On Act 10, Collective Bargaining and City Employee Compensation
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I have been campaigning for Wauwatosa mayor going on three months. Clearly the “passion” in this election season is invested in the governor, Act 10 and on collective bargaining for Wisconsin’s public employees.
This is the prism through which many citizens evaluate aspirants to local office this year and they want to know “where I stand.” In addition, the issue of employee compensation will remain active and critical for the city in the near term. Act 10 did not solve it all. It gave us the opportunity to work on it.
Long before the Budget Repair Bill, I waged a high-energy effort at City Council to bring our employee compensation costs under control. When I came to office in 2006, those costs had been consistently rising more than our tax rate, and our tax rate had been rising more than inflation and more than I believed our citizens would continue to tolerate. Compensation costs being 72% of all expense means that’s an unsustainable trend.
However, I also took note that the benefits currently enjoyed by our employees far (far!) exceeded those enjoyed by most of our citizens and that the wage levels were clearly less than “market” for only a few of our employees. After the economic downturn in 2008, the difference became more pronounced.
In 2006, there was little appetite for this fight in City Hall. So I carped and carped and tried to get the public interested and vocal. I discussed the issue with many constituents and their jaws dropped when I described our pension, health care, retiree health care and sick pay benefits. Regardless of their ideological or partisan stripes, they expressed outrage and encouraged me to persist.
Most of the Council came around to my point of view but, nonetheless, we failed to achieve substantial corrections. Despite the "will of the people" or the requirements of sound management, and despite the severe economic setbacks experienced by most of our citizens in 2008, the law governing collective bargaining and binding arbitration prevented correction.
I called for reform of this law along the lines promoted by the League of Wisconsin Municipalities which, in 2010, was considered radical reform and achieved no traction in the Legislature (though tame compared to what would come next).
We were bargaining with our five unions in early 2011 (contracts had expired) prior to the introduction of the Budget Repair Bill. We were not, in my opinion, achieving the concessions that would be fair to our citizens, and I voted against a tentative agreement reached by our administrator and the Fire Fighter Union. That agreement featured: continuation of 0% employee contribution to pension, employee contribution of 6% of health care premium (rising to 10% by 2013), and 2.5% wage increases.
This represents the disposition of those we bargained with here in Tosa on the eve of the Budget Repair Bill. I saw little willingness to share in the hardship recently suffered by most of our citizens.
So, when the Budget Repair Bill was introduced, my reaction was: 1) shock and awe; 2) relief, that we now could actually manage this expense, 3) disappointment that the bill applied to only 33 percent of our payroll.
I voted and supported all measures to effect the terms of the bill as soon as possible and that happened last August. Additional terms were effected in January.
Where do we go from here assuming the new law holds up? I was a young manager in the ‘80s in the only large insurance company in Milwaukee that did not have a union in its shop. Our long-time president constantly chided us to manage a workplace in which the workers felt fairly treated, enjoyed opportunities to grow, felt comfortable negotiating on their own behalf, and therefore, saw no reason to establish a union. That experience guides me.
As mayor and citizen, I will depend on the productivity and creativity of our employees to find ways to satisfy our citizens while using less resource. I look forward to our employees enjoying the highest compensation among all municipal employees in the region because they will also be the most productive and because their citizens will be the most satisfied. I believe that is not far beyond our grasp.
See the position paper on my web site under Issues & Positions on “Reinventing City Government”: www.petedonegan.com
Burton Robertson
8:01 am on Thursday, March 1, 2012
Don't forget that many the municipal workers also do jobs many of the citizens either would never do or aren't capable of doing...
Alot of the jobs, Police Fire, and even street department jobs are grueling and dnagerous work... not to mention that not only do they do there jobs but they also do jobs that other city departments and the citizens never do at there own job. I've never see the office workers at city hall or a library washing the windows, vacuuming or taking out the garbage, or bigger jobs like painting, fixing plumbing, waxing floors and more. These other departments have janitors. The same goes for many other jobs in the private sector. Yes many people now would love these municipal jobs but where were they when they were choosing a career, many were applying to Business Schools and colleges to sit in cozy classrooms, while other were getting dirty and physical learning to serve them as municipal workers... Stop crying foul... These people work hard for you and deserve the respect and pay they get... They Earned, it wasn't just given to them... most of these unions gave up raises to get get better benefits, they planned and made smart decisions. Now they are benefiting from them, good for them ! To the workers, Thank you for all you do, keep up the good work
Pete Donegan
9:59 am on Thursday, March 1, 2012
I really don't mean any disrespect to our employees. By in large, I believe they do a great job. Nor did I take it as disrespect when my employer reduced my benefits in 2009 after the financial problems of 2008. No one wrote a blog about it either. This was a common experience.
I'm just trying to keep cops on the streets and sewage flowing the right way. Like any enterprise, that requires sound expense management and the old law did not allow for that.
Burton, identify a position in the City that you feel is not fairly compensated and I will initiate a review of that position and report findings here.
Alfred
8:13 am on Thursday, March 1, 2012
Everyone works hard Burton, folks that work for the government are not saints nor do they work any harder than us folks in the private sector, let's stop raising them for sainthood.
Burton Robertson
10:53 am on Thursday, March 1, 2012
Definitely not Saints... but not all villains either...
I agree that some might not work harder than some of those in the private sector, but the work they did for years was consider less than desirable work... and there were times they were looked down upon as that took the job because that is all they could do, or would do.. Again not all saints but many think what they got was just given to them... not the case ... as I said they bargained for these and were often given choices to taken this but give up that... many don't want to think about what they gave up to get some of what they have today. usually raises to secure other benefits long term...
TJ Monday
8:26 am on Thursday, March 1, 2012
Pete - I am moderate politically, which means to me that unions should be able to bargain for respectable pay and working conditions, simply their original intent. However, when those benefits far exceed the context of benefits the rest of society is receiving, particularly where taxpayers are funding the workers, even those of moderate and liberal temperament begin to question the administration of the government We are, of course, staring into the ugly face of those new realities of the "past" Great Recession. And, yes, these new realities need to even apply to our fire and police, even as we admire and appreciate them, there needs to be a limit.
Your statement "I will depend on the productivity and creativity of our employees to find ways to satisfy our citizens while using less resource" is saying to my interpretation that you, as mayor, are going to motivate the municipal workers to even higher standards of performance, without cutting services,or jobs, or raising taxes. Is that correct? How will you do that? That is hard enough in a business without unions, let alone a government with public unions, including those unconstrained by even far right Republicans? It seems you are then saying there needs to be some heat put on those workers so their job security and future compensation is not so guaranteed that they can take it for granted? That is acceptable to almost everyone, but how? Please help us interpret your "coded" phrasing with a more solid plank.
Pete Donegan
10:13 am on Thursday, March 1, 2012
Thanks for the thoughtful response. I can't do the question justice with a 200 character limitation. I discuss the issue on my web site. www.petedonegan.com. Go to "Issues & Positions", then to, "A New Era..." and "Reinventing City Govt.".
As said there, this is the "heart of the matter" for the next Mayor. I don't pretend to have all the answers (that would betray the process). What I offer at this juncture is the insight about priorities, the will to pursue and a resume of achievement in such efforts.
Exrepublican
7:16 pm on Thursday, March 1, 2012
Any suggestion of the police or fire department budgets being cut is going to far in, my opinion. Wauwatosa is in excellent financial shape. It's workers are top notch and deserve to be compensated appropriately. I think what you are doing Mr. Donegan, is attempting to use the "budget repair bill" as a hammer on the good city workers.
Pete Donegan
12:09 pm on Friday, March 2, 2012
Exrepublican
I think that if you declare a particular budget "off limits", you can bet that budget will not be managed as well as it could. Is that really how you want us to proceed with this segment which constitutes 50% of all expense and 67% of all employee compensation?
I assure you that there have been no "hammers" as regards City employees. Most Americans have suffered more severe economic setbacks over the past few years.
Random Blog Commenter
4:26 pm on Friday, March 2, 2012
Thank you Mr. Donegan for addressing this issue in a very straight-forward and thoughtful manner that is free of partisanship. The bottom line is the next mayor and city council will have to deal with the city budget with Act 10 in place -- one's opinion on a state-level bill holds little meaning to the reality that the next mayor and city council will face. People need to evaluate our local officials within that spectrum, not about how they think of the folks in Madison.
tiredoftalkradio
4:26 pm on Friday, March 2, 2012
Mr. Donegan-- You mentioned that most Americans have suffered more severe economic setbacks than city workers. What is your factual basis for that statement? Do you not appreciate the concessions made by ALL of the city workers? We often hear that we need parity between the public sector and the private sector. If one sees a reduction in benefits, so must the other. When times were "good", did city workers receive bonuses? Stock incentives? Of course not. And guess what? None of the workers ever asked for that. Why didn't they? Because they knew what their pay and benefits would be when they were hired for a position with the city. And who agreed to the pay and benefits? The city did. Don't forget, the city pays it's employees what both sides agree to.
Ian
6:03 pm on Friday, March 2, 2012
The main failure of unions is that they are not at the table in good faith for the goal of delivering Government Services. Instead they are at the table for themselves only. There is no adjustment when things go bad, instead they demand what they have acquired to date. This is no way to run an organization that has limited funds and budgets. Government is there to deliver services for the population and unions have to adjust with that. Raising taxes to cover the fact that the unions want more money, isn't a good usage of the money.
If Unions came to the table with the same goal of delivering the best Government Services possible while still representing the people in this discussion, then the unions would add value. Instead they are a hindrance to accomplishing what the government is there for.
I know many folks that work for the city and I have a strong respect for anyone that works for a living be that in the private or public jobs. Unions in my mind are just the wrong organizational structures today that impede doing the right thing to accomplish the government's purpose. People and their needs need to be represented some how.