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North Adams Firefighters Getting Retroactive RaiseBy Tammy Daniels
iBerkshires Staff
10:22PM / Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Councilor Lisa Blackmer questioned the need for raises to settle the retroactive contracts. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The new compensation plan for firefighters, reflecting a 2 percent retroactive raise for each of the past two years, evoked less fiery rhetoric at Tuesday night's City Council meeting than the police raises two weeks ago. Both unions had been working without a contract for two years.
Mayor Richard Alcombright said he had reached a retroactive agreement with International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1781 that was similar to that recently reached with North Adams Police Association Local 382 with the exception of one language change.
"Occasionally, the firemen are called out to work detail work ... the police receive $32 an hour for road detail work and the fire [fighters], for whatever reason, receive $22 an hour so what we did is we made that comparable to the police rate of $32," said the mayor. "It's rarely used and those rates are not paid by the city ... They're picked up by whoever contracts them."
The cost for the retroactive raises is between $45,000 and $48,000 because the Fire Department salaries are slightly higher. The funds will come out of the same $90,000 used for the police salaries that was transferred from last fiscal year for that purpose.
Councilor Lisa Blackmer, while voting for the compensation plan, reiterated her disappointment that the settlements for both police and fire required more funding in light of the city's fiscal woes.
"I want to state again as I did with the police contract, that as we go forward with settling these contracts that we hopefully will come up with some nonmonetary compensation," she said, adding that just because the contracts were retroactive didn't mean they had to include raises. "The state employees frequently settle their contracts with no retro for part of the term for not settling.
"These organizations or unions were offered contracts in the past — they chose not settle."
The mayor responded that he understood the prior offers to have been been higher. The city is in or entering negotiations for new contracts with all of its seven unions. "We are looking at many different avenues outside of the true, hard dollars to settle," he said. "There's a lot of language we're talking about."
The council approved both years of the compensation plan to move to a second reading and be published and, by roll call vote, unanimously finalized the changes in compensation plan for the police officers.
Mayor Richard Alcombright said language is being discussed as talks for future contracts move forward. |
The council also moved to a second reading changes in classification and compensation for a full-time building maintenance specialist position. The classification would S-21B with a salary of $45,000. The position was recommended and budgeted for during a Finance Committee meeting earlier this year.
The mayor said the city had been contracting services in excess of $33,000 for maintenance and $9,000 in plumbing inspection services. The individual being considered is the same person who has been contracted for much of the work and who holds a contractor's and plumber's license.
Councilor Marie Harpin questioned why the job was not being posted.
"This person has all the qualifications we're looking for, already knows our buildings, knows our infrastructure and has worked in virtually every building on heating systems, cooling systems and much of the carpentry," said Alcombright. "Quite honestly it would be a waste of resources and time [to post it.]"
He added that the city rarely posts jobs because it has so many resumes with two or three added a day; at least 100 applications are on file for the Department of Public Works.
Blackmer, however, said it would behoove the city to at least post open positions on its website since it would cost nothing and provide a level of fairness and transparency.
In other business:
- The council also moved to a second reading changes in classfication and compensation for the veterans agent. The position is full time but up to $9,000 will be reimbursed by sharing the agent with Williamstown and Adams.
- Approved the reappointment of Councilor Marie Harpin to the Mobile Home Rent Control Board (Harpin abstained from the vote); Mary Ann Caproni to the Board of Registrars; and Nancy Bullett to the Windsor Lake Recreation Commission.
- Approved taxi licenses for Linda F. Jarvis of North Adams to drive for Lori Smith and Todd Plumley of Adams to drive for Candy Tripodes.
- Set the next meeting for Wednesday, Sept. 15, to avoid the Sept. 14 primary.
- Heard from Emily Baker-White and Helen Merrigan about UNITY's pursuit of a $250,000 Pepsi grant for skate park.
- National Grid, represented by Bonnie Brown, reguested the replacement of support wires for poles 54 and 55, about 1,427 feet northeast of Union Street intersection on city land. Brown said the trees used to support the poles had rotted and fallen over. Approval was given but Councilor Gailanne Cariddi questioned whether an ordinance passed a year ago that charges the utilities a fee of $25 for working with city departments had been used. Brown said she wasn't aware of the ordinance; the mayor said his office would work on communicating the ordinance to the utility companies.
The entire agenda, including the compensation plan changes, can be found here.
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Your Comments
iBerkshires.com welcomes critical, respectful dialogue. Name-calling, personal attacks, libel, slander or foul language is not allowed. All comments are reviewed before posting and will be deleted or edited as necessary. Post Comment |
What a nice man our new mayor must be. At the same time many of his constituents are barely getting by on unemployment or working two lousy jobs to make ends meet, he gave the teachers, the police and the firefighters generous raises.
There is one small glitch - the raises were funded by increases in our property taxes and water fees.
Isn't that special. Miss Mayor Barrett yet? | | from: nice mayor | on: 08-25-2010 07:23AM
I Agree (40) - I Disagree (13) |
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| The police, fire and teachers wanted Barrett out because of their lack of pay raises (if I was in their position I'd feel the same but on the other hand, agree that its tough on the rest of us). Now all of us are getting wacked with Sewer fees and increased property taxes. | | from: remember | on: 08-25-2010 09:22AM
I Agree (30) - I Disagree (12) |
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| So sick of hearing people put down firefighters. Pray you never have a fire in your home. | | from: Jess | on: 08-25-2010 01:38PM
I Agree (12) - I Disagree (27) |
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| the fact is. the 2% raises that both the police and firefighters received is less than the 2.5% that they were offered by the former mayor, so no, I don't miss barrett. | | from: jackson | on: 08-26-2010 11:39AM
I Agree (5) - I Disagree (10) |
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I am not sure if its frustration or pure ignorance on the part of Firefighter supporters who always make the statement “you better not hope your house doesn’t catch on fire” when anything is said about the Fire Department that could be taken as “negative.”
I live in North Adams, own a house, and pay taxes etc, so I believe that gives me a right to have an opinion on any topic that I finically contribute to. With regards to the firefighter’s retroactive raises, I agree with the belief this should not have happened. It is completely inexcusable that my property taxes increased along with new taxes to help balance a budget, yet the Mayor can find close to $100,000.00 to fund retroactive pay for many city unions (who coincidently endorsed him during the campaign…..I also voted for Alcombright so I am not a Barrett supporter)
I work in the private sector and I am very fortunate to still have a job while I saw many friends and co-workers get laid-off. At my company, we presently find ourselves in year 3 with no pay increase while health insurance costs continue to rise. So in essence, I have been losing money for 3 years.
I support the North Adams Fire Department; I simply disagree with this retroactive pay while new taxes are created. However, in the event anyone in our city suffers a fire and the response is purposely delayed or the fire suppression tactics are conducted poorly because the NAFD members do not agree with a resident’s opinion, the membership will quickly be terminated and replaced with mature firefighters.
However, to the disappointment of the firefighter’s supporters, this will never be the case. The members of the NAFD are truly a professional group of firefighters and despite our disagreement; they can always be counted on to do the job they were hired to do.
| | from: Ron | on: 08-26-2010 02:59PM
I Agree (14) - I Disagree (3) |
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Just a concern on the skate park. If someone gets hurt, is the city liable? I would rather see some energy be put in the extension of the rail trail or finish the walking track at Alcombright field. I dont mean to take away from the kids but think a skatepark is a place for accidents or potential vandalism.
Editor: The city is not liable if it does not put in rules (advisements are OK) and clearly states it's use at your own risk. Adams recently opened its skate park to bikes and reviewed the liability again. | | from: skate park | on: 08-26-2010 03:25PM
I Agree (4) - I Disagree (2) |
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I think what everyone is failing to realize is that these are union contracts, and that a dispute will go to the state labor board as binding arbitration. It was basically guaranteed that they would have received a larger raise than they got since the former administration gave larger raises to the oyher unions.
Also, as stated, the previous admin was offering a larger raise than they settled on.
I'm not really sure why they agreed... Other than goodwill. Sounds "pie in the sky", I'm sure, but I can't think of any other reason. | | from: Resident | on: 08-26-2010 07:40PM
I Agree (3) - I Disagree (10) |
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Resident,
Retroactive pay MUST be negotiated, it's not a guarantee. When the firefighters contract expired, they worked for two years from the old contract. When signing this new one, the city was under no obligation to provide any retroactive pay, they agreed to this, which is why many residents are furious over this decision including me seeing how I have been told there is "no money" my taxes increased including a water/sewer fee creation, then this retroactive pay bonus to the unions!!
| | from: Another Resident | on: 08-27-2010 03:54PM
I Agree (15) - I Disagree (3) |
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| You think this is bad..... wait 12 months. The City's problems are not going away any time soon. Fast forward to June of 2011 and I guarantee you the administration will be hiking property taxes again along with a barrage of new fees. They just don't get it and never will. The city is losing the existing tax base rapidly and instead of cutting the budget (they wouldn't hear of that), the answer is always to raise taxes and award raises. I'm disgusted. | | from: Not Surprised | on: 08-31-2010 01:38PM
I Agree (8) - I Disagree (1) |
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Hey Blackmer...listen up. For years the "City" had no money for firefighters at contract time. So....they threw us an extra personnel day or something else like "family sick leave. We agreed to all this crap because we knew the City was broke. Extra personnel days are nice but....THEY DON'T PUT FOOD ON THE TABLE! The Firefighters deserve the retro pay!!! Most of them are homeowners/taxpayers/ and yes VOTERS.
By the way... how are the State Police doing these days? | | from: In a position to know | on: 08-31-2010 04:43PM
I Agree (0) - I Disagree (9) |
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