Fallsnewspress.com - City leaders urge unions to talk now to avoid layoffs

by Ellin Walsh

Reporter

Cuyahoga Falls -- No guarantee? No concessions.

No concessions? Guaranteed layoffs.

City Council and administration members are urging the unions representing Cuyahoga Falls police to negotiate. Police union representatives say the sticking point to conducting talks is the lack of a guarantee that no layoffs will be made in their ranks in 2010 if they agree to concessions to a newly minted contract.

On Dec. 14, Police Chief John Conley detailed cuts planned for his department during 2010 if the unions don't agree to concessions. Those cuts include laying off three police officers, one community service officer and all part-time personnel and demoting four sergeants. On Dec. 7, members of the police unions -- the Ohio Patrolmen's Benevolent Association Blue and Gold Units -- voted not to talk to the city about the proposed concessions, which would include no raises in 2010 and required furlough days.

The FOP union representing dispatchers also has voted against conducting any negotiations with the administration, Law Director Virgil E. Arrington Jr. said.

Officers Dec. 14 questioned why they should support the concessions just months after the ink on their current contract with the city is dry.

"You want solid concessions from the contract we just signed," Sgt. Perry Tabak said to City Council. "We would like solid guarantees for our membership [that there will be no layoffs and demotions in exchange] for that ... It's hard to trust [the administration] when you just signed a contract ... yet now the city says they can't honor it ... to the staffing levels we agreed to."

City officials can't give such a guarantee, Arrington said.

"When we sign such a contract," Arrington said, "we don't have the money in our pockets to pay the wages ... It's dependent upon the revenue we get as the year goes on."

The city's finance director, Joseph F. Brodzinski, has stated that there will be a $3 million deficit in the city's General Fund in 2010 and cuts in spending have to be made now. As far back as spring 2006, Mayor Don L. Robart has said city officials detected signs of recession.

"It took until August of 2009 for the contract with police to be signed," John Sim, a 29-year veteran of the police department, said. "If the financial problem has been seen coming by this city since 2006, why wasn't it addressed [in subsequent negotiations with the city's six unions]?"

Arrington said the police chief instituted changes, starting in 2006, to save money which resulted in the filing of grievances and unfair labor practice allegations in his department. As negotiations for the current contracts with the unions got under way in summer 2007, "We told the unions that we were spending money faster than we were bringing it in," Arrington said. "And we told the unions that we could not continue that model, that at some point in time we would hit ... a financial brick wall."

While the city finalized new contracts with two unions in December 2008, talks with the dispatchers' union and the Blue and Gold Units of the Ohio Patrolmen's Benevolent Association deadlocked. Arrington said those were referred to a fact-finder, the first step in the arbitration process.

"That's why we end up in August signing a contract and in December talking about layoffs," Arrington said.

The law director said the city's largest union, AFSCME, voted to approve concessions last week, saving 21 jobs.

"They [AFSCME] took a chance and we have saved all of their jobs," Arrington said, adding, "... We were hoping that you would see that action and that might take the place of a guarantee that we have a very difficult time giving."

"You're asking us to trust the administration," Sgt. Gary Merton said, "... but we signed the contract two months ago and you're saying you can't honor it. The raises that you offered are the ones that we took, the health care you offered is the one we took ... we negotiated fairly, we took your numbers and now you're saying you can't pay us."

"We can honor that contract for 2010," Arrington said, "but we cannot honor that contract at the staffing levels we have because the revenues that we are going to get in 2010 are not what we were anticipating when we were negotiating that contract ..."

Police officer Eric Prange, a Cuyahoga Falls resident, said he cannot grasp why the city would buy a shopping center if it foresaw the financial straits ahead.

Tabak asserted the city is in better financial shape than many others that have given their employees guarantees of no layoffs during concession periods. If the city provides the desired guarantee, Tabak said he would be willing to go back to his membership and ask it to reopen the contract.

Arrington said he is willing to meet with police union representatives "any time." As of press time, Dec. 17, the law director said he had not been contacted by them. Talks were continuing this week between city representatives and those of the fire and electric unions, he said.

"You don't want to be in the unemployment line," Councilmember Debbie Ritzinger (At large) told the officers. "Don't make us do this."

E-mail: ewalsh@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-686-3908