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Minutes 06-19-08 CONTRACT NEGOTIATION MEETING BETWEEN IAFF LOCAL 1891 AND THE CITY OF BOYNTON BEACH, HELD ON WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 2008 AT 2:00 P.M. IN THE CONFERENCE ROOM FIRE STATION NO.2, BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA Present: For the City: For the Union: Ray Carter, Deputy Chief of Operations Sharyn Goebelt, Director, Human Resources Lt. Dean Kinser, President Lt. Robert Kruse, Vice President Lt. Larry Lederhandler, Treasurer Lt. Thomas Murphy, Jr., Secretary Miguel Reyes, Executive Board Member Shawn Weeks, Executive Board Member Opening Ray Carter, Deputy Chief of Operations, opened the meeting at 2:04 p.m. and distributed copies of the City's proposals in IBB form. Article 1 - RecoQnition The change would eliminate the Battalion Chief in Section 1 and eliminate all of section 1 A. The proposal would spell out who was excluded from the bargaining unit, and would maintain the article as it had been in the past. The Battalion Chief was previously included in the article when they added it mid-term in the last contract. The proposal would exclude that position. The Union was fine with the change and would TA the article. Chief Bingham would handle the agreement aspects of the articles. Article 25 - Educational Incentive Deputy Carter explained the proposal updated the article. The sections and dates that would be updated were included on the bottom of the proposal. The proposed strikethrough language would ensure the benefit continued through the duration of the agreement. The reason for the language strikethroughs was there previously was a mid-term contract change where the City matched the incentive pay in the last year of the contract. There were no comments received from the Union regarding this article. Article 41 - Duration Deputy Carter explained the date should read October 1, 2008 to September 2011 and March 1, 2011 and April 1, 2011. These were benchmark dates for notification to the members. There were no comments received from the Union regarding this article. Article 12 - Group Insurance Deputy Carter explained this article would likely entail some discussion and advised the City had been entertaining prices and bids, and was reviewing insurance policies for city-wide health insurance. It was explained there may 1 Meeting Minutes IAFF Negotiation Session Boynton Beach, Florida June 19, 2008 be recommendations for changes regarding the level of benefits, types of benefits, carriers or others. Article 12 was very specific in that the level of benefits shall not be reduced. The City wanted to include language, similar to all three Police contracts and the Blue Collar contract, which allowed the City to negotiate. Sharyn Goebelt, Human Resources Director, explained the cost for insurance was anticipated to increase 9.6%. The Union explained with the impending City recommendations, if the Union signed off, they would be waiving their right to impact bargaining, and over the past five years, they incurred a 50% increase in the cost of health insurance. The Union members discussed insurance was crucial to the firefighting profession. The Union's thoughts were firefighters were exposed to many hazards and their health insurance should be at a greater level. It was acknowledged the City would be moving towards one plan. Ms. Goebelt explained the major change was they approved a new vendor where the City would be paying a flat fee, and members would not be paying anything towards the benefit consultant. By using one vendor, the co-pay would be $10 for regular doctor visits, $20 for specialists, and there would be no increase in the cost for dependent coverage. She advised it was an outstanding plan, providing excellent benefits. If things proceeded as they were, there would be a 9.6% increase but there would be no change in the level of service. The parties acknowledged health insurance was a national problem. The Union explained if they signed off on the plan, there could be an increase next year. Ms. Goebelt explained there were two issues. The first issue was the way the language was written, the cost could change. The second issue was what the City could do to address health care and to also address the $9M deficit the City was facing. She acknowledged the Unions concerns. The parties discussed the City was paying a blended rate. There were no figures for a non-blended rate, but the City last year split out the dependant rates, because the more expensive PPO affected the rate of dependent costs for the less expensive plans. The City was also spinning off as many retirees as possible onto a Medicare Blue Plan, so their claims experience would not be included with the City's claims experience. This would be a win-win for both the City and the retirees. Moving over to the one plan is what would ensure there would be no increase, but if things stayed the same, there would be a 9.6% increase on October 1. Ms. Goebelt explained it was a tough situation to be in. Lt. Kinser explained they could not commit to anything without seeing the figures. Ms. Goebelt explained she provided the latest numbers and requested hearing the Union's solution. Deputy Carter explained the City wanted to bring the proposal forward, and the City's recommendations. He explained he wanted the members to be aware of what direction the City was moving in. Dean Kinser, Union President, explained the Union had a partial solution which was, in Section 1 B, Article 12, for the firefighters to leave the City's insurance and start their own insurance fund. He explained they sent members to classes and met with an 2 Meeting Minutes IAFF Negotiation Session Boynton Beach, Florida June 19, 2008 attorney regarding an insurance fund. They also met with a third party insurance administrator and the Union would become self-insured, with stop-loss calculations incorporated. In order for the Union to proceed, they needed the last three years claims for the fire department. Ms. Goebelt explained they tried to obtain that information from Blue Cross, but the information is not tracked by position. The underwriter was even contacted for the information, and Ms. Goebelt was advised the data was not available. Ms. Goebelt requested the Union send her a letter requesting the information and she would forward it to the consultants. She added Human Resources had asked repeatedly for the information. Presently, claims were not separated out by departments; however, if codes were put in place, they could start tracking the information for the future. The Union did not feel that information was accurate. Ms. Goebelt explained the new firm was a large firm and they were planning on conducting an analysis of what the City had. She felt that would assist the City significantly. They had an actuary, an attorney and other personnel to assist when needed. Twenty percent of their fee would be put at risk and they would not be paid until they did all they committed to do. Having a new vendor saved the City $30K. Lt. Kinser explained if they cannot obtain the last three years claims for the fire department, they would be placed in a blanket category that would be higher. The Union was reviewing starting their own insurance fund and would forward the provider information to Ms. Goebelt when it was received. The State Association of Professional Firefighters was establishing its own fund which other municipalities could join. This effort was tried on a national level but network providers did not go across state lines. West Palm Beach, Boca Raton and others already had their own fund. The deductions and the checks would be issued by the City. Ms. Goebelt explained the new vendor would provide quarterly reports. Mr. Kinser had a rough draft proposal for Article 12 that explained that the fund would be set up. Deputy Carter and Ms. Goebelt reviewed Union salary comparisons and found some discrepancies. Deputy Carter distributed the City's numbers put together by an HR Analyst and Deputy Carter made copies of his notes about each discrepancy contained in the table. The original pay table and the review put together by Deputy Carter and Ms. Goebelt were compared side by side and the table was reviewed by job position. Deputy Carter requested confirmation under Firefighter I in Boca Raton that the starting and maximum salary included EMT pay. Mr. Kinser responded that was correct and he included that information at the bottom of the page. The starting EMT pay and top out EMT pay was different. This verified Deputy Carter's question and proved the numbers almost exact to the dollar. The West Palm Beach salaries and all the pay scales for West Palm were for years 08- 09. Mr. Kinser explained West Palm had a calculation for April of this year. Deputy 3 Meeting Minutes IAFF Negotiation Session Boynton Beach, Florida June 19, 2008 Carter suggested using Boynton Beach's numbers for 07/08 and comparing it to what they have in West Palm Beach's contract for 07/08 to see if they match up. It was noted with the exception of West Palm Beach, all other parties on the list had current numbers. In Palm Beach Gardens, it appeared the Firefighter pay the Union reflected was about $1,500 higher on the maximum pay and $650 lower on the minimum pay compared to what Boynton had. Ms. Goebelt explained they were working ranges, and Deputy Carter wanted to ensure they were not missing anything such as EMT pay. Delray Beach's figures were different as well as they pertained to starting pay and maximums. The Union agreed to revisit those figures. Driver Engineers, a.k.a. DOE (Driver Operator Engineer) were discussed, which was an equivalent to Firefighter II pay range. The Union confirmed that was correct. Deputy Carter inquired where a Firefighter III member would come into play. The City's Firefighter Ills were DOEs as well. The Firefighter II pay range at the starting point was appropriate but it was thought it should include the maximum for the Firefighter III category since it included DOEs. Lt. Kinser explained the City was unique in that regard. The requirements to become a driver were the same requirements the City had for Firefighter II, but in order to advance to the III range, other departments did not need to meet the educational qualifications required for the City's III classification. Other fire departments would need additional educational requirements that the drivers did not need. The City's Firefighter III pay range was predicated on it being a step above a Step-Up Officer which was thought to be appropriate. Other departments, however, use their senior Driver Engineers, most of whom had tested and passed promotional exams, but served as driver engineers. Using that rationale, Boynton should compare the top end of the pay range for Firefighter III to the top end of their Driver Engineer. This would change the maximum for the City by about $3,400 for Driver Engineer. The Union would review this further. There were other discrepancies noted such as for Riviera Beach which had lower figures for minimum and maximums than Boynton Beach's, and which was not typical. The Boca Raton figures listed were $6,500 higher for the minimum and $10,500 higher for the maximum. Deputy Carter inquired why the salaries were so much higher and thought it included more than just EMT pay being added. Delray Beach was also higher than the City's figures by $3K on the minimums and $1,800 on the maximums. Lake Worth and Riviera Beach had figures for Captains which were comparable to Lieutenants. Promotions were from a Driver to a Captain, and then from Captain in Lake Worth would move to Shift Commander. The Captain was a Company Officer. It was noted the EMT Captain had the same pay as a Company Captain. Lt. Kinser did not know the basis for their pay ranges. Those Captains were the same as the City's Lieutenants. 4 Meeting Minutes IAFF Negotiation Session Boynton Beach, Florida June 19, 2008 The figures for Drivers and Lieutenants in the minimum and maximum ranges for Palm Beach County were the same but the Union would re-verify the figures to ensure they were given the correct pay ranges. The City noted Riviera Beach and Lake Worth had not provided figures for Lieutenants. Boca Raton had higher figures and it was not known if they included paramedic pay in those pay ranges. In the Battalion Chief category, Boca Raton was an exact match for the drivers. Delray Beach did not provide anything for shift commanders, there were Battalion Chiefs and Deputy Carter was curious why the figures did not show up. The Battalion Chiefs in the County were a rank above the City's Battalion Chiefs. Deputy Carter thought the figures were high, but thought it was an inappropriate comparison because it was not the same job; Battalion Chiefs were used differently in the County. The Union would re-verify those numbers. There were no figures given for Battalion Chief for West Palm Beach. The figures were from a separate contract. Deputy Carter hoped the numbers could be reconciled within the next few meetings so the parties could use the same comparison numbers. Battalion Chiefs in Delray were called 120s and were included in the contract. The workweeks would be reviewed as well and Boca Raton was the only locale that had a different work week, which was one day on and three days off. Lt. Kinser inquired if the City considered the Union's sick time proposal. Deputy Carter responded they were still trying to identify the cost. As far as the insurance proposal with .5% paid to the fund in year two and .5% in year three, Deputy Carter advised that based on current pay, the figures would be $44,766 for year two and $96,829 for year three, and over the course of the contract, would be about $140K in addition to the present cost. There was no further discussion and the next meeting was set for July 9 at 9:30 a.m. The meeting was closed at 3:25 p.m. (!CL~iU/YlC ~/~k!~~ Catherine Cherry ~ Recording Secretary 5