[Council Communication]  

Council Communication

Title:	Ratification of labor contract between the City and Ashland Police Association
Dept:	Administration
Date:	April 20, 2004
Submitted By:	Tina Gray, HR Manager
Approved By:	Gino Grimaldi, City Administrator

Synopsis:	The City has been involved in negotiations with the Ashland Police Association since their contract expired June 30, 2003. The bargaining process got off to a slow start with a change in representation for the bargaining unit, and a change in the City's bargaining team. Despite a long bargaining period, both parties were able to reach middle ground outside of mediation or arbitration. The City has reached a tentative agreement with the Association, and staff is now recommending final ratification of the agreement by the City Council.
Recommendation:	Staff recommends the Council authorize the City Administrator to sign the labor contract, ratifying the tentative agreement reached in negotiations.
Fiscal Impact:	The agreement calls for retroactive pay increases of 2% to be applied to the current wage schedule for the months of July 1, 2003-January 1, 2004, and a 2% increase retro from January 1, 2004 to present. Staff had budgeted for a 3% increase in 2003, so the first contract year amounts to an increased cost to the city of $13,976.89. The new agreement requires a 5% employee contribution for health insurance, which will help offset the increased salary cost. Under this agreement police officers will be eligible to set aside pre-tax dollars for qualifying health care expenses in the City's Flexible Spending Account program. Participation in this program will generate payroll tax savings for the employees and the city in this and future years. The new contract also calls for an improvement to the certification pay incentive for officers who have obtained intermediate and/or advanced certification from the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training (DPSST). This improvement is necessary to bring the Ashland in-line with the average certification pay offered in comparator jurisdictions. Currently 5 officers possess intermediate certification, and 6 possess advanced certification. The improvement to certification pay represents a cost of approximately $36,587.16 over the three-year contract based on current bargaining unit composition. The certification incentive is an investment in officers who possess the education and experience we want to have in our department, and it will enhance the City's ability to recruit and retain qualified law enforcement officers by offering a competitive wage & benefit package. The 2nd and 3rd years of the contract call for a 3% increase on July 1st, which have already been projected into the budget and will not have any fiscal impact.
Background:	The City received notice that the Ashland Police Association would be decertifying from the Teamster's Union early in the spring of 2003. They selected the law firm of Garretson, Goldberg, Fenrich & Makler to represent their interests. After two formal bargaining sessions, we had cleaned up contract language and were down to only the economic issues of wages, insurance, and certification pay. The Association hadn't relied as heavily on comparator data as the City had, so they took some time to have a data analyst look at total compensation of comparators. When their data was ready a third bargaining session was scheduled to exchange updated wage proposals. At this time the City had reached a tentative agreement with the Ashland firefighters so the Police submitted a wage proposal that modeled closely after the fire agreement. When the City reviewed our updated comparator data, including settlements for Newberg and Redmond, our computations support the wage proposal brought forward by the Police Association with a 5% cost share on insurance. Overall, this package positions the police fairly among statutory-driven comparators, gives them incentive to achieve certification with the department, and provides refined contract language that clarifies current practice.

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