City, union argue issue

The YPA president said many patrol officers have health problems.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The city and patrol officers union agree the city will provide parking spaces for union members, but there's a difference of opinion as to the number and the location of those spaces.
The Youngstown Police Association, the union representing patrol officers, wants the city to return 10 parking slots its members used in the lot next to the police department.
That would return the number to 28 spots for union members, the number they've used in that lot for about 10 years. The city wants YPA members to park in a recently improved lot on South Phelps Street, near the city hall annex building.
Magistrate Eugene J. Fehr of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court heard attorneys from both sides during a nearly four-hour hearing Wednesday on the union's request for a preliminary injunction. He hasn't made a decision.
Initially, Iris Torres Guglucello, city law director, argued that the union's request pertains to an unfair-labor-practice allegation, and that should be before an arbitrator and that the common pleas court lacks jurisdiction. Fehr rejected that request.
Background
Patrolman Edward Colon, YPA president, said the union was told earlier this year in letters from city officials that its members couldn't park in the city hall lot. They filed a grievance, but it was rejected. An order from Police Chief Jimmy Hughes for members to stop parking in the lot prompted them to stop parking there because if they didn't, it would be insubordination, the union president said.
Atty. Martin Yavorcik represents the union.
The union and city are operating under a contract that expired Nov. 30. Negotiations are ongoing between the two parties for a new pact. The recently expired contract says the city will provide "free, sufficient, safe and secure" parking for the union members.
Colon said that patrol officers are required to carry gear including a code book, ticket book, handcuffs, gun, radio, flashlight and other equipment while wearing a protective vest. He estimated the distance between the annex lot and the department at one-quarter of a mile. Carmen Conglose, the city's deputy director of public works, later testified that the distance is about one-eighth of a mile.
Guglucello questioned the weight of the equipment officers are required to carry, pointing out that it's the same equipment an officer would wear if chasing a suspect.
Colon said he didn't know the equipment's weight and said that while most police officers would give chase to a suspect, there's no written duty requiring them to do that.
Diet problem
He said that though most patrol officers are physically fit, about 30 percent are older than 50, many have unhealthy diets and health problems.
Aren't the members in control of their own diets, Guglucello asked. Colon said they are but that there aren't many restaurants open downtown past a certain time of day.
"Couldn't you pack a lunch? Oh, no it would too heavy to carry," the law director quipped.
In her closing statement, Guglucello said the union was trying to make an end run around the collective bargaining process by asking a court to decide an issue that falls under the jurisdiction of an arbitrator.
"The law doesn't compensate for inconvenience," she said.
Yavorcik, in his closing statement, said that Guglucello's "end run" reference was like the "pot calling the kettle black."
The city attempted an end run by restricting the parking rather than allowing an arbitrator decide the matter, he said.