04-25-13 Meet and Confer Committee Meeting minutes

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THE CITY OF LA PORTE MEET & CONFER COMMITTEE MET THE 25th DAY OF APRIL, 2013 AT 3:00 P.M. AT CITY HALL, COUNCIL CHAMBERS, 604 WEST FAIRMONT PARKWAY, LA PORTE, TEXAS. 1. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 3:06 p.m. Attendees: Corby Alexander, Kenith Adcox, Michael Dolby, Nicole Wells, Matt Novosad, Marcus Upchurch and David Huckabee. Other attendees included: Steve Deardorff (audience). 2. REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM April 11, 2012 MEETING. Minutes were reviewed and a motion to approve was made by Ken Adcox to approve 2"a by Matt Novosad, all attendees were in favor. 3. OPEN DISCUSSION RELATING TO ITEMS INTRODUCED BY THE POLICE ASSOCIATION AND/OR THE CITY OF LA PORTE, REGARDING COMPENSATION, LEAVE PROVISIONS, WORKING CONDITIONS, AND CIVIL SERVICE PREEMPTIONS. Mr. Alexander advised that Michael Dolby is attending the meeting as a representative from Finance and Nicole Wells is attending as a representative for Human Resources. Mr. Alexander stated that the City is still reviewing the monetary impact of the salary adjustments proposed by the Association at the last meeting. He feels fairly confident that the City will be able to make the market adjustment; however, indicated that the City would need to look further into the future impact relating to both the compression adjustment and the two additional senior patrol officer steps that were being proposed by the Association. Mr. Alexander stated that the City would have to consider more than just this year's costs for these sorts of concessions and would have to ensure that any adjustments were reasonably sustainable in the future. Mr. Alexander began discussion on the Bill of Rights that the Association proposed. He discussed that most of the issues appeared to already be addressed in existing Civil Service Rules, Local Government Code, City policy, or Police Department General Orders. He asked the Association to articulate specific concerns there may be with the existing disciplinary system in order to determine what the Association was hoping to correct. Matt Novosad spoke again about the recent court case involving the Plano Fire Department and indicated that the Association's intent was more about wanting to ensure that the La Porte Police Department's disciplinary process was fair. Chief Adcox mentioned that the issue of concern in the Plano Fire Department case dealt with employee representation, which is an item not even mentioned in the proposed Bill of Rights. Mr. Alexander asked the Association if there was anything they could think of in the current La Porte Police Department practice that is unfair. Mr. Novosad Indicated that he would look into this further in order to see if he can identify any specific areas of concern.