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FOP sued over pact
Campbell: Raises should be vacated
By jeanne starmack
campbell
The city has filed a court action against the Fraternal Order of Police over the new police contract.
The petition for an order to vacate a conciliator’s award was filed Tuesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
A conciliator awarded a $1-an-hour pay raise July 20 to six of the police department’s 12 full-time officers, retroactive to July 1. The contract, signed by Mayor George Krinos and Police Chief Gus Sarigianopoulos on July 27, also tries to take away city council’s right to decide how many officers the city needs, giving that right to the mayor instead.
The city council has objected to the process of the contract talks, which began in December. Council members have said they should have been consulted on the pay raises because the city is in fiscal emergency and council makes the budget appropriations. The raises cost the city $16,500.
Council members have also contended that the city’s charter gives them the right to decide staffing numbers for the police department, and the conciliator did not have the right to decide otherwise.
Council President Bill VanSuch also has said that Krinos should have invited a representative from council into the negotiations at times when issues that would cost the city were being discussed, but he did not.
“We should have been notified,” VanSuch said.
In the petition to vacate, the city argues that the conciliator, State Employee Relations Board-appointed Robert Stein, did not have the right to award the raises retroactive to July 1 because Ohio law prohibits an award becoming effective in the same fiscal year it’s issued.
The petition also contends Stein exceeded his authority because he was authorized to deal only with the wage issue, yet he incorporated other tentative contract agreements into his award. The last page of Stein’s report indicates that tentative agreements reached during negotiations “are part of the recommendations contained in this report.”
The petition also alleges Stein violated public policy by imposing a retroactive wage increase on a city that has been in fiscal emergency for six years.
The petition also says Stein failed to have a transcript of the hearing made.
Krinos and city administrator Lew Jackson were in the negotiations this year without the law firm Clemans-Nelson & Associates, which had handled the city’s negotiations since 2003.
Krinos said he dismissed the firm’s services to save money.
Council passed a resolution last month that recommends using the firm from now on. The firm has expertise in union contracts and other labor issues.