Waukesha mayor seeks union concessions

Nov. 03, 2011
SHARE

By Laurel Walker of the Journal Sentinel

Nov. 03, 2011 0

Waukesha - After his proposed $136 garbage fee next year in order to achieve a tax levy freeze fell flat, Mayor Jeff Scrima has proposed that nearly 400 city union employees with contracts in place until 2013 voluntarily forfeit pay or benefits or face possible layoffs or furloughs.

The proposal came Wednesday night less than two hours before a meeting of the Finance Committee, which is trying to find $1.5 million more in budget saving to achieve the zero-increase tax levy.

Scrima outlined a series of options in a memorandum to aldermen:

 Freeze pay for all employees, including union members, saving $571,000. Employees were scheduled to get a 1.5% increase next year.

 Ask employees to contribute 12% for health insurance, instead of the scheduled 7% to 10%, saving $425,000.

 Have union employees contribute 5.8% to their pensions, as nonunion employees are now required to do, and saving the city $1.57 million.

If employees are unwilling to make concessions, Scrima said, the Common Council could decide to lay off employees. It would take 17 layoffs, at an average of $93,000 each, to achieve a $1.5 million saving.

If the council chose furloughs on all union employees, other than police and firefighters, 22 furlough days would save $1.5 million, Scrima said.

Scrima's position

"We must hold fast to treating each other with fairness, and be willing to compromise for the greater and future good of Waukesha," Scrima says in his memo. "We can maintain city services, hold to our goal of a 0% levy, and not increase taxes."

Ald. Joe Pieper, Finance Committee chairman, questioned whether unions would be inclined to accept the idea, or whether negotiations could be accomplished before a budget is adopted.

"We're not going to know unless we try," Scrima told Finance Committee members.

Two representatives of the city's largest unions reached Thursday declined to comment. Tim Schultz, president of the 138-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 97, and Lloyd Pickart, president of the 93-member Professional Firefighters Local 407, said they had not yet been contacted by city officials and had no comment on the plan.

Human Resources Director Donna Hylarides Whalen said police and fire unions, which represent about half of the city's unionized employees, could reopen contracts and accept amendments without broader repercussions. But she said the state budget-repair bill that virtually eliminated collective bargaining for public employees offers no incentive for other unions to reopen existing contracts because of the "draconian result in the law."

"The other unions would be extinguishing all of their collective bargaining and organizational rights immediately, and I think it's unrealistic to anticipate that they would be willing to do that," she said.

"They have everything to lose and nothing to gain."

However, Ald. John Kalblinger said a 22-day furlough would amount to nearly a 10% pay cut, and a layoff would cost an employee his or her job.

"I think it would be prudent to at least approach the unions," he said.

More meetings

The Finance Committee had hoped to finish its budget recommendation by next week when the Common Council was scheduled to meet Tuesday as a committee and review the $125 million budget.

Instead, the council will meet at 6:30 p.m. to discuss the union contracts and potential concessions.

The council still hopes to adopt a budget by month's end, possibly on Nov. 22.

Some members of the Finance Committee, along with Scrima, have been adamant that the city budget should freeze the tax levy next year, which likely would produce a tax cut for many property owners who have seen their property values drop an average of 6% or more in the past year. That standard is tougher than the one imposed by state tax levy limits, which would permit a tax levy increase of about $1.5 million.

Memo on JSOnline

Read the mayor's memo at jsonline.com/Waukesha.

About Laurel Walker
Laurel Walker covered local, school and county government for 20 years -- the last half of that at the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -- before she was named Waukesha County columnist in 1997. Today she writes about the people, places and events around metropolitan Milwaukee with a broad suburban focus. She was the youngest of nine children raised on a central Wisconsin farm before leaving the nest for journalism studies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and a masters degree at the University of Oregon. She has spent the last half of her life in Waukesha County, where she and her husband raised two sons. Though she has a fondness for life in Waukesha, she eagerly partakes in the culture of the big city to the east and the recreation of the forests to the west. With sons in the arts, she has a special fondness for symphonic music concerts and art museums. She finds peace in a good book at a Northwoods getaway weekend, adventure in family visits to the east and west coasts, and satisfaction in a column well-written that reaches readers.
0 Share Tweet Print
NewsWatch

Advertisement

Photo Galleries

Advertisement