Thanksgiving week and lots of stuff going on beyond the stuffing, especially when it comes to city union negotiations.
On December 1, members of Police Union Local 1199 are expected to vote on ratifying an agreement between Mayor Bill Finch and union leadership that calls for job security in exchange for two consecutive zero pay increases with six and five percent raises respectively in the outer years. If it passes it will be a huge step in the mayor’s efforts to close a gaping budget deficit this year with another on the horizon for the budget year that begins July 1, 2009.
Passage would also mark Finch’s highest achievement in office as he approaches completion of his first year. Had he shown this much eagerness to address the city’s fiscal calamity out of the box one year ago he’d be much closer to achieving some fiscal sanity. As RedWhiteandBlue points out, however, the generous outer-year increases could be problematic for Finch (initially, I was told the outer years would be modest). Still, this represents a major shift in performance for Finch as he raises the specter of a financial oversight board if the city cannot get its arms around the red ink. Whether this is a negotiating tool for the mayor or not, the mayor is showing that he can get stuff done within his power as this economic tsunami raises financial issues outside of his control.
The bigger question becomes: how does the mayor deal with other budgeted items such as the $4.5 million for Steelpointe?
So, let me hear some nominations for Turkey of the Year … local, state and national. We’re equal-opportunity cashew busters at OIB.
Hey, don’t forget, you’re invited to a pre-publication party for a sneak preview of Bow Tie Banker, my biography of David Carson, retired chief executive of People’s Bank that examines how Carson saved the state’s largest bank from the economic hurricane that wiped out a bunch of banks in the state in the early 1990s. The book will not be released commercially for a few more weeks, but we’ve done a limited run for this event.
OIB readers are welcome to join us for refreshments and a chance to meet Carson at the Barnum Museum Dec. 2, 5 to 6:30.
I REMEMBER wearing a clip-on bow tie when I was in grammar school but that doesn’t mean anybody wrote a book about me. I haven’t changed the world or uprooted evil.
LE, we could manufacture a new bow tie with a camera on each clip and market it as Local Eyes.
Mr. Finch …
Please tell 1199 that there will be no raises for ANYONE employed by the city until the financial situation permits AND there will be nearly 250 layoffs so that the budget can begin to become stabilized.
yahooy is right. Finch still has to cut food costs. The all you can eat buffet still has a lot of waste.
Thanks Warren …
These unions are impeding any prospect of financial recovery.
Hey Goomba … negotiate this!!!
Jeepers, Creepers, Local Eyes, where did you get them Peepers?
“Bridgeport Now” this Tuesday:
Here’s the rundown on stories so far:
– Scinto sewage
– Police Union Local 1199: zero pay increase
– Remington Factory: artists out / vandals in
– Circus never left town: Ex Barnum Festival ringmaster
– City contracts committee: lobbyist conflict of interest?
– History perspective with Charles Brilvitch
Stay tuned. An update on rundown provided tomorrow by 2pm.
From reading today’s paper, and it could be wrong, but it appears that raises were delayed not given up. I read that it will be zero, zero, 6%, 5%. Basically the raises get made up in the later years. I hope the Mayor realizes that this recession will be a long one and he will be committing to big increases in re-election years. Maybe he will not run again, or maybe he is a bigger optimist than I am but trying to make up for lost raises will be difficult for many years to come. Good luck to all.
RedWhiteandBlue … agreed!
Give me a break on this bait and switch. HUGE pay increases to satisfy the unions that are just deferred make no true headway into solving the union problems we have in moving this city forward.
Finch should have some guts and ask for REAL and PERMANENT union concessions–not just deferred ones.
Also, where is the solidarity? Let’s see some political positions that were created for friends and friends of friends be cut as well.
Gimme a break birdman and deadwood!
Finchee …
You really don’t have to worry about pissing off the unions jeopardizing your reelection prospects.
Psst … YOU HAVE NO REELECTION PROSPECTS!!!
What’s Mary Moran up to these days? She actually did a better job than you are currently doing and she has the distinction of being the worst mayor in the history of Bridgeport.
Please quit.
Hey Lennie, don’t you think this David Carson book release is kind of late? Nineteen banks have gone under and today Citygroup gets a bailout loan. It sounds to me like this Book should have been released a year and a half ago. I don’t know what anyone can get from reading the book, but it sounds like David Carson will teach Fannie and Freddie how he dumped People’s Bank Mortgage portfolio way before the bottom busted and explain what he foresaw in the future that made him go along with such a financial move. Not only is it too late, what worked in the ’90s won’t work today.
Damnnn … what a tough crowd … poor Finch can’t win even when he does something good or at least is trying to … too bad y’all can’t walk a mile in his shoes.
The Police Union Members still have to vote on Dec. 1st. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. I hear hizzoner’s offer is going into the shit can!
on # 13 … do you have a vote??? ‘Cuz I do and I hear it will pass.
YEP!!!
Yahooy on #5:
These unions are impeding any prospect of financial recovery.
How are “these unions” impeding the recovery? Last I checked, the CITY offered the PD the deal, the Union did not demand the deal–Heck–it sounds like Meatball is gonna shoot it down!
Let me ask this–how is the CITY expediting recovery?
RedWhiteandBlue … in your last post you stated that “trying to make up for lost raises will be difficult for many years to come”.
I couldn’t agree with you more. I, along with many other city employees, have accepted zeroes in so many contracts that I have actually lost count as to how many we have taken. I know damn well how difficult it is to try and make up for lost raises since I and others in my position live with that reality daily.
I think the city needs to start considering some long-term strategies rather than quick fixes to get them from one budget to the next. Take a look around and see what is working in other cities and towns and implement them here. We need budgets based on sound fiscal policy rather than smoke and mirrors.
And yes, good luck to all.
“park city fan” #17, wrote, “I think the city needs to start considering some long-term strategies rather than quick fixes to get them from one budget to the next. Take a look around and see what is working in other cities and towns and implement them here. We need budgets based on sound fiscal policy rather than smoke and mirrors.”
Well, I feel your pain but that train has left the station. Remember the $600 Finch rebate, sad to say but It Is Time To Bring Back A Financial Review Board To Bridgeport.
Some crazy Philistine asked me in this Blog why I think the unions are impeding our progress towards financial stability.
My answer is simple. So simple, in fact, that the simpleton who asked just may simply get my point.
This city has been in financial disgrace for more than 25 years. During that period of time ALL of the city’s unions have DEMANDED and got SIGNIFICANT financial improvements at the direct expense of the suffering taxpayer.
The unions got away with it because they know how to get out the vote and keep us filled with hacks and sycophants who fail the citizenry while prospering supporters.
Now we are on the brink of disaster. Unless Finch wises up and realizes that neither he nor his so-called “advisers” have the intellectual capacity to solve our current state of affairs, our downward spiral will accelerate to a point whereby recovery is impossible.
I do not advocate bankruptcy in any way shape or form for a municipality. By definition, a municipality has control over incoming revenue and cost outlays. Balance is not hard to do. However, costly collective bargaining agreements greatly impede any ability to resolve deficits in a timely and efficient manner.
At one time a union was an essential and beneficial part of our nation’s labor movement. Those precarious times have long past. No longer are workers exploited by the “robber baron” business owners who forced workers to labor in unsafe condition for pittance wages.
Now, all a union seems to be is an entity out to grab as much as they can for their membership without regard for the good of the public who foots the bill. So long as politicians and prospective politicians pander to this organized group of voters, we the public take it in the neck.
We don’t need unions anymore, anywhere. Private enterprise and municipalities can offer workers fair and competitive wages and benefits … period.
I am still saddened by the recent Sikorsky union debacle in which the union factory workers struck for several weeks eventually returning to work with nothing to show except bigger personal debt resulting from lost wages (BTW … the union hack who orchestrated and prolonged the Sikorsky strike got his paycheck in full every week while his members live on about $200 per week in “strike pay”).
Most recently, the teacher’s union in the Woodbridge School District slapped their retired members in the face when they unilaterally abolished a contract provision guaranteeing health benefits to retirees. Further exacerbating that situation, the Statewide Teacher’s Union endorsed the local’s plan and allowed the contract for retirees to be ignored. Many of these retirees who are now scrambling to get decent health coverage paid their union dues regularly without complaint. Nice job Woodbridge union officials.
As I have said before, I wish Finch had the moral courage and the intellectual capacity to tell these unions that there will be NO RAISES for any city employee anytime in the future until the financial condition of the city is restored to a condition that will permit such expense. The days of contractually obligated increases without regard to current financial condition must come to a screeching halt. We cannot effect the necessary solution so long as the union demands take precedent over any form of plans for financial stabilization.
I think unions should disband and Finch should quit.
Fat chance …
The City of Bridgeport is the lowest-paid municipality in this state. Ask any Police, Fire or Public Works employee. It’s NOT the union’s fault the city is in this mess! Why aren’t any of these higher-paying towns worse off than Bridgeport? The problem starts at the top! Not with blue-collar workers!