04-15-2007, 09:40 PM
The return of all three incumbents to Coral Gables City Hall last week could be seen as a blow to members of the city's police union, which has been battling for a new contract for nearly two years and campaigned hard for challengers in two of the three races.
''We didn't have anything to lose,'' said Officer Eugene Gibbons, president of the Coral Gables Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 7, which worked especially hard to unseat Mayor Don Slesnick.
City Manager David Brown would not discuss the details of the city's offer with a Miami Herald reporter.
''I'm not going to bargain in the newspaper,'' he said.
But Gibbons told The Miami Herald that the city has offered a wage increase only if officers contribute at least 5 percent of their salaries to the pension fund, as general employees and firefighters have been contributing since 2003.
The union has offered to contribute 7 percent to the pension fund if the city provides a 3 percent wage increase this year and next, but city administrators balked at that.
Said Brown: ``There comes a point when you meet and you meet and you bargain and you bargain, and sometimes you just have to agree to disagree. We just can't seem to make the two sides meet.''
Commission incumbents Slesnick, Wayne ''Chip'' Withers and William ''Bill'' Kerdyk were sworn in Friday amid a standing-room only crowd of supporters. They said the comfortable leads in all three races show voters support the city's track record on police negotiations and other issues.
''The entire commission should take this as a sign that we are leading the city in the right direction,'' Kerdyk said.
Kerdyk said he wants to focus on the potential acquisition of park land, improving the trolley system and downtown landscaping. He also wants to step up the improvements at the building department, where allegations of corruption and fraud have been investigated since last September.
''My first priority is working on the building department and making sure that that gets much more fluid and technologically savvy and on the cutting edge,'' Kerdyk said Friday.
But negotiations with the police union will remain a primary issue. The FOP's bargaining unit will meet with the city Human Resources Director Marjorie Adler and labor attorney Jim Crosland later this month.
Slesnick, who won with about 57 percent of the vote over two challengers, was angered by the FOP's tactics -- including mailers, an ad in The Miami Herald and automated phone calls to residents claiming there was a ''crisis'' in the city -- and said the strategy backfired.
''The fact of the matter is they sort of dug their own hole and now they are in it,'' Slesnick said. ``But you know what? My obligation is to do the right thing, and the right thing incorporates the best I can do for the employees, as well as the taxpayers, and to keep trying to do that no matter how distressed I may be by their accusations.''
While the FOP clearly wanted to have the leverage of new leadership on the commission -- they also campaigned for Omar Pasalodos, who lost to Withers -- Brown said the election results will have no impact on the ongoing negotiations.
Kerdyk, not targeted by FOP officers on Election Day, said he felt the city had been fair to the union.
''The city has made some very good offers, and I don't know if the city is going to embellish upon them. I know that where we left the last negotiation, we felt we gave a good counter offer,'' he said.
''I'll try to do what's in the best interest of the residents,'' Brown said Thursday. ``We're going to bargain in good faith and try to come to an agreement.''
''We didn't have anything to lose,'' said Officer Eugene Gibbons, president of the Coral Gables Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 7, which worked especially hard to unseat Mayor Don Slesnick.
City Manager David Brown would not discuss the details of the city's offer with a Miami Herald reporter.
''I'm not going to bargain in the newspaper,'' he said.
But Gibbons told The Miami Herald that the city has offered a wage increase only if officers contribute at least 5 percent of their salaries to the pension fund, as general employees and firefighters have been contributing since 2003.
The union has offered to contribute 7 percent to the pension fund if the city provides a 3 percent wage increase this year and next, but city administrators balked at that.
Said Brown: ``There comes a point when you meet and you meet and you bargain and you bargain, and sometimes you just have to agree to disagree. We just can't seem to make the two sides meet.''
Commission incumbents Slesnick, Wayne ''Chip'' Withers and William ''Bill'' Kerdyk were sworn in Friday amid a standing-room only crowd of supporters. They said the comfortable leads in all three races show voters support the city's track record on police negotiations and other issues.
''The entire commission should take this as a sign that we are leading the city in the right direction,'' Kerdyk said.
Kerdyk said he wants to focus on the potential acquisition of park land, improving the trolley system and downtown landscaping. He also wants to step up the improvements at the building department, where allegations of corruption and fraud have been investigated since last September.
''My first priority is working on the building department and making sure that that gets much more fluid and technologically savvy and on the cutting edge,'' Kerdyk said Friday.
But negotiations with the police union will remain a primary issue. The FOP's bargaining unit will meet with the city Human Resources Director Marjorie Adler and labor attorney Jim Crosland later this month.
Slesnick, who won with about 57 percent of the vote over two challengers, was angered by the FOP's tactics -- including mailers, an ad in The Miami Herald and automated phone calls to residents claiming there was a ''crisis'' in the city -- and said the strategy backfired.
''The fact of the matter is they sort of dug their own hole and now they are in it,'' Slesnick said. ``But you know what? My obligation is to do the right thing, and the right thing incorporates the best I can do for the employees, as well as the taxpayers, and to keep trying to do that no matter how distressed I may be by their accusations.''
While the FOP clearly wanted to have the leverage of new leadership on the commission -- they also campaigned for Omar Pasalodos, who lost to Withers -- Brown said the election results will have no impact on the ongoing negotiations.
Kerdyk, not targeted by FOP officers on Election Day, said he felt the city had been fair to the union.
''The city has made some very good offers, and I don't know if the city is going to embellish upon them. I know that where we left the last negotiation, we felt we gave a good counter offer,'' he said.
''I'll try to do what's in the best interest of the residents,'' Brown said Thursday. ``We're going to bargain in good faith and try to come to an agreement.''