09/06/2005 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 9/6/2005 6) Matt O'Donnell, 20299 Westover Avenue, Rocky River, vice president of Local 1267. Ron is an individual who is willing to risk life or limb. He wants to go and help his fellow Americans. The union would like to see him go. Unfortunately, they cannot agree to allow staffing to drop to 9. Just impossible. They agree that overtime is anissue-absolutely. He can also guarantee that Ron Prebis going down to the south will not cause any overtime. He has taken his vacation time to cover into the end of October. Either he is on vacation or they will have members from the Fire Dept. covering his shift. No overtime will be incurred to the city due to Ron Prebis being in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi-it's a guarantee. Now will there be overtime on some of those shifts he may have worked? Absolutely. He can't control people getting injured or sick. But Ron being on vacation will not cause that overtime. He can guarantee that no increased overtime will be incurred by the city while Ron is down there. 7) Ted Vance, 4561 Broadale, Cleveland, Ohio, a Lieutenant and a 23 year veteran of the North Olmsted Fire Department, thanked Ron Prebis for volunteering his time. To the administration, he says shame for trying to politicize this. This is about people needing help, and they are not letting a brother of his go down and help those people. 8) John Davis, 5862 Barton Road, executive board member of union, said there are provisions in the contract to cover this situation. The city sends people for training all the time; and, if something happens, they cover with overtime. Now the country is in a state of emergency, and the city is playing a political game. In his opinion, the administration does not want to honor agreements if it isn't in their best interests. Mayor O'Grady said what Mr. O'Donnell said was what the administration wants to hear about overtime. He suggested everyone get together tomorrow and talk this over and get it done. Mr. O'Donnell clarified that he did not say there would not be any overtime. What he is saying is that the city will not incur any additional overtime than what it would have had Ron not been off on vacation somewhere else. He's using. his vacation time. He's one of the four men off on a regular basis. His being off does not incur any overtime. 9) Tom Klecan, Fire Chief, said with regard to vacation time, once the city agrees to deploy these two members, the city assumes all responsibility for them. In his opinion, the provisions of the contract will then kick in. Yes, Mr. Prebis is on vacation. Technically when he goes down there, he'll be on vacation and should get paid overtime, by contract, for all 12 of the hours he works each day. FEMA will not reimburse for that. They will only reimburse 8 hours of his regular time and 4 hours of overtime. Additionally, should issues arise where we have to maintain staffing, he would not be available to the city for that period of time. Those costs would be incurred. There is also some question as to the Fair Labor Standards Act and what can be paid with regards to federal law. While this issue seems to be out in the open as very simple and not complex, it is a complex issue with many sections of the contract coming into play and possibility for potential additional money spent in the long term. Nobody can guarantee that there won't be any money spent at this point in time. If that were the case, he thinks the decision would have already been made. 19