03/06/2007 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Council Minutes of 3/6/2007 residential for commercial use. Cuyahoga County Common Pleas agreed with the city and entered judgment for the city. Halleen took an appeal to the Court of Appeals on this issue. • City of North Olmsted v. IAFF Local 1267 -Appeal (motion to vacate) from award of arbitrator Carrie Donald in favor of the union on the issue of whether aside-agreement between former Chief Bak and the union, surrendering management's right to determine how many fire fighters may be off on a given day, draws its essence from the parties' collective bazgaining agreement. Reply briefs on the merits of the case were recently filed by both parties. There is also a procedural skirmish occurring. Although it's a statutory proceeding calling for motions to vacate and/or confirm, the union has filed a motion for default judgment contending that the city should have filed an "Answer" to its motion (styled as a counterclaim) to confirm. The city has responded by filing a motion to strike the motion for default judgment. The court is in the process of scheduling hearing dates for these motions. • IAFF Local 1267 grievance arbitration on the issue of the meaning of "hours worked." The city received an adverse arbitration award last week from arbitrator Ruben in this grievance arbitration, which raised the issue of whether "hours worked" in the collective bargaining agreement meant "hours actually worked." The contract indicates that fire fighters qualify for overtime when they have worked more than 24 hours in a 72 hour period. The arbitrator wrote a 52 page opinion, which explored a number of legal theories, and concluded that the word "worked" as used in the fire fighter contract doesn't mean "actually worked," because the city for the last twenty years has paid fire fighters overtime whenever they were called in on a day off-regardless of whether they had worked 24 hours in the last 72. He is presently consulting with the Mayor whether this award should be appealed, keeping in mind that awards should not be appealed if it may reasonably be said that they draw their essence from the collective bazgaining agreement. Councilman Gareau asked if the affect of that awazd is that paid time off is not included in the calculation of overtime. Law Director Dubelko said the city will continue to do business the same way it has done for a number of years. Finance Director Copfer: 1) She has been participating in the budget hearings and helping obtain the information from the administration in response to Council's request for follow- up information. 2) She was concerned after reading the Feb 16, 2007 Ohio Municipal League bulletin on estate tax elimination. They are preparing to fight to protect our local government fund from being further reduced or stagnant. We must protect what revenue streams we have that fund the General Fund or we will be forced to make even tougher choices. 3) She made a "Finance 101" presentation to the Recreation Commission last evening. There was a lot of mis-information she was able to clear up so the commission members would have a better understanding of the finances of not only the Recreation Fund, but how it fits in with the city funds and needs. Additionally, the appropriations process and budgetary compliance were reviewed. Councilman Gareau, chairperson of the Building, Zoning and Development Committee: 1) The committee met at 6:47 p.m. on February 28, 2007. In attendance were committee members Orlowski, Miller and Gareau; Council members Tallon, Barker and Jones; Mayor 4