02-01-11 City of La Porte Meet and Confer Committee Meeting minutes

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The LPPOA would like to see the officers go to Median+2%, which is estimated to costs $287,239.71. The Chief advised there would not be enough for this type of increase along with the other items the Association would like to see included in the contract which also affect salary (such as double time for "force overtime", court time and additional incentives). The Association discussed possibly going to the median now and trying to budget for the additional increases next year. The Chief advised that anything was a possibility but would be subject to where the City's finances were in the future, which is hard to predict, especially with the unsure nature of our current national economy. The Chief then discussed how just a median + 1 % increase would move the patrol officers into the top 70t\ 80th percentile and supervisors into the top 60th and 70th percentile of the cities surveyed. Again, however, the Chief mentioned that it would be difficult for the City to fund such a large pay increase on-top of the over $50,000 in other monetary concessions the Association was asking for. The Chief asked the Association to prioritize its demands, saying that both sides may be trying to accomplish too much in a single contract. The Association called a caucus at 5:25 p.m. and returned at 5:35 p.m. Upon returning from the caucus, the Association stated they would like to utilize the existing contract provisions and ask the city only to bring officers back into the median rate of pay. The new contract, however, would expire in April 2012 and City and the Association would come back to the table starting December, 2011, where they would again take up many of the same issues that the group had been discussing over the past two months. The Association advised they would like to see them go to the median at this point, effective April 1, 2011, with 3% difference between the ranks. The estimated cost is $160,483.43. The Chief advised that the City will verify the dollar figure and that the City would be open to such an arrangement. The consensus was that the Association and the City could use the next year to flesh-out the various proposals that had been made over the last two months and gain a better idea of where the City's budget might stand in the coming years. The Chief advised that the City would have a draft agreement, with the new proposed wage scale, ready for the next meeting. IV. SET DATE AND TIME FOR NEXT MEET AND CONFER COMMITTEE MEETING The next meeting will be held February 8, 2011 at 4:00 p.m. V. COMMITTEE COMMENTS a) Matters appearing on the agenda b) Inquiry of staff regarding specific factual information or existing policy Meet and Confer Minutes February 1, 2011 2lPage