City Council
MEETING DATE: 1/12/2015
TITLE:
Title
Ratification of Labor Agreements
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FROM:
Tami E. Scott, Administrative Services Director
RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
Staff recommends that the City Council ratify the labor agreement with the Cathedral City Professional Firefighters Association "CCPFA" and memorialize changes to the Non-Represented, Professional Executive & Confidential Employee Group consistent with the previously approved Memorandum of Understanding with the Cathedral City Police Management Association.
Body
BACKGROUND:
As Council is aware, for the past several years, the City has endured some of the most horrific financial challenges in its young history. To manage the challenges, since 2009, the city employees have had numerous salary and benefit reductions, averaging in the vicinity of a 20% reduction along with a 25% reduction in city wide staffing. It has been council's desire and intent as the city's finances stabilized, the economy started to improve and as existing labor agreements expired, to negotiate successor agreements providing for restoration of some, not all, of the concessions made by employee groups.
DISCUSSION:
Similar to agreements with other bargaining units (Cathedral City Police Management Association "CCPMA" and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees "AFSCME") the city recently concluded negotiations with the Cathedral City Professional Firefighters Association, resulting in a five (5) year successor Memorandum of Understanding. The following is a summary of a Tentative Agreement with the group: 5 year contract- 01/01/15- 12/31/19, cost of living "COLA" adjustments effective the first payroll period following the designated dates: 2.5% effective 01/01/15, 4.5% effective 07/01/15, 4% effective 01/01/16, CPI a minimum of 1% not to exceed 4% effective 01/01/17 & 01/01/18 respectively; 15 year merit increase of an additional 2.5% and adding a 25 year merit increase of 2.5% for Tier One employees; uniform allowance to be spread and distributed over the 26 pay periods (no increased cost); language to be included in the agreement, consistent under the law as provided by CalPERS, medical benefits shall become secondary to Medicare as a retired employee becomes eligible for such a program, or at age 65 whichever comes first; the City will continue post-retirement medical benefits to the family and/or guardianship of employee in the event of the retired employees death as allowed by CalPERS; certain language changes, as housekeeping items, as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act and CalPERS, neither at a cost to the City; the City to provide a 30-day notice both to the Union and employees affected by a layoff; and, the probationary period for a Fire Engineer would be extended from six (6) to twelve (12) months and the probationary period for a Firefighter/Paramedic would be extended from twelve (12) months to eighteen (18) months. In addition to the outline above for the Cathedral City Professional Firefighters Association, the City Council previously approved a 5 year contract to include restoration of some salary and benefits with the CCPMA and AFSCME. Any adjustments proposed for the Non Represented Executive, Professional & Confidential employees would be implemented consistent with the provisions of these groups. The Non-Represented employees during the time of concessions took the largest reduction in pay and benefits and are generally the last to have pay and benefits restored. Now that a majority of the union contracts have been finalized the adjustments to the Non- Represented group are proposed as follows: over a five year period from January 1, 2015 through December 31, 2019, these are to be effective the first payroll period following the designated dates: 4%- 01/01/2015, 3%- 07/01/2015, 4%- 01/01/2016, Consumer Price Index ("CPI") adjustment- 01/01/2017 and 01/01/2018 a minimum of 1% not to exceed 4%; and a 2.5%, 25 year longevity stipend for those employees hired prior to January 1, 2013.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The agreement essentially restores many of the concessions the employees gave up during the economic downturn, while at the same time eliminating future costs to newer employees. The restoration is not occurring immediately but over the term of the five year contract period. If we assume a CPI at 2% in 2017 & 2018 (industry projected); over the last 16 years, AFSCME has averaged 1.875% COLA per year, Public Safety has averaged 1.75% COLA per year, and the Non-Represented Group has averaged 1.65% COLA per year.