The City Council Monday night will take up the Ordinance Committee report “re: Resolution for the City Attorney to draft language to amend Municipal Code Ordinance, Chapter 2.36 – Officers’ Salaries, Section 2.36.010 – Officers’ and Unaffiliated Employee Salaries.”
The issue centers on some council members pushing back on the salary structure of mayoral appointees tied to the City Supervisors Union. Each year the council approves a pay grid that extends the mayor authority to set the compensation of discretionary appointees within a salary range.
See background from minutes of Nov. 5 Ordinance Committee meeting below:
146-19 Proposed resolution for the City Attorney to draft language to amend Municipal
Code Ordinance, Chapter 2.36 – Officers’ Salaries, Section 2.36.010 – Officers’ and
Unaffiliated Employee Salaries.** COUNCIL MEMBER NEWTON MOVED THE ITEM.
** COUNCIL MEMBER LYONS SECONDED.Council Member Newton said that he brought this to the Board because he felt the original proposal was not a good idea. There are staff who are in unions and have worked for the City for 10 or 15 years. The Mayor’s appointed staff make much more than the regular staff. He asked why the appointed staff should get raises.
Council Member Pereira said that the “therefore” clause was a request to remove a line in the ordinance. She said that while she agrees with Council Member Newton, there were 17 employees that were unaffiliated and their salaries were linked to the Supervisor’s Union and they made less than $60,000. Discussion followed.
Council Member Newton said that if the Mayor felt that his appointed staff needed a raise, it was brought before the Council, who made the determination. The Council should review this issue.
Council Member Brantley said that she would like to be added on as a co-sponsor to the resolution.
** COUNCIL MEMBER BRANTLEY MOVED TO AMEND THE ITEM TO INCLUDE HERSELF AS A CO-SPONSOR.
** COUNCIL MEMBER LYONS SECONDED.
** THE MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.Council Member Lyons said that this issue had been frequently discussed. She said that she would be adding her name as a co-sponsor when it come to the Council floor. She thanked Council Member Newton for bringing this up because previously, she had not gotten any support or answers.
Council Member Cruz asked if this had to do with a lame duck administration. Council Member Newton said that it did not.
Council Member Cruz said that he was in support of this. The Mayor’s staff receive outrageous raises and it is unfair to the staff who has been there for years. The Council needs to look at this.
Council Member Pereira said that the people who would be at the table for the negotiation for the salaries would directly benefit from the Supervisors’ Contract.
Council Member Newton reiterated that the Mayor had allowed department heads to be part of the unions. He said that they should meet with the City about the Mayor’s appointed staff.
** THE MOTION TO APPROVE AGENDA ITEM 146-19 PROPOSED RESOLUTION FOR THE CITY ATTORNEY TO DRAFT LANGUAGE TO AMEND MUNICIPAL CODE ORDINANCE, CHAPTER 2.36 – OFFICERS’ SALARIES, SECTION 2.36.010 – OFFICERS’ AND UNAFFILIATED EMPLOYEE SALARIES AS AMENDED PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.
Monday’s 7 p.m. meeting will be conducted by teleconference. The public may listen into this meeting by calling the following conference line and then entering the conference code:
Dial-In Number: (929) 436-2866
Meeting ID: 381 083 245
Full council agenda here.
Well, this should be an enough to keep us busy all weekend. Of course I do know where to begin.
First of all let’s start with the obvious. The City Attorney’s Office. This resolution gives the sole responsibility to the City Attorney to rewrite the ordinance. Since when is the City Attorney an expert in personnel matters.
A study using the Hay Guide Chart should be undertaken of all job classifications and positions with the caveat that it will not increase the payroll a penny as a result.
They could determine which jobs, if any, are below grade but not increase the salaries.
This takes away the pay increase motive of doing this.
This study should take in to consideration of other cities in the state as well as some corporate positions. However, if it doesn’t take into consideration minimum job requirements, aka Police Chief and educational experience, then it is a waste of time and money.
Council Member Newton reiterated that the Mayor had allowed department heads to be part of the unions. This can’t be true, when did department heads become union members and are they paying union dues? If this is true then who does union negotiate with during contract negotiations?
Ernie must be doing someone a favor by writing up this proposal and slipping in a pay raise or two.
It used to be anyone dealing in confidential information was non union. This even included for example mayoral executive secretaries, secretaries in Labor Relations, Budget Analysts in OPM, etc.
I know Fabrizi allowed this number to grow I don’t know who else was involved in this.
Instead of the City Council dealing with that bullshit that need to find a new Police Chief and a new Personnel Director. This is 2020 is the City has yet to give a nationwide exam for a new Personnel Director, the only reason that David Dunn is still not the Personnel Director is because the FBI arrested him. WHAT THE HELL HAS THE CITY COUNCIL AND MAYOR JOE GANIM BEEN DOING IN ALLOWING THE CITY CHARTER TO BE VIOLATED SINCE 2009.
This is from Only In Bridgeport August 25, 2009.
“A Dunn Deal, Plus: Judge Sides With Library Supporters”
August 25, 2009 LennieGrimaldi Analysis and Comment, City Politics, Civil Service, Library56 Comments
5:30 p.m. update:
David Dunn, former labor relations director under Mayors John Mandanici and Tom Bucci, has been appointed by Mayor Bill Finch as acting personnel director for civil service replacing the fired Ralph Jacobs.
Finch can appoint him on an acting basis pending approval by the Civil Service Commission that blowtorched Jacobs for not playing ball with Finch over job hires. The specified reason for firing Jacobs–he didn’t seek commission approval over a letter he sent to an attorney representing a city employee–is bullshit. The mayor wants someone who’ll accommodate his political peeps. Dunn’s former boss Bucci is representing Jacobs in his court challenge.
Dunn meets the experience credentials for personnel director specified in City Charter language. David knows his way around City Hall, he’s smart, chain-of-command oriented, and will serve the mayor well. That means working with the mayor on political hires.
Here’s where Finch is missing the train in this fight: better to blow out Jacobs as part of a cure message to modernize civil service. If I’m Finch I’d have immediately issued a news release explaining the civil service vote was the first step to rectify antiquated and rigid civil service rules. The next step is formation of a Charter Revision Commission to fully review civil service rules and regulations and let voters decide if the reforms are warranted.
Example: modify the rule of one (the top testing person) to a rule of three.
At least then there is some kind of method to the madness. What Finch and Chief of Staff Adam Wood have done instead is say Jacobs was a big pain in the ass, he would not help us with jobs for political supporters so let’s hire a law firm, no wait, let’s hire two outside law firms, one to allege and one to prosecute to soil this guy for a firing.
Finch and Wood would rather shoot the guy in the head and figure out the rest later. Their attitude is we’re smart and everyone else is stupid. Yes, the two guys who promised a $600 tax cut and then raised them by $600, the double-dip strategy that failed, lies, lies and more lies about the Bridgeport Port Authority bullshit, lies about “let the people decide” about a library referendum, and there’s a lot more where that came from.
Finch and Wood have no cohesive message, no rational strategy, no plan, no economic development initiative to call their own. These are the two guys in charge of government.
Sometimes you can shoot someone in the head and end up with blood on yourself. (Don’t get excited, I’m talking in political terms.)
This is a power grab to control jobs and nothing else and the five members of the civil service commission were snowed into supporting the termination. I must give Finch and Wood credit in one regard. They don’t have a history selling much. But they were able to manipulate civil service commissioners that this was the right thing to do. At what cost to taxpayers?
One way or another this decision to fire Jacobs is going to cost the city a pile of cash, probably hundreds of thousands of dollars before it’s over as a result of legal fees and a settlement with Jacobs. Or maybe the court orders the city to give Jacobs his job back? That would be fun.
Finch and Woody are political animals. That’s fine. But strategically they stink.
Meanwhile where are my friends at the Connecticut Post hardcopy edition covering this story?
News release from Mayor Finch
Mayor Finch Appoints David Dunn as Acting Civil Service Personnel Director
BRIDGEPORT, CT (August 25, 2009) – Mayor Bill Finch today announced that he will appoint David Dunn as Acting Civil Service Personnel Director and will submit his appointment to the Civil Service Commission for ratification.
“David Dunn brings more than 30 years of experience in human resources, personnel and labor relations, and has worked with the City for more than 22 years. I fully expect that with his experience in Civil Service and personnel that we can continue to move the department forward until a test for a permanent director can be held,” said Mayor Finch.
“As Acting Director, I plan to work with labor and management to bring greater efficiencies and modern operations to the office, completing tests in a timely manner and, to help implement structured employee performance evaluations,” said Dunn.
Dunn’s 30 years of experience includes senior and corporate level human resources work for international companies, and he has managed personnel departments from 800 to 1,250 employees in size. He has twice served as the City’s Director of Labor Relations – from 1975 to 1981 under Mayor John Manadanici and from 1986 to 1991 under Mayor Thomas Bucci. Since 1997, he has served as the City’s senior labor relations officer.
Dunn is a management member of the Connecticut State Board of Mediation and Arbitration, appointed in 1990 by Governor O’Neill. In 2001, he received designation as a Certified Professional from the International Personnel Management Association, a national organization of personnel management professionals.
His professional affiliations include, past President of the Connecticut Public Employer Labor Relations Association (CONNPELRA); and membership in the Industrial Relations Research Association (IRRA), the International Personnel Management Association (IPMA), Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), and the Bridgeport Regional Business Council.
Dunn holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Sacred Heart University, and has undertaken graduate level work in labor relations and human resources at the University of Connecticut. He holds Advanced Arbitration Advocacy Certification from the American Arbitration Association; Certified Professional designation from the International Personnel Management Association (IPMA-CP); and National Public Employer Labor Relations Association Master Certification in Labor Relations (pending).
In addition to his professional work in Bridgeport, Dunn has consulted on projects for numerous Connecticut towns, cities, or housing authorities.
Library Referendum
Bridgeport Superior Court Judge David Tobin has sided with the Liberate Libraries Committee request to place a budget referendum question before voters pending certification of signature petitions by the town clerk.
This sets up a voter referendum in November. “Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus and a Town of Bridgeport,” said Library Board Director Jim O’Donnell, an attorney who assisted in arguing this first-of-its-kind case in state history. This was the first time that the state statute cited by the library committee has been used.
The judge made a factual finding: that the City of Bridgeport assumed obligations of the Town of Bridgeport. Bridgeport was initially established as a borough, then a town in 1821 and a city in 1836.
The judge set a hearing for Thursday morning to clear the way for a Nov. 3 referendum after the town clerk’s office has certified the 50 petitions necessary for ballot qualification.
The presiding statute:
Sec. 11-36. Town or borough tax. When fifty electors of any town or borough present a petition to the clerk of such town or borough, asking that an annual tax be levied for the establishment and maintenance of a free public library and reading room in such town or borough, and specify in their petition a rate of taxation, not to exceed three mills on the dollar, such clerk shall, in the next legal notice of the regular municipal election in such town or borough, give notice that at such election the question of an annual tax for the maintenance of a library is to be voted upon in the manner prescribed in section 9-369. The designation of such question on the voting machine ballot label shall be “Shall a …. mill tax be levied to establish and maintain a free public library and reading room?”. Such notice and such designation of the question on the voting machine ballot label shall specify the rate of taxation mentioned in such petition. If, upon the official determination of the result of such vote, it appears that a majority of all the votes upon such question are in approval of such question, the tax specified in such notice shall be levied and collected in the same manner as other general taxes of such town or borough and shall be known as the “library fund”. Such tax may afterwards be lessened or increased within the three-mill limit, or made to cease, in case the electors of any such town or borough so determine by a majority vote at any regular municipal election held therein, in the manner hereinbefore prescribed for voting upon such question; and the corporate authorities of such town or borough may exercise the same powers relative to free public libraries and reading rooms as are conferred upon the corporate authorities of cities.
An attorney for the city urged the judge to find for another state statute that gives the City Council authority over libraries. Judge Tobin saw it differently. Mayor Bill Finch is on record saying the voters should decide. Of course that did not prevent him from having his city attorney oppose the library. So, now the question: will the mayor unleash political operatives to defeat this referendum?
Assuming the petitions are certified, this is going to be some battle over the following question: “shall a one mill tax be levied to establish and maintain a free public library and reading room?”
Blah,Blah,Blah… This all makes good headlines,” The Council wants to limit pay raises to Joe’s appointed employees “ .. But how many times are we going to go through these charades??… There are a lot on the council who have family members who were given jobs by Joe, so those members aren’t supporting this. Back to square one, and Joe will give raises to whoever he wants, end of story..
Any chance the Council could support Maria’s resolution demanding Joe immediately HALT the payments to attorneys Joe hired to defend himself and others on his staff in the ongoing corruption investigation???.. Last we heard a month or 2 ago, the tab for the taxpayers of Bpt was about $600,000 or so. And Ernie, please don’t respond with “ Perez & Dunn are paying their fees back”, I’m not talking about them, I’m talking the other’s.
Harvey, you are talking about small potatoes, the big picture is the violations of the City Charter. A new Personnel Director controls the hiring of City employees and by keeping David Dunn in that position by Bill Finch and Joe Gamin. Harvey what you are suggesting is ok but it doesn’t stop the entire system that’s already in place, that’s why the City needs to fill the position of Personnel Director by giving a nationwide search for new Personnel Director, someone from the outside. Then the City needs to give a nationwide search for a new Police Chief because the BPD needs new training and leadership.
Lol. “Nationwide Search”..c’mon Ron,Joe May go through the dog & pony show by “ordering” a nationwide search, but in the end, it will be someone who Joe knows will take orders, for both positions btw..
Harvey, I understand but that’s what the City Charter calls for and we had two mayors Finch and Ganim and the City Council from 2009 until today and no one has called for the charter to be honor and followed. This ordinance that Ernie pushing is nothing but a feel good ordinance but Ernie and the entire council are scare to say or do anything. Harvey, the hiring and promotion of ALL City’s jobs starts with the Personnel Director and even now after the FBI has arrested the David Dunn and he has been fired from his Acting Personnel Director position and hopefully will be going to jail there is no push to get a new Personnel Director instead the council energy is on e salary structure of mayoral appointees tied to the City Supervisors Union, really.
Used to be we limited the number of positions to a department so you would have 3 budget analyst to OPM. Now when they want to reward someone they know they just hire a budget analyst and put them in any department they want, I.e. Fire Department.
As long as their is surplus money they are allowed.
They want to stop this nonsense get back to the way it used to be. And if they don’t they will never control it. NEVER
This city is totally out of control and getting worse.