Snoqualmie police, fire bargaining lasts months
Published 10:05 am Thursday, October 2, 2008
The police and fire departments in Snoqualmie have been engaged in contract negotiations with the city for more than a year. The three-year contracts for both departments expired 10 months ago on Dec. 31 of 2005, and union representatives have met with city officials to hammer out new agreements. Meanwhile, workers in both departments continue to serve the city under the terms and conditions of the expired contract.
Firefighters union representative Lt. Steve Reno said the union “thought we were asking for something pretty fair and thought it would be a pretty short process.”
However, the contract negotiations have lasted more than a year.
The dispute is over money; the city isn’t willing to pay what the unions are asking for. Fire and police union representatives said they want a cost-of-living increase. Although Snoqualmie has experienced a lot of growth in the past three years, the city can’t count on high growth to continue supplying property tax money, said Bob Larson, city administrator.
“If we gave them what they’re asking for, I’m not sure how far that would continue,” Larson said. “There’s certain demands and we try to balance all those demands with what the community expects. We want to make certain that whatever is being negotiated, it’s going to keep us competitive with the job market so we can not only retain employees, but also attract employees. We wouldn’t want a police officer or firefighter to go to another city because of the pay and benefits.”
Despite Snoqualmie’s growth in recent years, the city has not hired any police officers or firefighters for the last three years, since a major portion of Phase I of Snoqualmie Ridge was completed. The last new employee, a clerical position, was hired in 2005. Police officers numbered 13, including the chief, from 1996 until this past year when one officer retired.
In 1999, Snoqualmie went back to a city-owned fire department. Enough police officers and firefighters were added to cover the “build out of the Ridge” based on the number of employees per thousand of population, said Larson. The city discussed additional officers, but decided it couldn’t sustain growth in staffing levels in the future.
Police department
Negotiations began in November of 2005 when the police union presented its request to the city asking for a cost-of-living raise tied to the current and projected consumer price index, approximately 3 percent, and for the contract to remain status quo as the previous contract, said Chris Sylvain, union representative for the police department.
“We provided [our requests] to the city from the very beginning,” Sylvain said. “During the contract negotiation process, what the city wanted to follow was a staged negotiation. They wanted to go after one part of the contract at a time, piece by piece. They wanted to save the benefits package till the last part.”
“We made an offer this past spring, early summer of 2006,” Larson said. “We’re still working toward resolution.”
The city brought in an outside negotiator. It needed someone with a professional background for what may become time-consuming and difficult negotiations, Larson said.
“It boils down to the terms and conditions of employment, the wages and benefits and working conditions,” said Larson. He did not reveal the city’s latest offer. “It would be unfair, construed as bargaining in bad faith to admit it publicly.”
Instead, Larson said the City Council had discussed the negotiation during closed-door meetings and was offering a very competitive wage and benefits package compared to other Snoqualmie employees and employees of other cities. The same holds true for the fire department, he said.
Currently, there are six levels of wages for officers, ranging from $3,845 per month for the first year to $5,139 for the sixth year. Sergeants’ salaries range from $5,397 per month for the first level to $6,246 for the fourth level, according to Debra Whalawitsa, administrative services director. The contract affects 13 people, including 11 officers and the records and police support officers.
Fire department
The fire union is asking for a similar raise – which was about 3.5 percent for 2005, also tied to the consumer price index – Reno said.
“We’ve talked back and forth about several different package deals,” said Reno. “The union still would like to see movement toward a raise based on the CPI instead of a flat percentage.”
The city’s latest offer has been a 3 percent raise over the monthly wage of $4,932, Reno said.
“We’ve contacted the city and asked them if they’d like to present another proposal or if we should file jointly for mediation,” said Reno.
Like the police department, the fire department has five levels of wages, ranging from $3,946 per month for the first year to $4,932 for the fifth year, said chief Bob Rowe. The fire contract would affect nine firefighters. Reno thinks the length of time the department has gone without a renewed contract – almost a year since November of 2005 – has had an effect on morale.
“Anytime there’s a contract negotiation, there’s always a morale dip,” said Rowe. He said his involvement is concerned with and in regards to fire operations and management rights.
There is no mediator yet. The city has hired an attorney to represent it in negotiations in addition to the city attorney, Reno said. They’re not very close to an agreement, he said.
“At one point, we were fairly close to an agreement as far as packages went,” Reno said. “We were less money apart than what they’ve been spending on their current attorney.”
Reno said the firefighters weren’t asking for “anything much above and beyond what they have in the current contract, which is a cost-of-living raise and a few minor housekeeping issues.” These “housekeeping issues” were language changes required by department structure changes.
