Council to weigh raise pact

Council has until May 26 to vote on the contract.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A contract that would increase city managers' pay 3.5 percent this year and in 2005 and 2 percent in 2006 is on city council's meeting agenda.
Council members are to consider the proposed contract with the 23-member Warren Management Association at their meeting tonight.
Gary Cicero, human resources director, said council has until May 26 to vote on the contract.
"It's up in the air right now whether or not we'll be seeking passage," Councilman Alford L. Novak, D-2nd, finance committee chairman, said at a finance committee meeting Tuesday.
Committee members said they wanted more information on the costs of wage and health coverage changes outlined in the proposed contract before voting.
Besides the pay increase, the agreement also calls for the contract to be reopened if the union representing police officers receives pension pickup.
"If the police FOP get it, we can sit down and negotiate it again, and it will have to come back to council to vote on it," Cicero said of WMA's pension pickup prospects. "It's not a 'me-too' clause."
Fact finder
Last year, council members rejected a fact finder's report recommending that the city institute a pension pickup program for WMA of 2.5 percent of the employee's gross wage.
In arguing against the union's position supporting the pension pickup, the city had said that other unions that receive pension pickup did so in lieu of wage increases.
WMA members' pay ranges from $51,251 for the assistant auditorium manager, planning coordinator, water pollution control and water maintenance supervisors, water operations supervisor and water office manager, to $71,760 for the community development director and director of the engineering, planning and building department.
Copayments
The agreement also calls for WMA employees to make a 10 percent copayment for hospitalization and prescription coverage for those participating.
That change matches the contract between the city and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 74 members approved in 2002.