ORDER-2018-152 : An Appropriation from the Contract Stabilization Fund (84042-590000) in the amount of $103,750.00 to Fire, Salary and Wages (012211-511000) to fund year one of the new 3 year Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Transcript (~8 min @ 51:38)

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▶ 51:34 Scott M. Forbes: get a motion to recommend for passage made by alderman mortimer second second and by alderman

▶ 51:40 Speaker 7: Boisselle all those in favor aye any opposed motion passes be recommended before our next board meeting thank you very much thank you everyone okay next

▶ 51:53 Scott M. Forbes: order we have order number two zero one eight dash one five two it is an appropriation from the contract stabilization fund account number eight

▶ 52:02 Scott M. Forbes: four zero four two dash five nine zero zero zero zero in the amount of one hundred and three thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars to fire salary and wages account number zero one two two one one dash five one one zero zero zero to fund year one of the new three-year collective bargaining agreement motion

▶ 52:25 Scott M. Forbes: to suspend the rules mr. chairman I believe we already are under suspension

▶ 52:28 Peter D. Mortimer: the rules you know I'd like to have a ruling on that maybe from the president in past years we've done it both ways sometimes we have to suspend on each order sometimes we suspend it once for the entire committee but um for going forward for this year under your administration what would be the procedure on that mr president the rules are

▶ 52:44 Michael P. Zwirko: suspended during committee it holds for the duration of the committee i will withdraw my

▶ 52:48 Peter D. Mortimer: motion then thank you very much mr president thank you mr chairman i thank you alderman mortimer the

▶ 52:52 Speaker 7: rules are suspended mr van campen how are you well how are you mr chairman very well

▶ 53:00 Scott M. Forbes: you can please speak on behalf of the order before us we would appreciate it yes

▶ 53:02 Speaker 3: Yes. So this order, Mr. Chairman, is connected to funding the first year of the recently agreed upon fire contract. It is for the period encompassing July 1st, 2017 to June 30th, 2020. So the amounts you're seeing in the order, let me just get my numbers. the amount you're seeing in the order reflect the retroactive payments that would be due under the contract just by way of general background on the contract itself the city has come to terms with the fire union for a successor it is a two and a half percent cost of living adjustment each year for three years there are some additional benefits in this contract relating to vacation time the goal was to get the fire union in line with the vacation benefit that was being enjoyed by our police unions we invested in some educational incentive increases because Mayor Inferno and Chief Leary remain committed to ensuring the most professional firefighters that we can get so we were willing to enhance those benefits and there were some changes to work schedules that are to the benefit of the city so that's the agreement a nutshell the contract stabilization fund um has a balance currently of six hundred eight thousand ninety one dollars and thirty seven cents and assuming this is approved this evening that stabilization fund will have a remaining balance of five hundred and four thousand three hundred and forty one dollars and thirty seven cents and the ambulance free cash reserve fund has a current balance of 142 587 and if this order is passed the remaining balance there would be a hundred and twelve thousand six hundred and eighty seven thousand eighty

▶ 54:59 Scott M. Forbes: seven dollars thank you sir for that information first in line I do have

▶ 55:05 Michael P. Zwirko: presidents work oh thank you mr. chairman I said two quick questions so there is a component of this transaction here that is retroactive is that correct you said it's back from 2017 up to 2020 june of 2020 correct and then the other question i had and i apologize if i didn't hear it does it is it just in terms of the benefits you had mentioned um shoring up for equity between police and fire on vacation is anything that has to do with either equipment or gear or training no not in this round of bargaining okay thank you those

▶ 55:38 Speaker 4: all the questions I had. Thank you. Alderman Lipper-Garabedian, by a nose.

▶ 55:41 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: Thank you for being here and for walking us through this. Just for my own edification and then for the folks watching at home, the order before us is to appropriate money pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement that the firefighters union and the city have negotiated, but we as a board don't actually have that document in front of us. It's not considered public yet and so we are being asked to adhere to the terms that the executive branch has negotiated with a union and appropriate money which is our responsibility is that a fair summary correct so the mayor is responsible for

▶ 56:15 Speaker 3: serving as the bargaining agent for the city of Melrose with all city unions and the Board of Aldermen is responsible to fund to the extent it deems it prudent to fund those agreements and the reason why you don't have the contract attached to the order is because i don't it's not it's not integrated to include the recently agreed upon terms so that's why it's not attached to your order but what i would tell you and the members of the board and the public is all of our contracts as i understand it once they're executed are posted on the city's website so if any member of the general public wants to see what terms have been agreed upon they can go to the city's website for that obviously a collective bargaining agreement with the public union is a public record at the end of the day so and is is the execution

▶ 57:00 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: in some ways contingent on us appropriating money is that sort of correct if the board shows not to

▶ 57:07 Speaker 3: fund the um fund these two orders tonight um essentially it would it would require mayor inferno to go back to the bargaining table and notify the fire union that we just didn't get permission from the board to culminate the deal so we have to go back to the drawing board and

▶ 57:26 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: and figure out a better way okay and maybe my last question is it's helpful to have a sense of some of the um the terms that have been negotiated and one that struck me as interesting as the education incentive increases given my background in education policy and i'm wondering if you can speak at all a little bit more in detail about what that looks like are those for degree granting programs are those for certifications i know the role of firefighters have changed tremendously that they do a lot more for us than just putting out fires um so i'm wondering what kind of

▶ 57:56 Speaker 3: programs we're thinking about so these incentives um these incentives are for members of the bargaining unit who have various levels of formal education an associate's degree a bachelor's degree and a master's degree these incentives have been in the fire contract for some time they're kind of analogous to the quinn bill on the police side but they're not as it's not as structured as that so for example the associates benefit will be increased by $500 the bachelors benefit will increase by 500 and the masters will increase by 750 today I think maybe 50% I might misspeak on this Alderman so I don't want to but there's not a majority of members of the fire department that have formal degrees so the goal here is to try to is to try to attract more that do by increasing these benefits and as you know we're an EMS based fire department where we spend more time helping people on an emergency medical basis rather than putting out fires thank God not thank God that we're helping people on an emergency medical basis but you know we that's the sort of the driving force of the fire department now so the more highly educated our firefighters are the more you know successful our department will be thank you mr. chairman I make a