11/06/1996 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 11/6/96 approximately 50% income tax and 50% property tax. This balance is preferable because there are not problems with shifts in the economy which cause real problems as far as the ability to pay the debt service on bonds. Also, the fact that the city has 11.1 mills is a very unusual feature for a municipal corporation. All in all, the presentations went well. We explained that we did the things that had to be done because things were broken and we fixed them. We were not there to apologize for that. We were there to tell our story and felt that there are many communities, some being our neighbors, that may go into the next year with a hefty balance but have impassable streets. The challenge for City Council and the administration will be to maintain what has been done. 2) The city is currently having problems with AFSCME regarding the classification of employees as "confidential" employees. On Monday, apre-hearing was held in Columbus to determine the classification of the AFSCME unit and how many secretaries in the Police Department should be excluded. The administration feels that two secretaries in the Police Department are confidential employees who do work with collective bargaining and should be excluded from the unit. 3) A case management conference was held in Common Pleas Court with regard to the two AFSCME employees who filed a grievance after they had gone through the appeal process for pre-certification with J. P. Farley. Instead of following that procedure, the employees decided to file for arbitration. He has filed a motion for declaratory judgment. 4) There is a continuing problem with the firefighters hospitalization dispute that went to conciliation. The conciliator found in the city's favor and indicated that the city should have a uniform policy of health care. The firefighters union has filed a grievance and is now asking for arbitration indicating that some non-union administrative personnel have better benefits than the firefighters. They contend the city should find a different way of calculating what the expected cost is going to be for hospitalization coverage because they pay 8% of the expected cost. Both the city and the union have agreed to a bargaining process which includes bargaining collectively, mediation, fact-finding and, as a last resort, conciliation. This issue was resolved in conciliation, which is binding. He is currently researching the aspect of filing an unfair labor practice against the firefighters union because he honestly believes that they have no right to take this matter to arbitration. 5) We are in the process of having the case dropped which deals with the Olmsted Township man, who is over 35 years of age, and claimed age discrimination because he was not allowed to take the firefighters examination. Our Civil Service rules provide that individuals over the age of 3 5 cannot receive an original appointment. In 1994, a provision in federal law dealing with age discrimination expired. This provision had exempted municipal firefighters and police employees from the 40-year-old EEOC provision for age discrimination. In September, President Clinton signed a law which restored this provision retroactively to 1994. Mr. McKay asked the Law Director whether the secretaries who will be considered confidential and therefore lose their union protection would be protected under Civil Service. Mr. Gareau answered that the Police Department secretaries would be covered under Civil Service. However, secretaries to directors are not covered under either the union or Civil Service. Mayor Boyle commented that no director's secretary is a union """" member. Further, he wished to emphasize that most of the Law Director's report 3 ..., .~,_..,..~.. ~~.~„~k,.r .....~_