm T. Bird Council Member Doak S. Campbell Council Member Arthur Jackel Council Member Edward L. Perry (arrived 3:00 P.M.) Mayor Willard V. Young Absent - None Also present were - City Manager James L. Pennington, and City Attorney Herbert W.A. Thiele. Mayor Young called the meeting to order and announced that this meeting has been called for the purpose of considering (1) holding the F.O.P. impasse resolution hearing. 1~ F~. Carey Singletary, representing Florida State Lodge Fraternal Order of Police, made a presentation outlining the three matters before Council: (1) In the previous contract, there was a provision that an employee could not grieve discipline unless the penalty was for more than three days. There was great concern on the part of the Police Department that, by not having a grievance procedure where any disci- pline could be taken to arbitration, they, as police officers, were being denied an opportunity for a fair and impartial hearing. This does not mean that the Police Department wants to take every letter of repri- mand to arbitration because that would be expensive and nonproductive; they want the right to go to arbitration if they have to. As indicated in the Statute, every contract is required to have a grievance/arbitra- tion procedure that terminates in final and binding arbitration between the parties. They ask City Council to consider the fact that during the first year of their contract no case went to arbitration, so they do not have a history of taking frivilous disputes to arbitration. They are proud of the fact that they have been able to settle without arUitra- tion. (2) Basically, Florida has a statute which provides for basic procedural and substantive due process when a police officer is being interrogated by his own agency regarding some conduct he has engaged in. They have asked that this law be incorporated into the Collective Bargaining Agreement. If it was incorporated and there was a violation of it, both the City and the F.O.P. could stay out of court and not be tied up in litigation. A simple grievance could be filed on the violation of that police officer's bill of rights and, hopefully, settled through the grievance procedure; if unable to settle it through the grievance procedure, they could have an arbitrator decide it. The City of Delray Beach has a manual which specifies that officers do have those rights which the Statute says they have. At the Special baster proceeding they agreed that the language in the Delray Beach Duty ~lanual should be put in the contract rather than the actual Statute. The arbitrator became a bit confused about that and in his recommendation recommended that the Police Officers Bill of Rights be put in. They would be agreeable to the Delray Beach Police Manual dealing with those rights, rather than the Statute, being part of the Agreement. (3) They were able to negotiate a wage package between the F.O.P. and the City Administration. The City has laid out its final and best offer to the F.O.P. The F.O.P. bargaining unit rejected that offer. They feel that if the City truly believes in a merit system of pay increases, it is grossly unfair to deny a pay raise to a person who has performed meritoriously because he is at the top of his pay rank. Mayor Young declared a recess, the time being 2:25 P.h. The meeting reconvened at 2:30 P.M. Mr. Singletary continued that the only matter in dispute regarding wages is the case of a police officer with many years in the department with a favorable evaluation who has reached the top of his category. They feel that, after having reached the top of his category, if he continues to perform well and get high evaluations that he should be permitted to benefit from that performance by getting merit pay. Otherwise a merit pay system will not work. As he recalls, the City agreed to go up 3% above the topped out pay for officers in each cate- gory and the F.O.P. was seeking 5%. The City Administration has said that the F.O.P. should not be permitted to get the pay increase that was offered to it by the City negotiators at the bargaining table and also be entitled to receive a grievance arbitration procedure terminating in final and binding arbitration. At the Special ~aster proceedings, there was no dispute between the parties on the department bonus, merit in- crease and across the board. ?he only dispute dealt with whether or not a topped out officer should get 3% or 5% if he earned it through merit performance. In summary, they are seeking the City to allow a topped out police officer to be able to participate in the merit pay he would get were he not topped out. In regard to the grievance arbitration, they are asking that the City follow the Special Master's recommendation that the grievance arbitration clause submitted by the F.O.P. be put into the contract. As to the Police Officers Bill of Rights Issue, they are requesting that the City's Departmental Rules and Regulations be made a part of the contract so they can settle these matters by discussions rather than in court. Mr. Bob Sylvester stated that all these gentlemen deal with the law on a daily basis. The people out on the street have more rights than the policemen; when a policeman gets accused of a crime they do not even have the right to appeal it. They can sue and take ten years to clear their name but at the same time a man who allegedly killed some- body is back on the streets enjoying the prosperity of freedom. The policeman does not have those rights and it really affects morale, attitude and production. Also, regarding the financial situation in Delray Beach, when a policeman comes to a successful conclusion in an arrest, prosecution and guilty finding, the men themselves do not feel that they are being rewarded. It takes a while for a policeman to learn how to do that properly. They do not feel that that expertise, know- ledge and training is being repaid. There are about 30 policemen that are actively looking for other employment. It takes about $30,000 to train that man the first year he is here. If you lose that man in that first 1½ years, you've lost that $30,000 and another $30,000 to train another individual. If 30 people leave the Police Department next year because they're not satisfied, the City is looking at about $1,900,000~. He cannot see 1% or 2% extra pay being a problem here. Sergeant A1 Lewis, nine year member of the Delray Beach Police Department, spoke regarding pay. He is not asking ~or such a raise that he can buy a home on the beach; all he wants is to live comfortably. He is unmarried but some of the members of the Department who have wives and children are struggling a lot. He is one of the topped out officers and he has never given less than 100% to the City in the time he has worked here; his record reflects that and his employment file is open for inspection. If he can only get 3%, that's not very much of an incentive. He feels that is a wrong which should be righted. Also, the Department is very innovative and has been getting national recognition for some of their programs lately. The officers are doing a great job and he feels it's time they start getting paid what they're really worth; he's referring to parody with some of the other cities, such as Boynton Beach and Boca Raton. As an example, for someone with his rank and seniority in Boynton Beach, there is about a ~7,000 dif- ference in pay. He asked for the City's consideration in givin9 them this raise. - 2 - 03/07/84 Dr. Andre Fladell stated that he has been helped by the Police Department and he feels the Police Department deserves a raise. He presented a list comparing topout pays in Boynton Beach, Boca Raton and Delray Beach, noting that a Lieutenant in Boynton Beach tops out at $37,900; a Lieutenant in Boca Raton at $33,600; a Lieutenant in De lray Beach at $28,200. They are not talking about numbers on a piece of paper; they are talking about style of living, not luxury, but comfort and necessity. Dr. Fladell named several police officers who have left the City for reasons of economics and finance and noted that this has cost the City $400,000. They are talking about keeping the best of the force within the City of Delray Beach. ~r. James Linn advised that he represents the City in mat- ters of labor relations; however, he did not become involved in F.O.P. negotiations until the point of a federal mediator bein9 called in late last year. He stated he feels it is important to consider the conduct of the parties throughout negotiations in weighing the issues today. ~y its repeated conduct in rejecting agreements that have been reached at the bargaining table, the F.O.P. has succeeded in perverting the collec- tive bargaining process. Mr. Linn outlined the three issues before Council. The wage package which has been agreed to by the parties calls for a 5% economy raise, a 1.5% departmental bonus which has already been implemented, and a 0%-6% performance increase; they are looking at a 12.5% overall maxi- mum pay increase for police officers. The only area of dispute had to do with whether topped out officers should be permitted to receive the full 6% performance increase. The City took the position that the salary ranges should not be adjusted more than 3%; this would still give those topped out officers, who qualified for the maximum performance increase, a 9.5% overall wage adjustment. The Union's arguments that the City's position would destroy the performance incentive program are not valid for three reasons: (1) there are very few topped out officers; (2) the purpose of the departmental bonus, the 1.5%, was to compensate those people who could not receive the full amount of the performance increase; and (3) other employees of the City do not get this special adjustment because they're topped out and they get a perforlaance rating which would entitle them to more of a performance increase. Also, he has been informed that very few of the exit forms, filled out by em- ployees when they leave the City, list wages or money as a reason for leaving. Mr. Linn added that he believes the entire wage package has to be considered in conjunction with the second issue concerning the processing of disciplinary grievances. The current F.O.P. contract states that employees who receive discipline in excess of a three day suspension are entitled to seek arbitration of that disciplinary action. As has been pointed out, there have been no arbitrations under this current provision; this shows that the City has not abused this restric- tion on the arbitration of discipline. The City proposal calls for a three tier approach; employees would still be able to appeal discipli- nary actions. The very minor disciplinary, non-economic actions could be appealed to the Chief of Police. The actions involving suspensions of up to four days could be heard by the City hanager. The very maDor incidents involving suspensions of more than four days could go to arbitration. The City's position adds only one day of suspension to the current arbitration threshold and all suspensions will still go to a hearing before the City Manager. The F.O.P., on the other hand, seeks to abolish all restrictions on arbitration of disciplinary grievances no matter how minor or trivial the discipline is. 5~ost minor discipline simply does not justify the man hours that have to be expended in arbi- tration. The City's concerns over productivity are not abstract; last year F.O.P. members appealed disciplinary actions at a rate eight times greater than that of all other City employees. The second ma~or factor has to do with the cost of arbitration; ~r. Linn outlined these costs. The Union argues that State Law and City Code require arbitration of all grievances. All they are talking about here is arbitration of disci- plinary grievances; the Union and its members are free to seek arbitra- tion as to any other type of grievance. By submitting this issue to the impasse resolution process and to Council now, the F.O.P. is bound by Council's decision in this matter. It should be noted Mr. Perry arrived, the time being 3:00 P.Sl. - 3 - 03/07/~4 Mr. Linn stated that the issues cannot be considered in isolation. The F.O.P. should not be permitted to receive both the full wage package and complete abolishment of all restrictions on arbitration of disciplinary grievances. As for the issue of the Police Officers Bill of Rights, the City is already required by State Law to observe the Police Officers Bill of Rights. He noted that, unfortunately, Florida Courts have had great difficulty in interpreting the Police Officers Bill of Rights. The F.O.P. wants the Bill of Rights in the contract so that it may arbitrate alleged violations of the Bill of Rightso In his view, it would be a mistake to submit the Bill of Rights to an arbi- trator when the Courts have had such difficulty in dealin9 with it. This Council is charged with the responsibility for resolving the dis- puted impasse issues in "the public interest including the interest of the public employees involved". Mr. Campbell asked if it is Council's desire to make a decision this afternoon or to look into it further. ~. Jackel ex- pressed a need to reflect on it further. It was the consensus of Council to meet and render a deci- sion at a Special Meeting on Wednesday, ~larch 14, 1984 at 2:00 For the record, Mr. Singletary pointed out that ~. Thiele, City Attorney, was on the negotiating team and he feels it would be inappropriate for him as City Attorney to give legal advice to Council concerning Council's rulings on this. Mr. Bird stated that if there is any other evidence that the officers who were present, the F.O.P. leadership or Council feels should be taken under advisement, since they do not intend to take testimony at the March 14th meeting, he would entertain those now. Mr. Singletary stated that he has just consulted with ~. Linn and they both concur that under the Statutory scheme for handling these matters, it would not be permissable for either of them to come before Council with any additional comments or materials. He further stated that the City did maintain throughout the bargaining that there would be no retroactivity if a contract was reached after the expiration of the other contract or if they went this route. That being the case, he would urge Council to hasten in making its decision. Mr. Bird noted that Mr. Jackel made a motion a couple of weeks ago saying that regardless of the date that the final decision is rendered by Council, it would include retroactivity at least as far as the 1st of February. Mr. Bird moved that Council reconvene to render Judgment at 2:00 P.M. on March 14, 1984, seconded by ~. Jackel. Said motion passed unanimously. Mayor Young declared the meeting adjourned at 3:10 P.M. City Clerk ATTEST: MAYOR The undersigned is the City Clerk of the City of De lray Beach and that the information provided herein is the minutes of the meeting of said City Council of March 7, 1984, which minutes were for- mally approved and adopted by the City Council on ity Clerk NOTE' TO- READER: If the minutes that you have received are not completed as indicated above, then this means that these are not the official minutes of City Council. They will become the official minutes only after they have been reviewed and approved which may involve some amendments, additions, or deletions to the minutes as set forth above. - 4 - 03/07/~4