11/20/2001 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 11/20/2001 Director Copfer and Safety Director Jenkins, and any other persons the directors feel are appropriate, are asked to attend. At this point in the meeting, a long discussion on a number of topics occurred: • Councilman Limpert said he would highly recommend to not be a waste of everyone's time when these meetings are held that people come prepared and share information. The meeting with the firefighters was nothing more than a waste of time and a beauty pageant. Nobody came prepared with any study as far as NFPA 1710, which is of major concern. There was no discussion on Council like that. No one has done any survey work with the exception of what he brought in as far as what other fire departmerns are staffing with. Council President Saringer said she disagreed with Mr. Limpert. She had the report in her possession that evening, but did not see anyone else have it. The firefighters had sent a letter to the administration and were ignored. They brought the issue to Council in an effort to get something started on their issue. Mayor Musial said he believed the letter was a request to hire 12 additional firefighters over a period of time. That is a very, very complex Jiff cult question to answer because it involves priorities, it involves financial resources, it involves a careful study, which is being done. Until that is done, there will not be a response yea or nay. President Saringer said he has to start somewhere. With the world situation what it is today, she hopes he takes the firefighters' needs, and also the Police Departmern's, into consideration. • Law Director Gareau said he would simply suggest to all of the members of Council, and he has also advised the members of the administration on more than one occasion, to not discuss and make promises and look into minimum staffing levels. That is solely within management rights. The firefighters and the safety forces are not the only employee groups. If minimum staffing levels are established and the income tax revenue falls, we could wind up with no Service Department. These are very complicated matters. President Saringer said she realized that and had specifically mentioned that in the beginning of her report. Councilwoman Kasler assured Law Director Gareau that Council was very aware of that situation ahead of time. There were no promises made before, during or after that meeting it was made very clear at the onset of that meeting that this was not a negotiation issue, this was not a collective bargaining matter. Council was not there to hear that at all. The issue, the very, very narrow issue that was here that evening was that a letter was sent to the administration. An employee group, it doesn't matter who they are, came to this body (Council) and said, "We sent a letter, we got no answer." They came to Council, and what Council did was feed it right back to the administration where it belongs. Law Director Gareau said he has been troubled by these matters in the past. There have actually been grievances alleging the city has minimum staffing levels that we cannot go beyond and it is out of the administration's hands with respect to that. He does not agree with that. Those are things that Ohio law doesn't agree with. Mrs. Kasler said it was made very, very clear that it was definitely a policy issue. Council asked what the firefighters question was and when it was brought to the administration. Council's advice back was that the issue should be talked about and the employees given an answer. Law Director Gareau said, obviously, it is within Council's purview to come up with the dollars to do it if they think it can be done. 11 f ~