Nassau County could owe police $50M in back pay

[onthejob]

www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/nassau-county-could-owe-police-50m-in-back-pay-1.6075246
Nassau County could owe police $50M in back pay
September 14, 2013 by PAUL LAROCCO / [e-mail]


Nassau would owe all of the estimated $50 million in pay increases it has withheld from police officers in the past two years if a deal between County Executive Edward Mangano and the Police Benevolent Association is approved as written.

Mangano and PBA president James Carver say their recent memorandum of understanding provides long-term "structural" savings in the form of a lower salary scale for new hires and requiring health care contributions in certain cases.

But the deal -- which extends the officers' current contract by two years, through 2017 -- has limited concessions from current PBA members, according to a draft copy obtained late Friday by Newsday.


Chief among them, veteran officers have agreed to take their annual 3.75 percent wage increases on July 1 instead of Jan. 1, in 2014 and 2015. They would also defer some holiday pay until leaving county employment and be offered fewer daily vacation slots per precinct or unit, which Mangano says will cut overtime costs.

The PBA deal would save Nassau $320 million through 2017, according to Mangano, though he has yet to provide a detailed breakdown of savings.

His administration said Saturday that viewing the deal only in terms of what the roughly 2,200 current PBA members did and did not receive is "narrow-minded."

"This is not about having our workforce go through pain," said First Deputy Police Commissioner Thomas Krumpter. "The objective was to realize long-term savings."

When announcing the deal on Sept. 6, the administration said it would only have to pay half of officers' frozen wage increases from 2011 to 2013. Between all labor unions, Nassau may owe more than $230 million in retroactive pay if it loses an appeal of a February court decision that said the county's state financial control board, the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, didn't have authority to impose a freeze.

The draft agreement between the county and PBA, however, calls for the entirety of officers' frozen wage increases, which the union estimates at about $50 million, to be returned by the end of 2015. It also calls for officers to receive a total of 3.45 percent in step pay increases in 2016 and 2017.

Since the initial court decision on the wage freeze favored the PBA, Carver said he expects to recover all of the back pay, no matter what.

"We're in the driver's seat," he said Saturday of the court case. "But even though we're in the position we're in, we're still willing to sit there and provide a compromise that gives us structural savings."

Mangano, who wants to hire 150 cops immediately after the deal is approved, has said Nassau would save $300,000 per officer due to the new hires' lower pay scale and their first-ever pension and health care contributions. New officers would only contribute 15 percent to health care if they choose the top-tier plan, but Krumpter notes that if they choose a lesser plan, the county still saves 15 percent by paying less to the plan provider.

Nassau's deal with the PBA is similar to one Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone struck last year with his police union. That pact provided steady salary increases for current officers, but made new hires pay into their health care.

In Nassau, skeptics remain. NIFA last week issued a statement citing "apparent flaws" in the reported details of the repayment of the frozen wages. A board source, who requested anonymity, added Saturday: "We've received neither communication nor information from the county."

PBA members are expected to vote on the deal by month's end. The Nassau County Legislature would then be asked to approve before it goes to NIFA.

TENTATIVE PBA DEAL

Highlights of the tentative pact between Nassau County and the Police Benevolent Association:

Extends existing collective bargaining agreement by two years, through end of 2017.

Awards officers all wage increases frozen since 2011, spreading payments between 2013 and 2015; PBA would drop lawsuit challenging freeze.

Delays annual wage increases for 2013, 2014 and 2015 from January to July

Provides step pay increases totaling 3.45 percent during last year of deal.

Reduces amount of officers per precinct or unit that can take vacation at once.

Sets lower salary scale for new hiresand requires them to contribute to pension and health care plans.

[lost]

Wow, 2 articles in one day...must be hard up for real news (or not reporting it)

[onthejob]

Three articles :

Mangano takes on two unions in one week
September 14, 2013 by JOYE BROWN / [e-mail]


Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano found himself in the middle of tussles involving not one but two unions last week.

First came assertions by trustees and others that he had inserted himself into negotiations with Nassau Community College's adjunct faculty union -- leaving college administrators on the outside.

Then came a still-ongoing tug-of-war with the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, a state control board, over a proposed contract extension Mangano worked out with the county's largest police union.

In an interview last week, Mangano publicly addressed both issues for the first time.

He said he had no role in negotiating a document that did not survive a vote by deadlocked NCC trustees.

"I did not see it, I did not touch it, I had nothing, zip, nada to do with it," Mangano said Friday.

A local law passed in 1977 under former County Executive Ralph Caso unambiguously leaves negotiations to NCC and its unions.

Mangano said he did not violate that law.

So what happened?

Mangano said his chief deputy, Robert Walker, sat down with Adjunct Faculty Association president Charles Loiacono at the union leader's request.

During that meeting, he said, Loiacono presented an unsigned document that Loiacono said would satisfy the union and avert a strike.

Mangano said he was briefed on that meeting, and later two NCC officials asked to meet with him.

At that meeting, Mangano said, he asked that the college "do the financials" on the unsigned document. "I wanted to avoid a strike, keep the students in classes and get the sides talking," he said.

But some NCC trustees and administrators said they took Mangano's request to analyze the cost of the document to mean it should go to the board for a vote.

If it passed, the unsigned document -- my phrasing, since Mangano and his labor counsel said it was not a memorandum of understanding, agreement, proposed contract or deal -- would have become the adjuncts' new contract.

Mangano said that was in no way his intent. "They could have taken it back, done the financials and decided to call the union to come in for talks," he said. "They had those options."

As it turned out, "no" votes from three NCC trustees -- a veteran board member, a newcomer and a student -- killed the document, which precipitated an illegal strike.

The union, which initially ignored a judge's order to return to work, suspended the strike last week after NCC threatened to hire replacement teachers.

NCC and the union are now slated to talk.

As for the proposed police contract, NIFA late last week still was complaining that it had not received a copy.

County officials said a copy had been mailed to the control board, whose offices are across the street from the county legislative and executive building.

In the interview, Mangano said he had asked NIFA officials early on to join negotiation talks, but that they had refused.

He said he was seeking expedited action on the proposal because Nassau needs to hire police to replace retiring officers.

"I would have preferred to wait until after the election, but I need to hire a class now," said Mangano, who is running for re-election. He said the county would realize significant savings because newly hired officers would receive lower wages.

Mangano acknowledged that he needed NIFA's help with a crucial part of the pact -- settling a federal lawsuit against a NIFA wage freeze that the control board appealed after police unions won a lower-court ruling.

"But I see this as settlement negotiations," he said, "and you always want to continue settlement negotiations even while the matter is in the courts."

[arubavacation]

This is why newsday is no allowed in my house.