TOWNSHIP GOVERNMENT Officials at odds over labor negotiations

The nonelected official is trying to bar the elected official from listening to negotiations.
BOARDMAN -- Township Administrator Curt Seditz accused Trustee Kathy Miller of interfering with labor negotiations last week and possibly violating federal labor laws.
The accusation came after he was told about a conversation she had with the negotiator for both the firefighters and the dispatchers. Since then, he's denied her request to sit in on negotiating sessions with the dispatchers union and sent a written request for a legal opinion to the county prosecutor's office, asking what authority trustees have.
The letter begins: "Recently, a member of the Board of Trustees indicated a desire/demand to participate in collective bargaining negotiations currently in process or in the future."
Miller says she only asked to observe the negotiations. A successful real-estate agent who's devoted herself to being a full-time trustee, she says she thinks she has a responsibility to the residents of Boardman to watch how their money's being spent.
"How do I know Curt's a good negotiator?" she says. "Maybe he's giving away the store?"
Chairwoman makes comment
Elaine Mancini, chairwoman of the Boardman Board of Trustees, says it is the practice in Boardman that the negotiating of union contracts for township employees is left up to the Seditz.
"We named our negotiating team and it's our administrator and deputy administrator," she says. "You decide on who your team is and go with it." She says that she has confidence in Seditz: "Curt has had his share of classes and has been negotiating for many years now."
Miller denies Seditz's charge that she was interfering when she spoke with the negotiator in passing at the Boardman Township Center on Dec. 15. She says she only said to Jeff Perry, the union's negotiator, that her constituents were not happy about the recently negotiated firefighters contract, and says that she didn't mention the contract for the dispatchers, which is now being negotiated.
Claims she's immobilized
Miller says that she's being immobilized by the other two trustees. "Not one thing I've proposed has gone anywhere," she says. "What's left of my job as trustee?" The problem lies in the township form of government, where three trustees share power, but the majority decides what is to be, and even what is to be debated. But Miller says she should be able to observe negotiations, "I probably negotiated 10,000 contracts in my life," she says.
Miller sent a letter to the county prosecutor's office this week, on the heels of Seditz's letter to that same office. In her letter, she writes, "Curt's 'side note' that I spoke with lead negotiator Jeff Perry requires a response. While it is true I spoke with Mr. Perry twice when I saw him in the building, at no time did I EVER speak to him about ongoing negotiations." The prosecutor's office has not yet contacted the Boardman trustees with legal guidance on the issue of a trustee's participation in labor negotiations.
There are five unions in Boardman, and the salaries and compensation for those employees and the others who are nonunion amount to 70-80 percent of the township's 17 million budget, says Seditz. All contracts are negotiated every three years, with salary and health insurance co-pays the two big sticking points. All three trustees agree on the need to control labor costs, "When there was no money in the township, things were negotiated," says Mancini. "When we got money, things were boosted up." She says that the township can't continue the pace of salary increases. The firefighters contract included a 4 percent raise and no insurance co-pays.
The dispatcher's contract is at a standstill. "We reached an impasse last week," says Seditz. He sent an e-mail to the trustees last week saying they'll now turn to a fact finder who will review the offers on the table and make a report to the trustees. The dispatchers union covers nine full-time employees and one part-time employee in Boardman's Police Department.