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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 2 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. 3 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. 4 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) 5