Minutes 07-16-03MINUTES OF THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF FIREMEN AND OILERS,
BLUE COLLAR, AND THE CITY OF BOYNTON BEACH, COLLECTIVE
BARGAINING SESSION, HELD ON WEDNESDAY, JULY 16, 2003 AT 11:30
A.M. IN CONFERENCE ROOM B, CITY HALL, BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA
Present:
For NCF&O:
John Lockhart
Michael Taylor
Sharon Munley
Rick Smith
Richard Stone
Don Roberts
Shop Steward, Utilities
Union Steward, Local 1227
President, Local 1227
Union Steward, Utilities
Union Steward, Utilities
Union Steward, Public Works and Parks Department
For the City:
Arthur Lee
Director of Human Resources
Opening and Introduction
Mr. Lee convened the meeting at 11:35 a.m. and thanked everyone for attending.
He explained that the negotiations would be taking a different course from prior
years. The City Attomey will no longer be participating in the sessions. The
chief negotiators will now be Wilfred Hawkins and Mr. Lee. Because Mr.
Hawkins is out ill, he is not present today.
Topics of Discussion
Mr. Lee would like to (1) establish the ground rules, (2) determine the negotiating
teams, (3) set the schedule for the negotiations and (4) establish what the parties
would like to accomplish at the negotiation sessions.
With regard to the teams, Mr. Wilfred Hawkins and Mr. Arthur Lee are the
primary negotiators. A Recording Secretary from the City Clerk's Office will
always be present to record the proceedings. The Recording Secretaries will not
participate in the negotiations. The other members of the team will be the City
Attorney and Department Heads. If the City Attorney's presence is required at a
session, the Union representatives will be advised of this in advance The team
will be more flexible than in the past and if a particular Department Head is
needed for a specific section of the contract, that Department Head, or his
designee, will be requested to sit in on the meeting.
Meeting Minutes
Blue Collar Collective Bargaining Session
Boynton Beach, FL
July 16, 2003
Mr. Lee requested that the Union identify their team.
Ms. Munley stated that she would be the chief negotiator, along with Mr. Smith,
and the remainder of the team will consist of the Stewards from the various blue-
collar departments. Sometimes they will all be present and other times there
may be specific Stewards present. Ms. Munley requested that they be permitted
to retain their ability to bring in their attorney, if needed. Ms. Munley said that if
this were the case, they would advise the City of this in advance.
Mr. Lee requested that he be furnished with a specific list of the Union Stewards
and Ms. Munley said that she would furnish this.
Other Participants
Mr. Lee noted that the meetings are open meetings and other persons can
attend. It needs to be determined to what extent those persons would be allowed
to participate in the negotiation sessions. Mr. Lee would only like the persons at
the table to participate in the sessions and that people in the audience not be
permitted to speak. If someone wished to communicate some information during
the negotiations, Mr. Lee requested that the lead negotiators bring this to the
table.
Ms. Munley responded that she and Mr. Smith would do the talking and the other
members would ask for a caucus if they wanted to speak with the chief
negotiators.
Caucusinq
Mr. Lee noted that there would be no time limit on caucusing, as was the past
practice. The City is amenable to allowing the Union representatives to have as
much time as they need to caucus, which would also apply to the City.
Presentin.q Proposals
Mr. Lee noted that in the past the Union has always presented a proposal to the
City and the City has come back with a counter-proposal after a certain amount
of time. Mr. Lee would prefer that both parties bring their proposals to the table.
He is not prepared to discuss any proposals today, since Mr. Hawkins was not
present. Ms. Munley agreed to this arrangement.
Tentative Aqreements (TA)
Mr. Lee inquired if the Union representatives would prefer to TA each article as it
is addressed, rather than TA the entire contract after it has been reviewed. Ms.
Munley would prefer to TA each article when it is completed and requested that
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Meeting Minutes
Blue Collar Collective Bargaining Session
Boynton Beach, FL
July 16, 2003
this procedure remain in place. Mr. Lee agreed with this. Ms. Munley would
also like to reserve the right to readdress an article if it was necessary and Mr.
Lee agreed with this as well.
Executive Sessions
Mr. Lee noted that they must keep the Commission apprised of the bargaining
discussions and the Commission is the body that makes the final decision, which
is normally done in Executive Session. Ms. Munley asked if this has already
been done and Mr. Lee stated that it has not.
Ms. Munley inquired when the parties exchange proposals, would the approval of
the Commission have to be obtained. Mr. Lee was not sure on this. He said that
he and Mr. Hawkins would be meeting with the City Manager prior to furnishing
the Union with the City's proposal.
Transcripts of the meetings will be furnished to the Union. Ms. Munley was
pleased that there would be minutes taken. This would afford them an
opportunity to correct anything in the minutes that is not exactly what they
intended and will help them stay aware of what they had agreed to. There was a
consensus among the Union representatives to proceed along these lines.
Schedule for Negotiations
The City would like to make this a smooth and continuous process until an
agreement on the contract is attained and the City is prepared to put in whatever
hours are necessary to accomplish this.
Discussion ensued on when the parties could all be present to meet and after
discussion it was determined that Thursdays would be the best day. Ms. Munley
pointed out that on next Thursday (July 24th) the white-collar session has already
been scheduled to meet. The parties agreed to meet on Friday, July 25,
2003 at 1:00 p.m., at which time proposals would be exchanged. Mr. Lee will
determine the location and advise the parties of this.
Mr. Lee also stated that it would be necessary to have a Recording Secretary
present on Thursday, July 24th at 1:00 p.m. for the white-collar negotiations.
It was then agreed that the parties would meet every Thursday at 1:00
p.m., beginning July 31, 2003 through the end of August with the
place to be determined.
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Meeting Minutes
Blue Collar Collective Bargaining Session
Boynton Beach, FL
July 16, 2003
ExchanQe of Proposals
Ms. Munley would like to exchange proposals on Friday, July 25th, and she
thought that it might be necessary to have three or more sessions where they
may want to bring something else forward. Mr. Lee did not have an issue with
this. Ms. Munley inquired if a date certain should be set to present final
proposals. It was suggested that August 28th would be the date to submit final
proposals. Mr. Lee noted that these dates still need to be confirmed with Mr.
Hawkins.
Summary
Mr. Lee would like to look at the entire contract, article-by-article, since there
have been so many past language issues with the contract. He would like to
avoid these types of situations happening again and he would like the contract to
be clear-cut and definitive. He felt it was important that everything be put in
writing to avoid confusion over certain issues in the future. He specifically felt that
the articles dealing with vacation, grievance procedure and leave policies allow
too much room for interpretation and need to be specifically explained.
Mr. Lee would also like to see where PPM language could be incorporated into
the contract so that one set of rules could be administered. This was not a big
issue with the white-collar contract, because a lot of the PPM language was
incorporated into their contract.
Mr. Stone inquired if there were any proposed changes in the PPM or the City
pay plan because this is a City Commission future agenda item. Mr. Lee said that
the PPM is not ready and will not make the date as stated on the agenda. Mr.
Lee was not sure how many changes there would be, but did not think there
would be that many. With regard to the pay plan, the salary ranges are currently
being looked at and the City is trying to update all this information because it has
not been done for a while.
Ms. Munley thought that the contract already contained language that if the two
documents differed, the PPM would take precedence. Mr. Lee said that this
language was not present in the contract. Ms. Munley was not certain how this
could be incorporated into the contract and felt it needed further studying. She
also noted that the current contract does not have a "prevailing practice clause"
or "maintenance of benefits" clause, which means if they forgot something in the
contract, such as not getting your turkey on Thanksgiving, people would still get
their turkey.
Mr. Lee will check on the scheduling of the dates with Mr. Hawkins and will get
back with Ms. Munley as soon as possible.
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Meeting Minutes
Blue Collar Collective Bargaining Session
Boynton Beach, FL
July 16, 2003
There being no further business, the collective bargaining session concluded at
12:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Barbara M. Madden
Recording Secretary
(July 18, 2003)
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