A few days after the city council responded to public outcry
over raises given amid layoffs at City Hall by freezing such pay
hikes, two of the city’s four unions responded with formal warnings
and have requested sit-downs, according to official
correspondences.
A few days after the city council responded to public outcry over raises given amid layoffs at City Hall by freezing such pay hikes, two of the city’s four unions responded with formal warnings and have requested sit-downs, according to official correspondences.
Three days after the council’s March 23 closed session decision, representatives from Gilroy Firefighters Local 2805 and the Gilroy Police Officers Association wrote letters to City Administrator Tom Haglund and Human Resources Director LeeAnn McPhillips. McPhillips returned an $8,000 raise she received in January – the same month 48 full-time employees lost their jobs – after The Dispatch reported in mid-March that she and 30 other employees had received more than $130,000 in merit-based pay hikes since layoff talks began in September. Click here for a copy of the unions’ letters.
“This is a very serious matter and one that the Gilroy POA is now forced to address, possibly by way of legal action,” wrote Rockne Lucia, an attorney at Rains Lucia Stern, which represents Gilroy’s police union. “Unilaterally violating the (memorandum of understanding between the city and the POA) and negating benefits and compensations is not an acceptable alternative.”
Throughout the past few months, the council has been discussing possible wage freezes and reductions for the city’s unions behind closed doors without union representatives present, but the body has yet to propose anything.
Like most Bay Area cities, all Gilroy full-time employees can receive annual merit raises – also known as “step increases” that typically come in 5 percent increments – until they reach their positions’ pay ceiling. The raises are in addition to regular cost of living adjustments that most employees receive based on union-negotiated contracts. The raises are conditional on employees meeting basic expectations. These are the only two types of raises at City Hall, according to union leaders and city officials. The average step increase in the past seven months – given to a range of employees from custodians to department heads – was $4,000 and the average COLA in the same period was $1,300.
Haglund has said he will impose the merit-based wage freeze at City Hall through June 2010 despite any union objections or unresolved talks, which means the 24 employees who were in line for their merit-based raises this fiscal year will go without for now, and so will next year’s eligible round. All told, the freeze will save Gilroy about $350,000, according to extrapolation of city figures.
In a separate letter to city officials March 27, the day after Lucia’s, Fire Secretary and Treasurer Jim Buessing wrote that the freeze not only violates the union’s written deal with the council but also obligations imposed by the Meyers-Milias Brown Act, which governs labor-management relationships in California’s local governments.
“Accordingly, please consider this letter both a grievance and a demand to bargain over the decision and the impact of the decision of the city council to freeze performance step or merit increases,” Buessing wrote.
Tina Acree, business agent for the local chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees – which represents the majority of employees who received merit raises – has not drafted a letter, according to The Dispatch’s public records request, but she has called the freeze “appalling” and said the council should have met with unions rather than just skipping negotiation. Representatives from Gilroy’s Management Association – a recently activated bargaining bloc that represents the city’s top-ranking employees less department heads, the city clerk, council members and a couple of financial employees, all of whom do not belong to a formal union – could not be reached.
For merit raises, Gilroy’s four department heads, who do not belong to a union, recommend their eligible rank-and-file and managerial employees for yearly merit review. This is a long-standing practice here and at public agencies throughout the Bay Area, according to administrators here and in nearby municipalities.
Police Officers’ Association President Mitch Madruga has acknowledged the financial clouds hanging over the city, but he said it would be irresponsible of the union to forego traditional merit raises when members have not heard exactly what the council wants. City officials expect this fiscal year’s deficit to exceed $3.8 million despite more than $8 million in general fund cuts City Administrator Tom Haglund has made since he came on board in May 2008. The city’s dwindling $21.9 million reserve fund will cover that multi-million dollar shortfall along with an additional $8.4 million in uncovered infrastructure expenses officials had expected now-dormant development fees to cover.
