OK…we’re live! We’ve actually been here since 6pm but we’ve been wrapping up our examination of another site for a previous blog entry.
John Wylie showed up at 6:30 and Denny Whayne & Ralph Manley were close behind. All of them are making the handshaking rounds.
6:45pm … Where’s the peanut gallery?
6:46pm … In comes Cindy Rushefsky.
6:49pm … Mary Collette makes her entrance.
6:52pm … Hello Mr. Burlison and Mr. Chiles.
6:55pm … I inform Councilman Whayne of some bad news that the house I bought is in his zone and he will have to deal with me more than just on this blog. He smiled and said he thought it was great I was moving to that part of town.
6:58pm … Mayor Carlson arrives and strikes up a debate among the members about how quickly they’ll be done tonight.
7:00pm … Meeting is called to order with the pledge and a prayer by Councilman Wylie.
7:02pm … Basic opening meeting events like the roll call and the Mayor’s reminder that citizens need to turn in topic cards if they wish to speak on an issue. They voted 9-0 to pass the consent agenda.
7:04pm … Robert L. Jones sworn into the Traffic Advisory Board & Kristoffer Barefield to the Cable Advisory Commission. The Mayor thanked both for their willingness to serve their fellow citizens on these boards. The Mayor also gave thanks to everyone who serves on the 30+ boards in the city.
7:06pm … Bob Cumley reported that all questions from the council from the last meeting were answered. City employees raised 101% of their goal for the United Way (just over $110,000.) The contract agreement for Jordan Valley Community Health Center is progressing and he hopes to bring it to council by the next meeting on December 17th. They have successfully closed on the Heer’s building. Proceeds went to pay off the loan and the city is done with that part of the Heer’s tower. The legislative priority committee is sending a list to the council at the next meeting. (Cumley commented the December 17th meeting will be a big meeting.)
7:10pm … John Wylie announced that a week from Thanksgiving night Cindy Rushefsky and John Wylie will be having a joint town hall meeting for zone 2 and zone 4 at the Brentwood Library.
7:11pm … Council Bill 2007-363 and Council Bill 2007-364. The first council bill amends the rules to allow park rangers to be appointed conservators and the second gives the park rangers the right to enforce the laws. Councilman Burlison asked about the ranger qualifications. The answer was that these rangers are given the same training as other officers and are certified the same way as Sheriff’s deputies are certified. John Wylie announced he asked Jodie Adams of the Park Board to talk about the issue. Adams said that right now the rangers can give parking violations but this bill will allow the rangers to deal with conduct within the park, opening and closing hours and the ability to arrest. Adams said that the rangers have met 750 hours of training and are certified deputies that have been certified by Sheriff Jack Merritt. They are legal officers within Greene County.
Adams stated the parks system is more than three times the size it was over a decade ago. Adams says this gives them one more step of authority needed to help enforce the rules and reduce the need to pull officers away to help deal with issues within the parks. Councilman Chiles asked if the rangers were on the trunk system and can interact with other officers. Adams said yes. Chiles then asked about general safety of the parks. Adams said the parks are very safe and that they have been putting patrols out. They have also hired more part-time rangers to cover the growing system and they have also used Midwest Security to help with security issues.
Councilman Deaver asked for a short tutorial about how park rules and regulations are enacted. Adams gave the example that they close a park at 11pm and they have to go through and make sure people are out of the parks. They also go through and have to remove someone who is consuming alcohol in city parks against code. Deaver asked if park board sets policies and if council approves them and Adams said yes. Matt Coates, supervisor of Park Rangers, was present and pointed out by Deaver and Adams.
Councilwoman Rushefsky asked where people can find out what park regulations are and Adams replied they are available on the city’s website. Chapter 82 of the city code. Will be voted on in two weeks.
7:20pm … Council Bill 2007-365. A new lease with the Springfield R-12 School District regarding operation of the skate park. Councilman Chiles asked about rumors that the skate park was closing but he was assured that the park would remain open. Chiles asked if the bill was a change in management and the answer was this was just the rental agreement for the land. Councilman Burlison said that he had feedback from citizens and that there was a conflict with management under the old agreement and that he wanted to be more informed regarding the agreement. The answer was that the deal with the city and the school is for the land rental and that the Skate Park Association runs the park and the city is in confidential negotiations with them on that matter.
7:23pm … Council Bill 2007-366. This is taking the settlement with Sprint/NEXTEL and putting money into various items funded from the city general funds. $500,000 to overtime in the fire department, $250,000 to debt service (building funds for crime lab loan), $500,000 to the police/fire pension plan and the remaining $293,000 to an additional 1% salary increase for all employees to make their total increase in January 2008 a 3% increase. Councilman Burlison asked about the fire overtime money and said that he understood this action was because of the minimum wage law passed by voters. He said he knows “as a city we do not want to pay the overtime that this law requires.” He wants to know if they can take steps to avoid putting this money in reserve and take other steps if they can work with the firefighters who are not in favor of the overtime law as currently written. He wanted to know if this money could be put to something more productive. Bob Cumley said the short answer was no. Their legal team said that members of a fire department cannot be bound under any agreement that conflicts with the Federal Fair Labor laws. They cannot waive their own overtime if the law says they have to get it. Councilman Burlison said “so even if we came to an agreement with a majority of the firefighters it would not be binding with all the firefighters and therefore the settlement would be invalid.” The answer was yes.
Councilman Deaver said that the money is in escrow and if the city is successful in their lawsuit that they will have the funds available later and the answer was yes.
Robert Pitts spoke on the issue. He’s a Sergeant with the Springfield Police Department and spoke on behalf of the officers in attendance to thank them for their efforts in working with them and working hard for them. He said they appreciate the money they put in earlier this year and this money as well.
Tony Kelly, the President of the local Firefighters union, spoke in favor of the bill. He said they supported the 1% increase to city staff because 72% of city staff members ranked in the lowest third of pay when Springfield is compared to other cities of equal size. He felt that the $500,000 in escrow for the minimum wage law overtime agreement is unnecessary because it does not conflict with collective bargaining agreements and the law specifically says that they can collectively bargain already in regards to overtime. He said that once an agreement is reached then a member of their group could not sue individually for overtime because they are part of the group.
He wants to push the city into settling with the firefighters over the situation instead of waiting to see the outcome of the lawsuit.
Councilman Burlison asked if all members of the fire department were part of the bargaining unit. Kelly responded that right now all members are and would be in the future even if they were not part of the union.
Shawn Martin spoke to thank city management for their hard work on the telecom and thanked Mr. Cumley for his efforts to stand up against Sprint/NEXTEL. Mr. Martin strongly agreed that an employee cannot forgo their Fair Standards Act rights and that this overtime is at the state level and not the federal level so that they can set aside the state level and measure by the federal level. He wants the money now instead of waiting for a settlement later when it might cost more. He said the city should want to consider investing in the employees in a collective bargaining agreement. “We’re not asking for the right to be our own boss. We’re not asking for the right to call our own shots.”
Martin said it’s a million dollar problem with a thousand dollar solution. Councilman Burlison asked if they have to go “full-blown collective bargaining” to do this and if they need to create a memorandum of understanding for the deal. “How involved do we have to get here?” He asked if negotiations would last weeks or months and what the impediments would be for this. Martin said it would be as difficult or as simple as they want to make it. He said that if a rule wants to be changed they’re wanting to be consulted “and not necessarily veto it.” (Meaning they would have the power and not the city?) He said this would force mediation if there was an impasse. Burlison asked if we came to a memorandum of understanding what it does to the city in terms of the law. City attorney’s representative said they would have to get back to him on that.
Wylie asked if an agreement would give the rights they’re asking for and Bob Cumley said the firefighters already have that right under state law and that they already confer with the city. Cumley said that right now the council has the right to make changes to firefighters rules and the firefighters want to take that away from them and have it done via a mediator and the city council essentially loses their control of the fire department.
Cumley said true negotiations could take a year and not just months as suggested by the speakers.
Wylie said that he is the only union member on council and that when a mediator is brought in it’s not usually a good thing. He said the labor board in DC is not conducive to people in unions right now. Wylie said as a past union president and vice-president he was going to take his past experience into account while respecting Mr. Martin’s comments. Councilwoman Rushefsky asked if Mr. Martin was advocating a very limited agreement for mediation and Mr. Martin said that he was not sure if that was a collective bargaining agreement. Bob Cumley said that they would be open to an agreement maintaining the status quo if it would be a collective bargaining agreement.
Councilman Burlison asked what steps need to be taken to add this to their tool kit in regards to the lawsuit. Burlison said he was tempted to move to remove overtime from this bill because if both sides are in agreement. Cumley said that their legal advisor said it was not possible.
Mayor Carlson thanked the police and fire department who were present and said they’re working hard to fix issues. The Mayor said he was against collective bargaining with binding arbitration. He said the city spends 75% of the city’s budget on wages and benefits. The potential could be that the city proposes a 3% increase and the labor union says 6%. If they don’t agree, the mediator comes in and listens and then flies in and imposes a tax increase on the city by saying they have to put in a 4.5% increase. The citizens have a tax increase imposed by someone who does not live in the community and overrides their votes and their elected officials by saying “this is what you have to pay. Figure out how you can do it.”
The Mayor said once you’ve done that the power of the purse is gone and the council is reduced to a few zoning issues because how tax dollars are spent is given to someone not elected to serve the city. “The voters didn’t elect the arbitrator who came to town and decided how to spend their tax dollars,” Carlson said. “We need to go into [collective bargaining] with our eyes open as to what’s going on here.”
The Mayor doesn’t feel the taxpayers of Springfield would be in favor of a mediator telling them how their tax dollars were spent.
7:58pm … Mayor Carlson leaves and Mayor Pro Tem Gary Deaver takes over.
7:59pm … Council Bill 2007-372. Two houses are going to be built on the property and this provides easement. Councilman Burlison said he moved it from the consent agenda because he wanted a public display of this bill.
8:01pm … Council Bill 2007-379. This bill extends the rules and regulations for parking garages on the Jordan Valley car park to the other new parking garages in the city. Councilman Burlison said he moved it from the consent agenda because he wanted an explanation of the bill.
8:02pm … Mayor Carlson returns. All the previous bills are going to be brought up at the December 17th meeting.
8:03pm … Council Bill 2007-345. Annexation of property generally at 3810 E. Sunshine Street. The Mayor said they have had complaints from residents regarding the zoning of the land but they have to annex before they can zone something and that how they vote on annexation has nothing to do with the actual annexation of property. The Mayor said he feels no obligation for a zoning change even though he is voting for annexation because it is consistent with city policies. Councilman Deaver said that the city has had to do annexation in a peace-meal way because of the conservative city budget. He said this was a relatively common small annexation because “we can’t afford to do it any other way.”
Councilwoman Rushefsky wanted to note that she discovered that they have annexed 1,100 acres of property since January 2005. She pointed out the potential for additional services for those areas in a time where we are pressed to fulfill the needs of the community that we already serve. Rushefsky said that she sees no benefit to annexing this land to the city unless the rezoning is done to a commercial center that adds taxes. She said there are good reasons to not annex. First is that the land is surrounded by Greene County. Second is the “checkerboard” manner of annexation that can impact services. Third is the annexation is part of a bigger picture where the landowner wants to bring it in the city to raise value to sell to commercial development. She said the land has drainage issues that effect surrounding property. She said that the road is not equipped to handle additional traffic. She was also upset that only three of five Planning and Zoning members voted in favor. She said that she is not against annexation and development in general when it benefits the city but she is against it when it “devastates established neighborhoods and strains city resources.”
Councilwoman Collette said she tends to support the annexation. She said there has been problems in the past with Blackman Road being part city and part county. She said while she agrees with a lot of the sentiments of Councilwoman Rushefsky she thinks annexation could allow protect the land. Collette said she would vote against rezoning and the redevelopment of that property due to the complaints of the residents.
The vote was 7-2 with Burlison and Rushefsky voting no on the annexation.
8:14pm … An announcement of reappointments to boards. John Wylie moves for the council to have a closed session. Passed with a voice vote. Public session of the meeting was closed.
