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HomeMy WebLinkAbout12-14-10 City of La Porte Meet and Confer Committee Meeting minutes THE CITY OF LA PORTE MEET & CONFER COMMITTEE MET THE 14TH DAY OF DECEMBER, 2010, 4:00 P.M. AT CITY HALL, COUNCIL CHAMBERS, 604 WESTFAIRMONTPARKWAY, LAPORTE, TEXAS. 1. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 4:05 p.m. In attendance were committee members: Ken Adcox, Chief of Police, Heather Weger, Human Resources Manager, Matt Novosad, Patrol Officer - LPPOA President, Matt Daeumer, Patrol Lieutenant - LPPOA Member, Marcus Upchurch, Support Services Sergeant - LPPOA Member, Sherman Moore - PAR Officer - LPPOA Member Other attendees included Tom Barby, Representative from CLEAT. 2. Minutes from December 2, 2010 were reviewed and approved. 3. BEGIN DISCUSSIONS ON ITEMS PROPOSED BY THE LA PORTE POLICE OFFICER'S ASSOICATION AND THE CITY OF LA PORTE LPPOA PROPOSALS (Outlined Italicized Items from LPPOA Proposal) 1. Pav Scale a) Shrink Step Scale i. Patrol to 10 year top out ii. Sergeant Lieutenants to 5 year top out b) Compare Markets for overall salary and certificate pay c) If market comparable receive COLA A collapsed pay scale was reviewed. The Chief advised that, according to calculations done by Finance, collapsing the steps from 12 to 10 by simply keeping the same starting and ending salaries and redistributing the difference between each of the remaining steps would result in an overall cost to the City of approximately $159,000 a year. The LPPO A advised their idea was to start at step #2, dropping bottom 2 steps on the officer scale, and creating a bigger gap between pay steps on the sergeant and lieutenant scales. An estimated cost will be presented for this in the future. Chief will ask Finance to calculate for the next meeting, however, warned that this method would likely result in even higher costs. Salary surveys are still pending. Pearland and Texas City figures were not obtained. Ms. Weger will see if she can look on the CLEAT website to obtain the figures. LPPOA spoke about looking at the possibility of implementing pay changes through multiple years via contract. Page Two of Five Meet and Confer Minutes December 14, 2010 COLA increases and the costs associated with them were discussed. A 1 % COLA would cost approximately $51,428; a 2% would cost approximately $102,856; a 3% would cost approximately $154,285. It was agreed that further discussion on salary will be held until salary survey is completed, and method to determine fair market is determined. Ii Overtime a) Forced overtime will be compensated at double time and a half b) Overtime will be worked after 8 not 40 c) Forcedjlex time shall be eliminated d) Court will be paid 3 hours on days working and 4 hours on your off day According to the Chief, a sampling of forced overtime for minimum staffing obtained by Finance estimated the annual costs to the City to be approximately $27,000 +. While an unusual request, the City recognizes that forced overtime is a hardship and is willing to further consider options in this area. According to the Chief, the City is not, however, open to the idea of overtime after 8 hours worked in a day and would like to remain within the FLSA regulation of overtime after 40 hours worked in a week. The cost was looked into and would be approximately $20,000 annually. There would be additional costs for payroll software changes. Also, there is no deterrent for sick leave abuse under this method, which is a primary concern for the City. The Chief advised that forced flex time is more a policy issue aud that, ~ City must always maintain the prerogative to scheduled resources in order to meet emerging operational needs, the City may be open to discussing the possibly of a minimum time notice to be given before employee's schedules may be modified. The Chief advised that the City is open to consider changing court time to 3 hours on a working or off day, cost would be approximately $3,500, however, reiterated that, as with all items discussed, this must be negotiated as a package, taking into account those items that are important to the City. III. Holidav a) 24 hour personnel being paid Holiday pay if you work City observed or actual holiday. b) The ability to ~ employee holiday to vacation ifnot used by the end of the year. CvnllUr !Y111}1 Page Three of Five Meet and Confer Minutes December 14,2010 The Chief advised that the City may be open to changing how Holiday's are considered in overtime calculations. However, the existing holiday provisions may have been put in place as a result of past abuses and these would have to be addressed, with loop holes being closed, before changes of this nature could be considered. According to the Chief, converting unused employee holidays to vacation would be a tough sell, as all City employees earn two employee holidays per year and, in order to be fair and consistent, all employee, under the same conditions, should be treated similarly. Additionally, according to Finance, this could ultimately cost the City approximately $15,000 a year. LPPOA advised they are denied requests at times due to minimum staffing requirements. The Chief advised that this would be better handled as a policy issue and preferred the item be taken off the table. IV. Lonf!evitv a) Separate longevity pay from general payroll. Include physical fitness award with longevity. b) Increase longevity to $6. 00 According to the Chief, he did not see an issue with this as the longevity would be easy to separate from regular pay checks, and could be included with any physical fitness award, provided the testing for physical fitness falls into place for longevity payments. The check would be handled through direct deposit though. Chief advised that the City was not open to increasing the longevity rate for police officers to $6.00 from $4.00 being that other City employees receive longevity as well. For Civil Service personnel, the approximate costs would be $13,907, even when leaving the cap of $1,200 in place. LPPOA believes the cap should be raised, due to the 30 year/80 point rule for retiree insurance. V. Call Out Compensation a) Increase standby pay to 8 hours on a regular week b) Increase standby pay to 16 hours on a Holiday week c) Standby pay can be compensated as monies or comp time The Chief advised that, according to Finance, the proposed changes to stand-by pay would cost the City approximately $34,848 annually. While the City is open to discuss this further, the Chief pointed out that this is a large cost item and the increase in compensation, i.e. 8 and 16 hours from the current 3 hours, may be excessive. According to the Chief, the preference would also be to keep the Page Four of Five Meet and Confer Minutes December 14, 2010 course for regular week and Holiday week the same as to do otherwise would cause substantial confusion for Payroll. VI. Como Time a) Increase comp time from 40 to 80 b) Treat Comp time the same as vacation c) Comp time will be allowed to be accrued by all personnel at the discretion of the person working, not the supervisor d) Language comp time to not be able to "cash out" only it is based on resignation, termination or emergency basis i.) Emergency basis will be defined. e) Have the City fund comp time if economically feasible. According to the Chief the City is not open to increasing comp time accumulation allowances and in fact would prefer to see Comp Time eliminated all together due to its negative impact on staffing levels, which are already at a critical state. Comp Time creates a net loss of hours available for work production, instead of additional hours of work production, even though the additional hours may have to be paid for at an overtime premium. The Chief advised, however, that, if it is important to the officers, the City may be open to keeping Comp time accumulation the same for at least another contract year and may even be open to further discussion relating to treating comp time used as time worked, even though, at the current rate of comp time usage, this concession could, according to Finance calculations, cost the City an estimated $4,000 annually. VII. Sick Time a) Sick time incentive program would require personnel to have at least 100 hours on the books, not more than 24 hours in a year and convert 24 hours into vacation Sick time usage was discussed and it was acknowledged by both the City and the LPPOA as being a problem. LPPOA wants to obtain information from other agencies on how they handle sick time abuse. The LPPOA feels that a "no fault" policy is a "stick", and that it is more likely to improve with a "carrot". The Chief agreed with the analogy, but stated that, to be effective, both a stick and a carrot would be required- rewarding those for extraordinary performance, while sanctioning those who are abusing the system. A quick idea was presented by the Association, following a short Caucus, being that if any officer falls below 120 hours of accrued sick leave, they would be required to present a work release every time. Chief talked about sick time in excess of four times being used, utilizing a realistic number and investigating abuse. The Chief advised that this was very similar to the Physical Report Status prerogative that the City already Page Five of Five Meet and Confer Minutes December 14, 2010 retains and uses, with very limited success, on a regular basis. It was agreed that ideas will be further fleshed out and presented at a future meeting. CITY PROPOSALS Due to time constraints, the Chief passed out copies detailing the City's proposals, which will be taken up first at the next meeting. 4. SET DATE AND TIME FOR NEXT MEET AND CONFER COMMITTEE MEETING The next meeting will be held January 4,2011 at 4:00 p.m. 5. COMMITTEE COMMENTS a) Matters appearing on the agenda b) Inquiry of staff regarding specific factual information or existing policy No comments were made. 6. ADJOURNMENT Meeting was adjourned at 5:25 p.m. APPROVED ON THIS THE \ DAY OF """JCM. ~CN , , 2011. ~ ('\.. ~ Ken Adcox, Chief of Police /I ../' 1'/ ./' ,/