Sam Teresi
JAMESTOWN – Mayor Sam Teresi and other city officials are still reserving comment on a recent arbitration ruling involving the collective bargaining agreement with the city police union.
Earlier this month a ruling was posted by the Public Employment Relations Board involving the arbitration decision with the Kendall Club police union, covering the years 2016 and 2017.
The ruling included a 2 percent salary increase for all police officers for each of those two years. As part of the pay-raise issue, the arbitration ruling also stated that the retroactive raise must be made to the members no later than Dec. 15, 2018. The panel also ruled that members of the union would see an increase in their monthly premium for health and dental insurance.
Following the announcement of the ruling, the city released a statement saying officials were in the process of reviewing the ruling and calculating the anticipated costs and the potential impact on past, current and future budget years. Until that could happen, officials were withholding comment on the matter.
The city council met in executive session on Monday night prior to its October voting session to discuss the matter and afterward Teresi said more information needs to be collected and given to the council before he’s ready to discuss the matter publicly.
“We had a brief discussion tonight in executive session and we have more information to get out to them that we’ll be discussing next week, again in executive session, to determine what – if any – further action the city will want to take on the decision that was issued by a 2 to 1 vote,” Teresi said.
Part of the process of weighing the possible options regarding the arbitration decision is knowing just how much it will cost the city, both for this year due to the retroactive payment ruling, as well as in future years.
“One of the things we’ll be doing [on Nov. 5] with the city council is giving a detailed outline as to what the projected impact is going to be on the 2019 city budget that they are working on right now. It’s considerable. We will be able to share those numbers next week as soon as we share them with the council. Also it’s difficult to project what the impact will be on the 2020 budget because there’s no indication as to what types of raises – through the negotiations, mediation, or potentially another arbitration process – would yield for the 2018 and 2019 budgets,” the mayor said, eluding to the fact the police union still doesn’t have a contract in place covering those two years.
While the mayor was unable to comment on the possible cost of the currently arbitration ruling, WRFA estimates that if the city were to honor the Dec. 15 deadline for the retroactive payment, it could mean an addition $400,000 or more added to this year’s expense line.
The arbitration decision not only has an impact on the police union, but may also weigh in on the city firefighters union (Jamestown Professional Firefighters Association), which is also without a contract and has not had one in place since the end of 2015.
The city council is currently reviewing the 2019 city budget, with a review of the police and fire budgets scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 5. That meeting is open to the public.
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