Aldermen Bring New Vote on Union Contracts

A petition signed by five Wauwatosa aldermen will bring a new vote Tuesday on contracts with city unions that were turned down a month ago.

The vote will take place at 6:30 p.m. at a special meeting of the Common Council before the regular meeting, said 1st District Ald. Linda Nikcevich, who was among the signers.

According to 7th District Ald. Don Birschel, who also signed it, the petition was drafted after aldermen met with City Administrator James Archambo to discuss how the city would be affected by the non-ratification of the contracts.

"What we've learned about the budget repair bill is that it does not affect all public employees the same way," Birschel said. "Our city employees do not belong to the state pension fund, except police and fire.

"We wanted people to know this because they're being told that all other public employees are affected. But they're not; for instance, Milwaukee County employees are self-insured and have their own pension fund, so they are not affected at all.

"We're not extending the benefits by signing the contracts; the benefits are extended by not signing the contracts.

"With the (new) contracts in place it would be $15,000 to $20,000 less each week for the city to pay."

Nikcevich said she believes there are more aldermen who will support the move but had not signed the petition because the state open meetings law limits the contact council members can have outside of public meetings.

As aldermen, she said, "we're asked to be fiscally responsible. This is the fiscally responsible thing to do.

"When we brought it up the first time, the city administrator went through very eloquently why this was in the city's best interest. (Ald. Peter) Donegan, the chairman of the Employee Relations Committee, went through all the reasons very thoroughly.

"But everybody said 'Wait.' That was a month ago, just before the budget repair bill was supposed to be published, and now it will be another month at least before there is a decision on it, and in the meantime, it is costing us a lot of money.

"Now we're also looking at a 40 percent reduction in support for recycling, too. We had to do something."

Ald. Bobby Pantuso (District 5) was also among those who signed the petition.

"To be clear," Pantuso said, "I am only interested in this because it is going to save the taxpayers money."

Ald. Jeff Roznowski (District 6) signed the petition, he said, for the same reason his colleagues had. "It's costing us money now. We're doing this for the good of Wauwatowsa."

The fifth signer, Ald. Dennis McBride (District 4), could not be reached for comment.